Last Missile in Pershing 1A Class Destroyed
With a Soviet inspection team looking on, the U.S. Army destroyed the last of its Pershing 1A missiles Thursday, the first time an entire class of American nuclear weapons has been eliminated.
The ground shook at the Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant as white flames and smoke poured from the 169th Pershing to be destroyed under provisions of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
The treaty, signed in 1987 by then-President Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, requires elimination of 859 U.S. intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles and 1,752 similar Soviet missiles within three years.
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