The INF Talks & 'The Walk in the Woods' |
In September 1981, Reagan appointed Nitze as the chief negotiator for the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Nitze wanted to trade the U.S. 572 Pershing II warheads for the Soviet’s SS-20s; however, many vital White House officials would accept nothing other than the ‘zero-zero’ solution, meaning the elimination of all soviet INF missiles in exchange for U.S. cancellation of the Pershing II counter-deployments in West Germany. [1] Therefore, on July 1982, Nitze met with his Russian counterpart, Yuli Kvitsinsky, in what became known as the ‘Walk in the Woods.’ As the pair hiked along the Jura Mountain range, they finalized the treaty on park benches and later when the rain hit, in the car. They succeeded in making a treaty with each side allowed 75 INF launchers in Europe; however, the proposal was not accepted by either government, as Reagan was convinced that the U.S. would be giving up too much. [2] However, it demonstrated Nitze’s unconventional methods in an attempt to achieve nuclear security for the world.
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What do you think? Is Nitze the future Hamilton? Should his story be turned into a Broadway Hit?
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