FOR many years after the end of World War II in 1945, the world lived in fear of nuclear devastation as the United States (US) and Russia led their respective blocs of nations in a Cold War that threatened to explode in a shooting war with every military and diplomatic crisis.
Each side amassed nuclear missiles aimed at each other’s cities. It was only in 1987 that that two world powers agreed to end their nuclear rivalry and signed an Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty eliminating all short- and intermediate-range land-based nuclear and conventional missiles. The treaty was signed by US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev. Shortly afterwards, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) itself disbanded and the various Soviet republics attained independence from the Russian Federation.
Gorbachev is today a frail 87-year-old who was honored last week with a new documentary about his life, his reforms in the 1980s, and the arms control drive that ended the Cold War. He spoke briefly to the cinema audience in Moscow. “We must hold back,” he said. “We have to continue the course we mapped. We have to ban war once and for all. Most important is to get rid of nuclear weapons.”
Earlier last month in an article in the New York Times, Gorbachev had denounced a statement of US President Donald Trump that he planned to quit the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed in 1987. The world must stop a new Cold War, Gorbachev said. “I will do everything for this.”
The fact is that the 1987 treaty banned only short- and intermediate-range missiles held by the US and Russia – not the long-range missiles and the missiles on board submarines roaming the world’s oceans. It is believed that there are still about 14,900 nuclear weapons in the world today. Most of them are controlled by the US and Russia, with a few in the hands of China, France, United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea.
Gorbachev today is held in high regard by the world, although he is reviled by many Russians for the reforms that led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Today the US remains the lone world super-power, but there are still 14,900 nuclear weapons in the hands of nine nations, with Iran trying to join them.
The old Russian leader came out of retirement to speak in public for perhaps one last time last week to plead against a return to the Cold War. All men and nations of goodwill are with him in his appeal.
