I kicked off this site in the beginning of April with a Document of the Day post that featured a letter from Dick Cheney opposing U.S. ratification of the CWC. Now that the flurry of posts about the Second Review Conference has died down, I think its time to dig through the Archive and find a new item to highlight.

Today’s Document(s) of the Day are 148 letters from prominent scientists urging Senator Trent Lott (R-Mississippi) to bring the ratification of the CWC to a vote in the U.S. Senate before April 29, 1997. All of the 148 signatories were chemist and biochemist members of the U.S. National Academy of Science, 13 were Nobel Laureates at the time, and an additional 3 signatories have since been awarded a Nobel Prize. The letters were sent to Sen. Lott on Feb 24, 1997 by Dudley Herschbach and Matthew Meselson of Harvard University. Walter Kauzmann even added an extra note on his letter and expressed his disbelief of the situation by asking “Has the Senate no self respect?”

It is phenomenal to look back and see the academic science community coming together in support of an arms control treaty. Go here for more information on the events leading up to U.S. ratification of the CWC.