CAMPAIGN ’88 : Dole Backs Additional Nuclear Arms Cutbacks

Kansas Sen. Bob Dole Tuesday said he favors additional cuts in nuclear weapons beyond those contained in the recently signed U.S.-Soviet accord on intermediate-range missiles, but said substantial reductions in conventional Soviet forces must occur first.

In an address to the Foreign Relations Council at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Dole also focused on Iran, an issue dogging GOP presidential rival George Bush. “There is just no excuse for the disastrous arms sales to the ayatollah, or to anyone else in Iran. Those sales knocked into a cocked hat the credibility of the formal U.S. policy of no concessions to terrorists,” he said.

Dole said that although he did not trust Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, he believed that additional reductions in nuclear arms could be achieved providing that any new agreement leaves the United States with a “credible nuclear deterrent.”

Dole said that the United States must “move immediately to shore up our technical capabilities to verify nuclear arms reductions” and must aggressively pursue development of a space-based missile defense “leading to the earliest possible deployment” as preconditions to a general reduction in long-range nuclear weapons.