From: utzoo!decvax!cca!hplabs!hplabsb!soreff
Newsgroups: net.politics
Title: First Use Pledge
Article-I.D.: hplabsb.1207
Posted: Sun Dec 12 16:37:09 1982
Received: Mon Dec 13 03:55:08 1982

Does anyone know if the USSR has made a pledge not to be the first to use
nuclear weapons? In an article in the January 1983 issue of Harper's in an
article entitled "If Orwell Were Alive Today" Norman Podhoretz claims:
"But I think he [George Orwell] would also have opposed such measures as
the nuclear freeze and a unilateral Western pledge of no-first-use of
nuclear weapons." . I seem to recall that the USSR has already made some
sort of no-first-use pledge. Does anyone recall if they have or not?
Presumably, if they have, then the Western nations could not make a
unilateral pledge. They could only make the existing pledge bilateral. 
Of course, in the event of a war, it is unlikely that either set of rulers
would honor its pledge, but I'm still curious as to whether there are any
no-first-use pledges outstanding.	-Jeffrey Soreff