Variations on the u.s. pledge to build "no new nuclear weapons"-a post-Cold War catechism-have now been recited by President Bill Clinton, the military, Energy Department officials, and the head of Strategic Command. But despite their assorted pledges, a wide variety of new nuclear weapons are under development. We have already seen that "no-new-nukes" is a pretty elastic idea. It allowed the B61-11 earth-penetrating warhead- which the nuclear laboratory that developed it insists is "not new"-to be deployed earlier this year [See "New Bomb, No Mission," May/ June 1997 Bulletin]. And the B61-11 is only the first of several "not new" weapons about to appear. The nuclear laboratories have increasingly full order books.
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