NATION : Soviets Watch as U.S. Destroys Army’s Last Pershing I-A Missiles

A missile crew burned off the fuel and then destroyed the last of the Army’s Pershing I-A missiles today while a team of Soviet inspectors verified the explosion to meet nuclear treaty obligations.

The firing of two Pershing motors at the Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant in East Texas was part of the agreement under the intermediate nuclear forces treaty signed by the superpowers last year.

“The destruction of the Pershing I-A system is proof positive that we have moved forward in our relationship with the Soviet Union,” said Maj. Gen. Marvin Brailsford, commander of the U.S. Army Armament, Munitions and Chemical Command. “This also indicates a giant step toward reducing the risk of war.”

“This is an important step in the direction of the implementation of the treaty, and this is also an important step in the direction of future peace,” said Soviet Gen. Maj. Vladimir Medvedev, the director of the Soviet Risk Reduction Center, who watched the destruction from a bunker.