The World - News from Jan. 31, 1989

The last NATO base to receive U.S. cruise missiles was the first to be deactivated under the terms of the superpowers’ INF treaty. In a short ceremony at Britain’s Molesworth air base, 70 miles north of London, members of the U.S. Air Force 303rd Tactical Mission wing were advised: “Mission complete.” Journalists, including several from the Soviet media, were then permitted to tour the four bunkers that until last year housed 16 operational and two spare cruise missiles. The Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, signed in December, 1987, calls for the elimination by 1991 of 2,700 Soviet and U.S. land-based missiles--those with ranges of 300 to 3,400 miles.