German leaders call for withdrawal of all U.S. nuclear weapons

“We unconditionally support the call of the four eminent U.S. persons [Henry Kissinger, Sam Nunn, William Perry and George Shultz in the Wall Street Journal] for a radical change of direction in nuclear weapons policies, not only in the United States,” write four equally eminent German leaders in today’s International Herald Tribune.   The statement by Helmut Schmidt, Richard von Weizsaecker, Egon Bahr and Hans-Dietrich Genscher is a timely rebuttal of the report released yesterday by the James Schlesinger Task Force on Nuclear Weapons Management. 

Contrary to the call by Schlesinger to keep nuclear weapons in Europe as part of the "crucial deterrence and assurance elements" of U.S. national security, the German leaders call for the elimination of all short-range nuclear weapons and the withdrawal from Europe of U.S. nuclear weapons.

The argument for the "reassurance" role of nuclear weapons has become the lead justification for maintaining and modernizing a force of thousands of U.S. nuclear weapons.  The case rests on cherry-picked anecdotes of some foreign officials expressing concern over the reliability of U.S. security assurances.  I believe the majority of European officials support deep reductions in global nuclear stockpiles, renewed negotiations with the Russians to achieve this, and the withdrawal of U.S. nuclear weapons from Europe in this context. 

Polls show the European public overwhelming in favor of the elimination of nuclear weapons.  A poll released in December 2008 by World Public Opinion.org of publics in 21 nations found majorities favoring an agreement for all nations to eliminate nuclear weapons in all nations, including France (86%) and Great Britain (81%).