The Honorable William Jefferson Clinton
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
The Honorable Boris Yeltsin
The Kremlin
Moscow, Russia
Dear President Clinton and President Yeltsin:
When you come together in your forthcoming meeting, we urge you to set a course so that Earth may enter the new millennium with all nuclear weapons taken off high alert status. One straightforward method to accomplish this would be to separate warheads from their delivery vehicles and place them in secure storage.
We ask that the United States and Russia mutually commence the de-alerting process no later than January 1999 and complete the task no later than December 31, 1999. We ask you to work with the United Kingdom, France, and China so that they will likewise take their nuclear arsenals off alert within that time frame.
With the Cold War over for nearly ten years, the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China maintain peaceful relations and carefully avoid military confrontation. Yet all five nations live in a condition of nuclear insecurity because of the danger of accidental or unauthorized launch of missiles kept on hair-trigger alert. They face the risk of attack by missiles launched on warning due to miscommunication or misinterpretation of data. By removing these dangers, mutual de-alerting will substantially enhance the national security of all the nuclear weapon states.
Mutual de-alerting is an action which the two of you can carry out through executive action. This is what your predecessors, President George Bush and President Mikhail Gorbachev, did in the fall of 1991 when they reduced the alert status of strategic bombers and a sizable number of intercontinental ballistic missiles. In 1994 you two took a positive step when you agreed to stop aiming strategic missiles at each other’s country. It is well within the purview of executive authority to move now to de-alerting your respective nuclear arsenals.
De-alerting carries the endorsement of a variety of groups, including the Canberra Commission (1996), a statement of 60 generals and admirals leaders from around the globe (1996), the National Academy of Sciences in the United States (1997), a statement of 117 civilian leaders, including 47 past and present heads of states and prime ministers (1998), and the recent New Agenda Declaration by the foreign ministers of Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Slovenia, South Africa, and Sweden (1998). This approach also has the support of a variety of religious bodies and numerous non-governmental organizations.
De-alerting would be very welcome by all the people of Earth who would like to enter the new millennium free from the fear of nuclear destruction. We hope that you will take advantage of the opportunity to lead the world in this direction.
Sincerely yours,
Organizations from the United States
Howard W. Hallman, Chair
Methodists United for Peace with Justice
Robert W. Tiller, Director of Security Programs
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Joe Volk, Executive Secretary
Friends Committee on National Legislation (Quakers)
Donnan Runkel, Executive Director
Peace Links
Christopher Ney, Disarmament Coordinator
War Resisters League
Anne Anderson, National Coordinator
Psychologists for Social Responsibility
Ellen Thomas
Proposition One Committee
Paul F. Walker, Ph.D., President
Veterans for Peace
Robin Caiola, Executive Director
20/20 Vision
Michael Mariotte, Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
Gordon S. Clark, Executive Director
Peace Action
Susan Shaer, Executive Director
Women’s Action for New Directions
Daniel Plesch, Director
British-American Security Information Council
John Isaacs
Council for a Livable World
Tim Barner
World Federalist Association
David Krieger, President
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Clayton Ramey
Fellowship of Reconciliation
Mary H. Miller, Executive Secretary, and Rev. David Selzer, Chair
Episcopal Peace Fellowship
Marie Dennis, Director
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Jay Lintner, Director, Washington Office
United Church of Christ, Office for Church in Society
Curtis Ramsey-Lucas, Director of Legislative Advocacy
National Ministries, American Baptist Churches
Bishop Walter F. Sullivan, President
Pax Christi USA
Margaret N. Spallone, Recording Secretary
Abolition 2000 Working Group of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the
Religious Society of Friends
L.William Yolton, Executive Secretary
Presbyterian Peace Fellowship
Kathy Thornton, RSM, National Coordinator
NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
Rev. Robert Moore, Executive Director
Coalition for Peace Action (New Jersey)
Ralph Hutchison, Coordinator
Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance (Tennessee)
Marylia Kelley, Executive Director
Tri-Valley CAREs (California)
Byron Plumley, Disarmament Program Director
American Friends Service Committee (Colorado Office)
Greg Mello
Los Alamos Study Group (New Mexico)
David Buer, Interim Director
The Nevada Desert Experience (Nevada)
Jonathan Parfrey, Executive Director
Physicians for Social Responsibility/Los Angeles
Wayne Shandera, MD
Physicians for Social Responsibility/Houston
Peter Wilk, MD, Co-President
Physicians for Social Responsibility/Maine
Ed Arnold, Executive Director
Physicians for Social Responsibility/Atlanta
Robert M. Gould, MD, President
Physicians for Social Responsibility/Greater San Francisco Bay Area
Herbert M. Perr, MD
Physicians for Social Responsibility/Nassau County
Jennifer Aldrich, Executive Director
Physicians for Social Responsibility/Oregon
Wendy Perron, Executive Director
Physicians for Social Responsibility/New York City
Josiah Hill III, PA, President
Physicians for Social Responsibility/Oregon
Daniel Kerlinsky, MD
Physicians for Social Responsibility/New Mexico
Martin Fleck, Executive Director
Physicians for Social Responsibility/Washington
Wells R. Staley-Mays, Director
Peace Action/ Maine and Physicians for Social Responsibility/Maine
Jonathan M. Haber
Action Site to Stop Cassini Earth Flyby (Massachusetts)
Harry Rogers, Nuclear Issues Coordinator
Carolina Peace Resource Center (South Carolina)
Organizations from other nations
John Hallam
Friends of the Earth
Australia
Zohl de Ishtar
Women for a Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific
International Peace Bureau
Australia
Graham Daniell
People for Nuclear Disarmament
Western Australia
Babs Fuller-Quinn, Coordinator
Australian Peace Committee (National Office)
Australia
Irene Gale, Secretary
Australian Peace Committee (South Australian Branch)
Australia
Pauline Mitchell, Secretary
Campaign for International Cooperation and Disarmament
Australia
Debbie Grisdale, Executive Director
Physicians for Global Survival
Canada
Norman Abbey, Director
Nanoose Conversion Campaign
Canada
Joanna Miller
Project Ploughshares
Canada
Peter Coombes, President
End the Arms Race
Canada
Caterina Lindman, Chair
St. Jerome’s University Social Justice Committee,
Canada
Peter G. Rasmussen, Co-chairperson
Pax Christi
Denmark
Laura Lodenius, Press Secretary
Peace Union of Finland
Finland
Malla Kantola, Secretary General
Committee of 100
Finland
Regina Hagen
Darmstaedter Friedensforum
Germany
David Wakim, Chairperson
Pax Christi Trust
Aotearoa-New Zealand
Kate Dewes, Vice President
International Peace Bureau
Aotearoa-New Zealand
Professor Bent Natvig
Science and Responsibility in the Nuclear Age
Norway
Bengt Lindell, Secretary
Swedish Physicians Against Nuclear Weapons (SLMK)
Sweden
Commander Robert Green RN (Ret’d), Chair
World Court Project
United Kingdom
Anni Rainbow and Lindis Percy
Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases
United Kingdom
George Farebrother, Secretary
World Court Project UK
United Kingdom
Dave Knight, Chair
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
United Kingdom