Sir

Your Editorial “A global folly” (Nature 443, 605; 2006 doi:10.1038/443605a) states that scientists working on disarmament and anti-proliferation issues “have looked on aghast as disarmament sceptics around the world have scorned the value of international treaties”. To my knowledge, there was initially only one country scornfully spreading scepticism on, among others, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the Non-Proliferation Treaty. That was the United States of America.