Is Trump right to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range
Nuclear Forces Agreement (INF)?
(Note: all the sources listed in the “Balanced” section)
End of an Era. At the end of October, 2018, National Security Adviser John Bolton traveled to Russia to deliver Trump’s likely decision to pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear
Forces agreement (INF). This was a landmark treaty brokered between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987. This agreement banned the possession ground-launched missiles with ranges of between 300 and 3,500 miles. The treaty was successful in the destruction of thousands of missiles in both countries, however, in recent years Russia has been accused of breaking the agreement by testing and storing ground-launched cruise missiles. In a recent statement, President Trump expressed his frustration to reporters, “We’re the ones that have stayed in the
agreement and we’ve honored the agreement, but Russia has not unfortunately
honored the agreement, so we’re going to terminate the agreement, we’re going
to pull out.” 2, 5, 6