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(seeking gains from unilateral military buildups, arms sales, or cheap polluting industries)
could undercut collective objectives. Only near-universal adherence to international
agreements is sure to produce success.
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Most Americans appear to accept this logic. For as long as opinion surveys have
inquired into the matter, majorities of the American public have favored a wide range of
international treaties and agreements.
Arms control treaties during the Cold War and now. Arms control treaties
have won particularly strong popular support, both in the past and at present. During and
shortly after World War II, for example, most Americans favored putting all countries’
nuclear weapons under international control, an idea that U.S. officials succeeded in
defusing only by means of the “Baruch Plan.”
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During the Cold War, majorities of Americans regularly said they favored various
proposed or actual treaties concerning the control of weapons, especially nuclear
weapons. In the 1974 CCFR survey, for example, 77% favored “substantially limiting
the number of nuclear missiles each country [the U.S. and the Soviet Union] has.” In
1978, 71% favored “signing another arms agreement to limit some nuclear weapons on
both sides,” and 62% even favored “signing an agreement to ban all [emphasis in the
original question] nuclear weapons on both sides.” In 1982, when the Reagan
administration was pursuing a rapid arms buildup and tensions with the Soviet Union ran
high, a large majority (77%) favored “negotiating arms agreements between the U.S. and
the Soviet Union.” (Majorities also favored resuming cultural and educational
exchanges, and opposed prohibiting the exchange of scientists or restricting U.S.-Soviet
trade.)
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Convention