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The Search The Search or a New Beginning: Developing a New Civilization A limited edition release for private distribution throughout the world and it's Leaders. Sponsored by The STATE of the World FORUM.
CONTENTS
The Search for a New Beginning My personal situation and experiences as the president of the former Soviet Union have provided me with insight into an unimaginable terror that has been shared by only a few individuals on this planet. In my hands there rested the sheer raw power to unleash nuclear weapons on the world and destroy human life. For seven years this power was never more than a few feet away. At all hours of the day and night, wher- ever I went, whatever I did, awake or asleep, some military aide was nearby, holding at the ready that infamous black box containing the nuclear codes that became the dark and evil emblem of our tortured nuclear age. I was haunted by the constant awareness that I might be required to calculate and decide in an instant of time whether some kind of nuclear action might be required in response to a real or imag- ined or mistaken attack perceived to be under way against my country. I know this nightmare was shared equally by Ronald Reagan and George Bush when they were president. Each of us in our time in high office had our ample share of severe critics. But only we actually knew, far better than our worst critics ever dreamed, how truly fallible and all-too-human each of us really was. In a strange way, it was this fact and our recognition of it that perhaps brought us together more than anything else. The ultimate absurdity of relying on nuclear weapons was dramatically revealed to me, and I am sure to President Bush as well, when we met in Washington in the summer of I990. During that visit, we shared a helicopter ride together to Camp David. Near President Bush sat a military aide with the nuclear codes enabling him to destroy the Soviet Union. Near me sat my military aide with the codes required to destroy the United States. Yet President Bush and I sat together on that small helicopter talking about peace. Neither of us planned to ever use the awesome power we each pos- sessed. Yet we possessed it. And we both knew how ordinary and fallible we both were. Even if it now seems that the danger of nuclear annihilation presented by the Cold War is over and mer~ifully behind us, it is my firm belief that the infinite and uncontrollable fury of nuclear weapons should never be held in the hands of any mere mortal ever again, for any reason. There is great peril in allowing ourselves to be lulled by a soothing but incorrect sense that because the Cold War has ended, the nuclear danger has eased and no longer requires urgent attention. If anything, this false sense of security makes the mortal danger that yet lurks in the shadow of our unfolding new affairs more perilous than ever. The danger that has become apparent is what I would call the new arms race. I am referring to the continuing global proliferation of the most dangerous kinds of military technologies and the real threat of the spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. Furthermore, the advanced countries are turning out increasingly sophisticated weapons, and many conventional arms are assuming the quality of "absolute weapons." In the final analysis, the nuclear threat is a direct product of the cult of force that has dominated the world for centuries. It is, if you will, its supreme incarnation. For it is more than just someone's threat to use force against another. It stands for the readiness to physically destroy the adversary. It is a kind of mental illness, the loss of reason that Homo sapiens must possess. The world of inter- dependence and cooperation must absolutely rule out the use of force, particularly of nuclear weapons, as the solution to any problems. The world must take a series of interre- lated and properly timed steps to allevi- ate further the nuclear danger. These should include further deep cuts in the Russian and American nuclear arsenals, with the other nuclear powers joining the process; the cessation of the produc- tion of weapons-grade plutonium; the complete and final cessation of nuclear weapons testing without exception; strengthening the International Atomic Energy Agency, extending its jurisdic- tion to the supplies of all "near nuclear" materials; and the substantial extension and modification of the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty. I am committed to a nuclear-free worId. Whereas I understand those who are mindful of possible aggressive ambitions of some rogue dictator or authoritarian regime, I believe that a new structure of international relations, which I here propose, combined with the absolute superiority of democratic nations in sophisticated conven~ tional arms, provideguarantees that are quite sufficientforgenuine national security in the new world order. -Mikhail Gorbachev
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