Sabre-rattling American politicians should make rest of world nervous

BACK in the first week in January four prominent American political figures raised the need for the abolition of nuclear weapons. The issue was followed up this week in an article by Mikhail Gorbachev calling for urgent action.

It was nice to hear from him again. In time, Gorbachev will no doubt be accorded his true place in history.

The four prominent Americans who initiated the whole thing were Henry Kissinger, National Security Council adviser and secretary of state under presidents Nixon and Ford; George Shultz, secretary of state under Ronald Reagan; William Perry, secretary of defence under Bill Clinton, and Sam Nunn, former chairman of the powerful Senate Military Affairs Committee.