Word: nuclear
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Assorted tools, wire, rocks and dirt are not the stuff that spooks seek in spy novels. But such materials turned up last month when Soviet inspectors searched personal items being shipped home by three Americans working for the Energy Department at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. Soviet authorities charged that the items were sensitive and that shipment of them was banned under the agreement permitting each superpower to monitor underground tests on the other's territory...
...precisely that deterrent effect that has persuaded some countries to pursue the development of chemical weapons. France, for example, argues that without a chemical arsenal, the only response to attack by poison gas would be nuclear retaliation. During the 1987 U.N. chemical-disarmament talks, France proposed that each country be allowed a stockpile of up to 2,000 tons, which, while minimal, would be significant enough to discourage assaults. When the U.S. resumed the manufacture of chemical weapons last December for the first time since 1969, deterrence was the rationale. While agreeing that first use of chemical weapons should...
...deployed Soviet-made katyusha artillery rockets outfitted with chemical warheads against Palestinian refugee camps in southern Beirut, the Syrians rejected the accusation but did not refute the suggestion that their arsenals included poison warheads. In fact, Syrians claim that they are developing chemical weapons to counterbalance Israel's nuclear capability. Israelis do not dismiss Syria's fears. "They know very well that our reprisal will be horrible, and for the time being that deters them," General Amnon Shachak, chief of Israeli military intelligence, told reporters last month...
Even if the 40 nations achieve consensus, the larger issue of global cooperation remains. Despite the more hospitable climate in which the superpowers have been able to negotiate reductions in nuclear forces, neither the U.S. nor the Soviet Union is likely to surrender its chemical-weapon option if smaller nations continue to churn out poison gas. "It is an outstanding problem getting the Third World to recognize that it is better inside the chemical-warfare-disa rmament machine," says Research Fellow Harris. "If it can't be convinced, there won't be a treaty...
...think that if he decided that Dukakis means what he's said -- that he really believes in a nuclear freeze, or that we have no business supporting those fighting for freedom in Nicaragua, or that U.S. policy in Angola is all wrong -- then our progress we've made with the Soviets would be in jeopardy. There would be no need for the Soviets to continue what they're doing: getting out of Afghanistan, for example, or allowing more Jews to exit the Soviet Union...