Foreign Policy Prelude: Landmines
[A/N: Not the whole update, but an snapshot leading up to it]
Before anything else in foreign policy, Bundy committed to the destruction of the US landmine arsenal, having witnessed their long-term effects on a short trip abroad to the ex-Warsaw Pact states during his Governorship where children continued to be mauled by undetonated mines laid in WW3. Bundy had apparently been personally moved, to the surprise of many. The Progressives had added a plank to their platform per Tuttle’s request, calling for a ban on landmines, which put political pressure on the major parties. Generally, WW3 had left scars across the globes as they continued to mar the globe and the “landmine crisis” had captured the minds of many humanitarians.
President Bundy looking uncomfortable in an interview discussing landmines
Iacocca had attempted to pass an international ban on the use, sale, and transport of landmines in the UN in the last months of his administration, but was blocked by his health from pursuing it more vigorously. His last hurrah had instead been dedicated towards his Moon Base ambition, which Bundy pledged he would continue funding. (Indeed, he slightly
increased funding for NASA under his administration). Bundy, attempting to appeal to dovish Progressives, took the lead and put forward a bill to preemptively destroy the US arsenal of landmines, a move that was supported by many other nation states, including Canada, Laos, and Cambodia in particular, but was opposed by America’s European NATO allies, still wary of a hyperdominant America, powerful India and China, and other rogue states. This reluctance infuriated many Americans.
A March in Support of the Landmine Ban
In the USA, Communonaitonalists were furious, but a bevy of support from the Progressive Left pushed this bill through Congress. Mark Hatfield, ever the dove, was the main Republican sponsor and Bundy’s key ally. Bundy, who had made enemies with his privatization policies, seemed to have “turned a new leaf”. Importantly, he had made inroads with western libertarian Progressives who had carried him over the top in 1996. He wanted these voters to return to their Republican roots. Bundy would also campaign for destroying the US chemical weapons stock, but had to accept a 70% reduction in the arsenal instead of an outright ban, due to opposition from relatively hawkish Republicans lead by Jon Danforth that felt that the weapons had been "normalized" in WWIII.
Slowly, the anti landmine campaign would grow worldwide. Internationally, the decline in land mine use was a godsend to many children and a move forward for human rights as nation after nation slowly banned the weapons until they were finally banned globally (though still used by some terrorist groups) in 2008.
Landmines entered the popular consciousness, and many charity groups worked to help deal with the issue globally, even as Americans looked with caution to foreign adventures.
[A/N: OTL landmines were banned internationally in 1999, the US continues to refuse to sign the treaty, even after Obama looked to ratify it, in part because of our defenses along the Korean Peninsula which employ the weapons. Also, thoughts?]