Maintaining the Salt II and ABM Treaties 1986 General Resolution

WHEREAS, the 1986 General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association is:
  1. SHOCKED by President Reagan's announcement on May 27, 1986 that the United States would no longer be bound by the provisions of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II);
  2. FEARFUL that the opponents of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty within the Reagan Administration will succeed in their efforts to abandon the treaty in order to pursue the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars) program;
  3. AWARE that existing agreements have provided a valuable framework and meaningful limitations on some of the most threatening nuclear weapons systems and that in their absence the nuclear arms race would rapidly escalate;
  4. GRATEFUL to preceding General Assemblies that in accordance with our religious principles have:
    1. supported the goal of total universal disarmament under control ('61);
    2. endorsed the ratification of the SALT II treaty ('79);
    3. opposed development of Anti-Ballistic defense systems ('69);
    4. called for a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty ('61 ff.);
    5. urged independent initiatives that would renounce the "first use" of nuclear weapons and supported a moratorium on all nuclear testing ('77);
    6. called for a bilateral nuclear weapons freeze ('81 ff.);
    7. encouraged a ban on deployment, development and research of anti-satellite weapons ('84);
    8. supported a prohibition on putting weapons in space ('84);
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the 1986 General Assembly:
  1. Urges the President of the United States to continue to comply with the 1979 Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty and the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty;
  2. Calls upon Unitarian Universalists in the United States to immediately share this resolution with their Senators and Congresspersons and to ask for their support of binding legislation that would prohibit the United States from exceeding the limits of the 1979 SALT II agreement or the provisions of the 1972 ABM Treaty;
  3. Calls upon Unitarian Universalists in Canada to contact their Members of Parliament and the Prime Minister of Canada to ask that the government of Canada apply all possible pressure on the government of the United States to assure compliance with the SALT II Treaty and the ABM Treaty;
  4. Encourages societies and/or individual members to support and participate in the peace and nuclear disarmament programs and actions of the Unitarian Universalist Peace Network and its sponsoring organizations.