Of cooperative storage, dismantling and destruction of soviet nuclear and chemical weapons. Next, former senators sam nunn and Richard Lugar mark the 25th anniversary of the initiative in the historic county caucus room on capitol hill. This one hour and 15 minute discussion and awards ceremony was cohosted by the National Security archive. The Carnegie Corporation, the Carnegie Endowment and the Nuclear Threat initiative. Ladies and gentlemen, i am honored to be one of the organizers of today. This is the day 25 years ago that president George H W Bush signed the nunnlugar legislation into law. Fetishists, we scoured the bush library for the photographs of that extraordinary moment and none exist. There was not even a signing ceremony which gives you a sense of the kind of mixed opinion inside the Bush Administration about this Congressional Initiative in foreign policy. But the judgment of history is in. Calledll street journal the nunnlugar legislation one of the most prescient piec
Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, just a few words of welcome today. Im tom blanton. Im director of the National Security archive at George Washington university and honored to be one of the organizers of today. This is the day, 25 years ago, that president george h. W. Bush signed the nunnlugar legislation into law. Now, being document fetishists, we scanned the bush library for the photographs of that extraordinary moment, and none exist. There was not even a signing ceremony, which gives you a sense of the kind of mixed opinion inside the Bush Administration about this Congressional Initiative in Foreign Policy. But the judgment of history is in. The wall street journal called the nunnlugar legislation one of the most prescient pieces of legislation ever enacted. And today on the National Security archive website you can see the declassified documents showing the real danger of that time, the first ever declassified list of the 3,429 soviet Strategic Nuclear warheads that
Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, just a few words of welcome today. Im tom blanton. Im director of the National Security archive at George Washington university and honored to be one of the organizers of today. This is the day, 25 years ago, that president george h. W. Bush signed the nunnlugar legislation into law. Now, being document fetishists, we scanned the bush library for the photographs of that extraordinary moment, and none exist. There was not even a signing ceremony, which gives you a sense of the kind of mixed opinion inside the Bush Administration about this Congressional Initiative in Foreign Policy. But the judgment of history is in. The wall street journal called the nunnlugar legislation one of the most prescient pieces of legislation ever enacted. And today on the National Security archive website you can see the declassified documents showing the real danger of that time, the first ever declassified list of the 3,429 soviet Strategic Nuclear warheads that
In washington, there are signs of a possible compromise in the president s plan to strike syria. The president just wrapped up a meeting with two key republicans senators, john mccain and lindsey graham. Both wanted a broader plan on syria and say they walked out encouraged, but there is still a long way to go. We are in washington. Paul, what more did those senators, mccain and graham, have to say . Tony, as you say, senator mccain repeatedly said four times during his remarks that a rejection of an attack on syria by congress would be catastrophic. Its a calendar both senators two years have been calling for more aggressive action. Both characterized their conversation with the president as positive, but as you said, both said they still have questions in that there is a long way to go. There seems to be emerging from this administration a fret solid lon to get the regional players more involved. Saudi arabia, turkey, jordan, a lot of the arab states have been helping quietly, now is
Straits. Tonight, we begin with syria. President obama is trying to rally congressional support for a u. S. Led strike on that countries military. He met this afternoon with two leading republican senators, john mccain and Lindsey Graham. Both have been pushing the president to take a much stronger stance on syria. They say the stakes are high for both the u. S. And the syrian people. If the congress were to reject a resolution like this after the president of the United States has already committed to action, the consequences would be catastrophic in that the credibility of this country with friends and adversaries alike would be shredded, and it would be not only implications for this presidency, but for future presidencys as well. The president has no one to blame but himself about the lack of public understanding of whats at stake in syria. We talked about the past, the present and the future. Two years ago, with an opportunity to get assad out when there were dozens of alqaeda in