The threat posed by nuclear weapons - the issue that brings us together - surpasses in a way all others.

Many issues are important.

But if we blow ourselves up in a nuclear holocaust, no other issue will matter.

It was fruitless to even think about abolishing nuclear weapons during the cold war.

Then along came Mikhail Gorbachev who put an end to it, changed the world, and worked for abolition.

And along came Ronald Reagan, who repeatedly advocated abolition, and explored it at Rejkavich with Gorbachev.

Unfortunately, their talks broke down over the divisive issue of missile defense.

So today the danger of a U. S. - Russian nuclear exchange still hangs over our heads.

The peril that nuclear weapons will be used is actually greater tonight than it was at the height of the Cold War.

We and the Russians both have more nukes than we have targets.

We both maintain our bristling arsenals in a state of wartime-like, hair-trigger alert.
The weapons stand ready to be fired a few seconds after the fateful order is received from the Kremlin or the White House.

We both still rely on an incredibly dangerous doctrine - LAUNCH ON WARNING.

In a sudden crisis it allows only 15 minutes - or less - for the U. S. or the Russian president
to decide whether or not to fire, while under the impression - correct or incorrect - that missiles fired by the other side- intentionally or unintentionally - are about to arrive.

The chaos in Russia has led to a sharp decline in command and control of her nuclear arsenal, and to a deterioration of her early warning system - increasing the danger of an accidental or unauthorized launch.

The threat that terrorists or rogues like Saddam Hussein will buy, bribe or steal their way
to Russian nukes rises as soldiers and scientists supposed to protect them are unpaid or not paid at all, their morale approaching ground zero.

Our national security- and our very lives - are clearly at risk.

But this is not just a military issue.

It is also a moral issue, an ethical issue, a spiritual issue.

Shortly after Hiroshima I met Albert Einstein, who warned me, as he warned others, that nuclear weapons could exterminate the human race, perhaps extinguish all life on this planet.

I've been working to prevent a nuclear cataclysm ever since, before, during and after my time in the Senate.

But our country and our superpower rival ignored the warnings of Einstein and other physicists, launched the nuclear arms race and both developed and still rely upon yet another dangerous doctrine: MUTUAL ASSURED DESTRUCTION. Otherwise known as MAD.

Is it worthy of our nation to rely for security upon terror, upon the threat to annihilate millions of innocent humans?

Is a policy that puts the human race- perhaps all life - at risk of extermination worthy of what we call civilization?

Is it wise?

It has taken the human race billions of years to reach its present stage of development, on its way to an unknown, uncharted future of limitless horizons - a future that our generation could in a mindless moment deny to all the countless generations yet to come.

I believe its overwhelmingly likely that life exists elsewhere in the universe.

But suppose it doesn't?

Then we are toying with the risk that we will rashly snuff out the only life that exists in all God's creation.

General Lee Butler, who served as Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Air Command during the Cold War, is appalled that the nuclear policies of those dark days are still the order of the day.

He warns:

"We cannot at once hold sacred the miracle of existence and hold sacrosanct the capacity to destroy it.

"Deterrence . . . at best is a gamble no mortal should pretend to make.. At worst it invokes death on a scale rivaling the power of the Creator."

Our nation, the most powerful upon earth, the creator of the bomb, the only nation ever to use it, bears a special responsibility.

The responsibility to lead the world away from the brink of Armageddon to a more noble future of peace and love, of progress and tranquility.

That is the goal the Global Security Institute, LAWS, and many other institutions and individuals the world over, among them generals, admirals, scientists, diplomats, and presidents and prime minister of many lands, are working to achieve.

With your help, and your participation, we shall succeed.

For that, on behalf of multitudes born and unborn, I thank you.