Bush Witnesses Destruction of Two Missiles

Republican presidential nominee George Bush today viewed the fiery destruction of a set of U.S. intermediate-range missile engines and said the demolition marks “the day we began to reverse the arms race.”

The vice president, who watched as the two Pershing missile engines were fired--the first to be destroyed deliberately under the U.S.-Soviet arms reduction treaty, said this is “one of those unique moments in the career of man, a moment when the tides of history turned, that a new future dawned.”

Bush joined other American and Soviet officials on the reviewing stand at the Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant here to witness the static firing, in which the motors were bolted into a concrete and steel structure, ignited and allowed to burn up their fuel. The two superpowers have agreed to destroy 859 missiles over the next three years.

The destruction of the two missiles was accompanied by a thunderous blast that lasted about a minute and then a loud cheer from those on the reviewing stand.

The Soviet Union has already demolished several of its counterpart SS-20 missiles under the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed last December.

“We too are sending our (intermediate-range) missiles to the junkyards,” Bush said. “The missile stages we destroy today are just a beginning. It is a moment we will be able to tell our children and grandchildren about. This was the day we began to reverse the arms race, this was the day we began destroying the weapons of destruction.”

Nuclear warheads of the missiles are to be dismantled under the same agreement.

Even though the Bush campaign paid for the trip, the GOP nominee was attending the event in his official capacity as vice president, aides said. Craig Fuller, Bush’s chief of staff, told reporters that he did not believe the vice president had unfair advantage over Michael S. Dukakis because of his ability to participate in the event. “George Bush has been associated with the efforts to achieve an INF treaty for many years,” Fuller said.