Trump Stops START - Let The Nuclear Arms Race Begin

In what is likely the most reckless move by a US President in our lifetimes, President Donald J. Trump has ignored all efforts to continue the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). Asked by the Press if he thought an extension was worthwhile, Trump replied that it "sounded like a good idea," yet he did nothing. When President Putin of Russia offered to extend the Treaty for one more year, Trump ignored his request.

For those of us of a certain age, this move by Trump is inconceivable. We were the generation that was forced to "duck and cover" in the event of a nuclear attack. "Duck and cover" was the instruction given by our Teachers that we would move under our desks in a futile effort to protect ourselves from a nearby nuclear explosion.

Of course, these actions were absurd. There was absolutely no possibility that hiding under a student's desk would provide any protection whatsoever. The instruction (duck and cover) became fodder for late-night comedians, who ridiculed it as pure folly.

But we had no alternative. There were no treaties and little communication between the United States and its chief nuclear foe, the Soviet Union. The threat of nuclear annihilation was very real. After seeing the result in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, as well as the ongoing nuclear bomb tests in the American deserts and the Pacific islands, we knew the consequences of an Atomic War.

Nearly 20 years after that, the United States dropped those first two bombs on Japan, and the USSR brought the prospect of nuclear war to our shores. The Soviets began moving nuclear-armed missiles to the tiny island of Cuba, just 90 miles from Miami. From this base, they would be able to reach the entire American East Coast, including major cities such as New York, Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia.

Americans were stunned when President Kennedy, in a nationwide television address, announced just how real this threat was. For a generation, Americans had acknowledged the possibility of Nuclear War, but took some comfort in the fact that the Soviet Union was thousands of miles away. But with the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1963, that comfort was shattered. The possibility of mushroom clouds over our country became very real.

Fear spiked, and a new industry was born. Building backyard bomb shelters became a thing. Thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of Americans began digging in their backyards, placing prefabricated enclosures underground, in the hope that these rickety structures would protect them from a blast.

It's easy to look back at these efforts: duck and cover, bomb shelters, and see how ineffective they would really be against an all-out attack. But we had nothing else. Even today, if a nuclear bomb landed nearby, there is effectively no defense. The simple reality, the one that most Americans ignore, is that we will perish.

Instead of addressing the truly terrifying reality of nuclear war, most of us rely on the good offices of our leaders to somehow prevent such an eventuality. Our Presidents, Congress, and Diplomats will somehow find a way to prevent such destruction in the first place.

In the end, it is negotiation and diplomacy that are our only protection from annihilation. We trust that our leaders will choose peace over nuclear war. And we assume that, somehow, there exist channels of communication and international law that enable countries to back away from the precipice of total war.

Another generation would come and go after the Cuban Missile Crisis before President Ronald Reagan would propose a limit to these doomsday weapons, and then nearly a decade before his concept became a ratified treaty, the START Treaty.

Cynics would say that this Treaty wasn't enough, that it didn't encompass all the countries. But it was better than nothing! And nothing is what we have again.

The START Treaty limited the Americans and Soviets (the two nuclear superpowers) to no more than 6,000 nuclear warheads. Its implementation reduced the number of these deadly warheads by 80%. For the first time in history, weapons were reduced, not increased. Astonishing!

Whether we knew it or not, it was chiefly this Treaty that Americans relied on as the principal means for the nuclear superpowers to reduce tensions and step back from Armageddon. It was settled in International Law and accepted as Diplomatic protocol. A way for countries to talk, discuss, and hopefully agree to resolve disputes that could lead to a Nuclear confrontation.

But no matter, today, President Trump has casually tossed that Treaty aside. As of midnight February 5, 2026, the United States allowed the START Treaty to expire. Gone are the 37 years of the peace initiative. Gone are the limits on the number of warheads each nation can possess.

Here, instead, is the beginning of a Nuclear Arms Race.

Prepare to "Duck and Cover."

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