#TBT: Bill Clinton Bans Chemical Weapons

 

     Securing peace and prosperity would prove to be the ultimate aim of President Bill Clinton's foreign policy, and his arms control policy was among the most successful in American history. He implemented the START I and START II Treaties negotiated between Russia and the United States during the Bush administration (these would later be superseded by President Obama's 2011 NEW START, renewed by President Biden in 2021).

     On April 25th, 1997, Clinton secured Senate ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which banned chemical weapons in all form and resulted in more than 99 percent of all chemical weapons in existence being safely destroyed with international collaboration. It was only the second treaty in world history, after the Biological Weapons Convention in 1975, to ban an entire form of WMD globally.

     Clinton set his sights on a total nuclear test ban, building on the partial ban signed by President Kennedy in 1962, in September 1996. However, as of yet, the United States has not ratified it. By making the duration for ratification infinite and securing the signatures of 170 nations, however, Clinton was able to prevent the return of nuclear proliferation, and his efforts helped make the world much safer.