U.S. formally promises nuclear arms restraint

Press, 14 June 1978, Page 8

U.S. formally promises nuclear arms restraint

NZPA Washington President Carter has pledged that the United States will not use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear countries, except in the case of an attack on the United States or its allies by an adversary linked to a nuclear power. The pledge puts into formal language a promise that President Carter made last October when he said the United States would only use nuclear weapons in a conventional or nuclear attack on the United States or its allies.

State Department officials said the formal statement was meant as an encouragement for non-nuclear States to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. They said the new formal

pledge would not affect the American commitment to N.A.T.0., to South Korea, to Taiwan, or any other ally, such as Israel. The new pledge reads: “The United States will not use nuclear weapons against any non-nuclear weapons State party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty or any comparable internationally binding commitment not to acquire nuclear explosive devices, except in the case of an attack on the United States, its territories or armed forces, or its allies, by such a State allied to a nuclear weapons State or in association with a nuclear weapons State in carrying out or sustaining the attack.” The officials said that the pledge had been urged on the United States by several 'non-nuclear States and by

the Western bloc at the United Nations special session. on disarament. The Soviet Union has made a similar promise and the People’s Republic of China has pledged that it will not be the first to use nuclear weapons. The American officials conceded that, in the real world, the pledge by President Carter changed little in the country’s nuclear strategy, but it was intended to reassure non-nuclear States that they would not suffer from not having nuclear weapons. The Secretary of State (Mr Cyrus Vance) said the President’s aim was to encourage support for the halting of the spread of huclear weapons and to create a more positive environment for success of the special session on disarmament.