Obama’s New START Would Have Been Reagan Non-Starter

Conn Carroll / November 19, 2010

In his last gasp effort to rush his New START agreement with Russia through the Senate, President Barack Obama again invoked the name of President Ronald Reagan from the White House yesterday. Three times President Obama cited Reagan as justification for ratification of New START. But while President Reagan did negotiate and sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with the Soviet Union, does that mean he would sign any agreement that reduced U.S. nuclear weapons? No. Heritage Vice President of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies Kim Holmes explains:

Many people, even in the Administration, have argued that what the President wants to do is similar to what Ronald Reagan wanted to do when he talked about making nuclear weapons obsolete. I assure you this is not the case. I was working this issue in the 1980s, and nothing could be further from the truth, because while Reagan, like most people, believed we should reduce our reliance on nuclear weapons, he did not envision their complete elimination coming about through the treaty process. (more…)