President Trump’s decision to pull the US out of the intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty (INF) is a massive blow to global and – in particular – European security (Report, 22 October). Signed by Reagan and Gorbachev in 1987, the treaty banned ground-launch nuclear missiles with ranges from 500km to 5,500km and led to nearly 2,700 short- and medium-range missiles being eliminated. It meant cruise missiles were removed from Britain and Pershing and SS20 missiles from continental Europe. Tearing up the INF treaty will mark the end of the restraints on nuclear arsenals achieved in the 1980s. It will open the way for the return to Europe of cruise-type missiles that can have only one purpose – that a US nuclear war against Russia will be fought in Europe.
We understood that in the 1980s and we mobilised against it. The INF treaty was in large part a result of massive international protest against nuclear escalation in the 1980s, including CND protests against cruise missiles which mobilised hundreds of thousands of people. The iconic Greenham peace camp was part of that wave of protest. We stand resolutely against this return to the nuclear escalation of the cold war and we call on all peoples once again to reject these moves.
Kate Hudson
General secretary, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
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