Tactical Nuclear Weapons and NATO.pdf - Program on Strategic ...

However, concerned by the post-Vietnam perception
of U.S. unreliability, the rapidly industrializing
ROK is understood to have examined the possibility of
acquiring its own nuclear weapons in the early 1970s
after Richard Nixon withdrew 24,000 U.S. troops from
South Korea <strong>and</strong> recognized the People’s Republic
of China (PRC). (Discovery of this ROK interest also
seems to have strengthened Kim Il Sung’s determination
to achieve a DPRK nuclear capability. 108 ) But
ROK President Park Chung Hee was dissuaded by
Kissinger’s direct threat to withdraw U.S. forces completely
<strong>and</strong> terminate the ROK-U.S. alliance if South
Korea pursued its own nuclear weapons. South Korea
consequently acceded to the NPT in April 1975 <strong>and</strong>
signed a full-scope safeguards agreement with the
International Atomic Energy Agency later that year.
Concerns over the terms of the ROK-U.S. alliance were
soon revived when President Carter subsequently announced
a nearly complete withdrawal of TNWs (<strong>and</strong>
troops) from South Korea in 1977. This announced
withdrawal was reversed by 1978, largely because
South Korea could plausibly threaten to resume its
own nuclear weapons program.
V. 1987-1990. TNWS AND THE WARSAW PACT
COLLAPSE: THE AFTERMATH
Mikhail Gorbachev’s arrival as General Secretary
unfroze the U.S.-Soviet arms control talks, leading to
the signing of the INF agreement in December 1987.
This treaty banned all U.S. <strong>and</strong> Soviet ground-based
ballistic <strong>and</strong> cruise missiles globally with ranges of
500-5,500 km. The Federal Republic of Germany (FRG)
also gave up its 72 Pershing 1 missiles. The agreement
was denounced by retired SACEUR Bernard Rogers
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