MissileThreat.com

The ABM Treaty enshrined the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) and made it illegal to provide for the common defense against even limited attacks by ballistic missiles. The long awaited withdrawal from the treaty in 2002 heralded a return to thinking seriously about the defense of our country.

• Text of the ABM Treaty

  May 26, 1972

  Text of the 1972 treaty that prohibited national missile defense and enshrined the doctrine of mutually assured destruction (MAD).

   

• What the ABM Treaty of 1972 Actually Said
  A brief summary of the ABM Treaty’s implications, composed by the State Department.

• How the ABM Treaty Has Kept the United States Vulnerable
  The United States has only just withdrawn from the ABM Treaty, but its 30-year legacy has left the United States defenseless against enemy missile attack.

• The ABM Treaty and the Senate: Issues of International and Constitutional Law
  Robert F. Turner
  The ABM Treaty was a bilateral treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, the treaty should have been recognized as null and void. In effect, however, it was regarded as continuing with the Russian Federation. Of course, not only Russia but also other newly independent republics had ballistic missiles, missile training areas, and ABM systems. In 1996, the Clinton administration signed a number of agreements and statements which recognized not only Russia, but Kazakstan, Belarus, and the Ukraine as parties to the ABM Treaty as well. Because the treaty was now with new parties, it constituted a new treaty which had to be submitted, as the 1996 Memorandum of Understanding itself required in order to be binding, to the Senate for its advice and consent under the Constitution. Although the Clinton administration promised to again submit the documents, it never did so. Robert Turner argues that because it was never ratified, the treaty was therefore not binding.

   

• Official Documents Related to the ABM Treaty
  An annotated and comprehensive collection of over forty official documents related to the review, renegotiations, and end of the ABM Treaty.

   

• Speeches on the Withdrawal from the ABM Treaty
  A collection of all the major speeches by President George W. Bush, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and other relevant officials having to do with the 2002 withdrawal under Article XV.

   

• Statement on Withdrawal from ABM Treaty

  June 13, 2002