"All bets are off! You'll see a lot of testing . . . . You'll have Russia testing, you'll have China testing, you'll have India testing, you'll have Pakistan testing . . . and we will be in a much, much more dangerous world."
The reaction of the U.S. Senate to this warning by President Bill Clinton of the dire consequences if the United States were to abandon the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was swift and unequivocal. It resoundingly defeated the treaty, the first time it had rejected a major treaty in over 80 years.
Clinton's overstated warnings notwithstanding, however, the CTBT's defeat is not likely to result in the immediate resumption of nuclear-weapons tests, either by the U.S. or any of the other states the president mentioned. Indeed, the Chinese have so far elected to seize the moral high road, contrasting their continued commitment to the cause of nuclear disarmament with Congress' abandonment of it. The Russians have similarly taken delight in criticizing America's "do as I say, not as I do" approach to foreign policy.