NY Times: Youthful Ideals Shaped Obama Goal of Nuclear Disarmament
In this front page profile on the eve of nuclear talks in Moscow with President Dmitry Medvedev, the New York Times traces the development of President Obama's commitment to a nuclear weapon-free world, starting with a lengthy article he wrote as a senior at Columbia University, in which he called for "a peace that is genuine, lasting and non-nuclear." In 2003, as a candidate for the U.S. Senate, Obama told the Council for A Livable World that "the United States has far more nuclear weapons than it needs, and any attempt by the U.S. government to develop or produce new nuclear weapons only undermines U.S. nonproliferation efforts around the world." The organization said Mr. Obama also supported an American-financed effort to secure Russian nuclear arms, according to the Times, as well as ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, "still in limbo two decades after Mr. Obama wrote about it."
