Read My Lips: No Test Ban

By Janice Castro

Now that the Soviet Union has collapsed, many Americans believe it is time for the U.S. to join its former enemy in a NUCLEAR TESTING moratorium. The Administration opposes a ban. Bill Clinton has made it an election issue, but the fight is only beginning. The House and more than half the Senate support the one-year test ban written into the 1993 defense authorization bill. President Bush may veto the bill to kill the ban. Four more nuclear tests are planned this year, and six next. The Administration insists that testing is needed to ensure the safety and reliability of the U.S. arsenal. But at least three upcoming blasts are designed primarily to test the effects on Star Wars + equipment that would be powered by nuclear explosions.