Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume V, Soviet Union

180. Current Intelligence Weekly Review⁰

Washington, April 13, 1962.

Soviet Foreign Policy Developments

[Here follows a section on Berlin and Germany.]

Disarmament and Test Ban

The Soviet press and radio promptly denounced the 10 April joint US-British statement¹ on a nuclear test ban as a “face-saving maneuver” issued at a time when the US is completing preparations for atmospheric tests. A 12 April Pravda article termed it an “ultimatum” and “typical nuclear blackmail.” At the 12 April session of the Geneva disarmament conference, Soviet chief delegate Zorin similarly denounced the joint statement and pledged that the USSR would not stage tests during the disarmament negotiations if the West would make a similar pledge. There have been indications that the Soviets might follow this bid for a test moratorium with a proposal ostensibly designed to break the impasse over international controls to monitor a test ban.

Soviet representatives at Geneva recently have hinted at the possibility of some agreement in principle to international controls over a test ban. [15 lines of 2-column source text not declassified]

The USSR probably expects that the US will resume testing, and the advanced state of readiness of the Soviet test site at Novaya Zemlya suggests that the Soviets will do likewise after the first few US explosions and the anticipated neutralist condemnation. Soviet delegate Tsarapkin at the disarmament conference and Khrushchev in a recent letter to the Japanese prime minister have reiterated the standard argument that US control proposals for a test ban would amount to an “espionage network” on Soviet territory.

The Soviet delegation at Geneva has continued to seek to present the USSR as the champion of general and complete disarmament and to maintain publicly that a test ban agreement is possible only under the terms of the Soviet November 1961 draft treaty, which excludes international controls.

The Soviets are also attempting to impress the neutralist delegations with their stand on partial disarmament measures. In urging the adoption of the Soviet draft on banning war propaganda, Zorin charged that the US has systematically suppressed peace propaganda and outlawed a number of organizations in favor of peace. The Soviets have capitalized on the fact that the US has not yet presented a draft treaty on general and complete disarmament, and neutralist delegations are reportedly surprised at US failure to do so and are voicing suspicions that the US does not want to present any general disarmament proposals, “despite many official US statements supporting this goal.”

0. Source: Central Intelligence Agency: Job 79-S01060A. Top Secret; [codeword not declassified]; Noforn. Prepared by CIAʼs Office of Current Intelligence. The source text comprises pp. 2-3 of the Weekly Review section of the issue.
1. On April 9 the U.S. and U.K. Governments sent a joint statement on nuclear testing to the Soviet Government that reiterated their view that international inspection or verification inside the Soviet Union was required in any nuclear test ban treaty in order to determine the nature of unexplained seismic events which might be nuclear tests. For text, see Documents on Disarmament, 1962, vol. I, pp. 292-293.