U.S.-Russia Pact on Weapons

The Times’ banner headlines notwithstanding, a careful reading of your article (“Huge Warhead Cuts Approved; Bush, Yeltsin Act to End ‘Nuclear Nightmare,’ ” June 17) suggests that the Bush-Yeltsin agreement to reduce the nuclear stockpiles of the U.S. and Russia does not really amount to much. George Bush’s election-year promise to reduce U.S. warhead stockpiles by two-thirds over 11 years amounts to a paltry 5% reduction per year--hardly a drastic change in the status quo.

Even if the military-industrial complexes of both nations fail to subvert an agreement that was plainly motivated by the short-term career considerations of two potentially lame-duck presidents, Russia and the U.S. will retain over 3,000 nuclear warheads each as the next century begins. Since both sides presently have force levels providing multiple overkill capability, a 65% reduction in force levels does not guarantee any degree of safety for the world’s population, or eliminate the ability of either power to devastate the planet at will.

My guess is that the agreement is a preemptive strike intended to neutralize the increasingly clamorous calls by the world’s population for genuine nuclear disarmament, which would include elimination of the nuclear arsenals of all countries, dismantling all nuclear weapons production facilities, and a complete ban on nuclear weapons testing.

RANDALL SMITH, Del Mar