1/4 @NSArchive today published declassified documents on one of the great nonproliferation successes of the post Cold War era - Ukraine’s decision in the 1990s to disarm itself, with US and Russian support, of over 1,900 nuclear weapons targeting the US. nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/…
2/4 The documents bear directly on today's impeachment debate, which features "almost total historical amnesia" over the US role in negotiating Ukrainian disarmament and Russian security guarantees for the territorial integrity of a non-nuclear Ukraine.
3/4 the documents underscore "the vital role played by the Nunn-Lugar initiative that re-directed Defense Department dollars into the dismantlement of nuclear infrastructure in Ukraine," converting fissile material from warheads into fuel rods for Ukrainian power plants.
4/4 the Archive notes that "In Russia, the new nationalist discourse dismisses the Nunn-Lugar cooperative threat reduction as forced disarmament, forgetting that the consolidation of the Soviet nuclear legacy in Russia directly served Russia’s security interests."
