Should the U.S. ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention and join scores of other nations in destroying its chemical weapons arsenals? Following a background report, former U.N. Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick and former National Security Advisor Brent Scrowcroft debate the issue with Elizabeth Farnsworth.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: When deployed to Saudi Arabia in response to Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, U.S. forces trained to defend themselves against a chemical weapons attack. According to the Defense Department Iraq then had the largest capability to produce chemical weapons of any third world country. The question was: Would Iraq use them?

SPOKESMAN: Some of these weapons are so toxic just a small amount can kill you, one breath full, one drop on the skin.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: So far, there is no evidence Iraq used chemical weapons in the war. But in the years since thousands of Desert Storm soldiers have complained of various maladies which some have attributed to chemical agents. In October, the Pentagon announced that as many as 20,000 U.S. troops may have been exposed to nerve gas and other chemical weapons when they blew up an Iraqi ammunition depot in the southern village of Camassia in March 1991.

Then two years ago the world saw the first chemical weapons attack carried out by a terrorist group. A Japanese cult released homemade nerve gas in a Tokyo subway, killing 12 people and injuring 5,000. According to the Central Intelligence Agency, chemical weapons programs are underway in 18 countries, including most major states of the Middle East. Libya is reportedly now building the world's largest underground chemical weapons plant, and the United States, Russia, and other developed countries also have large stores of chemical weapons.

Congress passed a law in 1985 requiring destruction of the U.S. chemical weapons stockpile by the end of the year 2004, and that process has begun. And during the Reagan and Bush administrations the U.S. negotiated a comprehensive Chemical Weapons Convention. It was signed by Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger during the last days of the Bush administration in January 1993. The pact requires participating countries to destroy the chemical weapons stock and never to develop, produce, or acquire such weapons in the future.

In addition, the Convention will establish a verification process whereby government suspecting violations by other countries can call for immediate inspection. Besides the United States, 160 other countries have signed the convention and 70 have ratified it. In the U.S. ratification requires a 2/3 vote of the Senate. The Clinton administration pushed for ratification, but it got caught up in 1996 election year politics. GOP candidate Bob Dole urged his Republican Senate colleagues to oppose the treaty and it never came to a vote. Now, with the election over and a new Congress in Washington President Clinton has made ratification a top priority.

PRESIDENT CLINTON: Now we must rise to a new test of leadership, ratifying the Chemical Weapons Convention. (applause) Make no mistake about it. It will make our troops safer from chemical attack. It will help us to fight terrorism. We have no more important obligations, especially in the wake of what we now know about the Gulf War. But if we do not act by April 29th, when this Convention goes into force, with or without us, we will lose the chance to have Americans leading and enforcing this effort. Together, we must make the Chemical Weapons Convention law, so that at last we can begin to outlaw poison gas from the earth.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Most opposition to the treaty comes from Republicans, but the party is divided over the issue. Prominent opponents include cabinet officials from the Reagan and Bush administrations, such as former Secretaries of Defense Caspar Weinberger and Dick Cheney, and former U.N. Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick. But other Republican leaders, such as former Secretaries of State James Baker and Lawrence Eagleburger and former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft have endorsed the treaty.