On Dec. 8, the National Institute for Public Policy published a speech delivered by Special Presidential Envoy for Arms Control Marshall Billingslea on Nov. 17 to a symposium entitled “Arms Control and the New START Treaty,” in which he portrayed both Russia and China as predatory powers intent on imposing their will on the world, using nuclear weapons if necessary, and uses this lie to justify the U.S. preparing for nuclear war. Russia is “not to be trusted” at all on arms control matters, he said, and China is a dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party rapidly building up its nuclear arsenal and unleashing the coronavirus pandemic upon the world, while building concentration camps for its own people and hiding it all behind a giant “wall of secrecy.” https://www.nipp.org/2020/12/08/billingslea-marshall-arms-control-and-the-new-start-treaty/
On Russia, Billingslea claimed that Moscow has increased its dependence on nuclear weapons and has “adopted a highly provocative nuclear doctrine that embraces early escalation and use of nuclear weapons—a strategy called ‘escalate to win.’” He claimed further that Russia is building up an arsenal of thousands of weapons that are unconstrained by New START. “Russia continues to behave as though there’s some sort of distinction between the use of strategic versus tactical nuclear weapons,” he ranted. “This likely is because their war plans for invading NATO territory contemplate scenarios where they would employ a battlefield [nuclear] strike, believing NATO would capitulate, rather than retaliate.”
Billingslea reported that in view of the new strategic weapons that Russia is developing, including the Poseidon nuclear submarine drone and the nuclear powered cruise missile called “Skyfall” by NATO, that he has advised President Donald Trump against reaffirming with Russian President Vladimir Putin the Reagan-Gorbachev statement that nuclear war is unwinnable and should not even be fought “when we know that Putin thinks that a nuclear war can be won, and his people are constantly wargaming and planning on how to fight one.” These and other lies that Billingslea attributes to the Russians ostensibly show that “They cannot be trusted when it comes to arms control.”
All of this and more is the lead up for what Billingslea is really advocating for: a rapid buildup of U.S. medium- and short-range nuclear capabilities, which had been forbidden under the INF treaty, abrogated by the U.S.... Instead of giving in to Putin’s “arms control gambit,” Billingslea said, “we need to accelerate development of the Ground Launched Cruise Missile (GLCM) for the Marine Corps, and the Army’s Mid-Range capabilities. We need to field multiple deployable batteries by 2023 at the latest, work on rotational concepts with both NATO and with individual allies, and make sure that the GLCM is designed to be exportable so that we can provide it to allies for their own fielding.” These new capabilities are to be aimed at both China and Russia.
On China, Billingslea was especially lurid. “The world saw the Chinese Communist Party’s true colors at the outset of the Coronavirus pandemic. As the world sought answers about the novel virus, the Chinese government hid behind a Great Wall of Secrecy. More than 1.2 million men, women, and children are dead as a result,” he claimed. “Now, when it comes to their nuclear buildup, the CCP is hiding behind the same Wall of Secrecy.”
This was followed by another rant, this one on how China is allegedly rapidly building up its nuclear arsenal. “Chairman Xi Jinping says he expects the PLA to become a ‘first tier’ military force, on par with Russia and the United States. The rapidity and composition of their buildup—coupled with their economic predations and grotesque human rights violations—suggests he may have even grander ambitions,” he went on. “This cannot continue. With every missile launched—with each truckload of rock excavated from Lop Nur—with every new building constructed at their warhead and missile production complexes—with each sinister insinuation in state media—the CCP brings the world closer to an unprecedented nuclear arms race.” China has a small fraction of the nuclear weapons held by the U.S. and Russia.