139. Memorandum for the File Prepared by McCone, August 21
On Monday, July 30th, at 5:00 o’clock an NSC meeting was held for the purpose of discussing Geneva test suspension negotiation procedures.
In attendance were The President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Vice President, Mr. Bundy, Mr. Murrow, Dr. Seaborg, Dr. Hayworth, Mr. Foster, McCone and a number of others.
Secretary Nitze and Commissioner Hayworth reviewed four papers prepared jointly over the weekend by Defense and AEC on the gains to be made from continued testing, the dangers from extensive weapon development by the Soviets through clandestine testing and steps required to maintain a state of readiness for further testing should a treaty be suddenly abrogated. Also a paper on the proliferation of weapons. Copies of these 4 papers were made available to me and are on file. The sense of this discussion was that if the Soviets cheated under a threshold of a treaty for a period of 5 years, they would have made some progress. In the opinion of Dr. Hayworth it would not have been progress that would have been so vital that it would have affected the balance of nuclear power; furthermore we could undoubtedly catch up in a year or two if we maintained some vitality in our laboratories. No one expressed grave concern over the danger of cheating if reasonable verification procedures were made a part of the treaty.
Mr. Foster then raised the question of negotiation procedures through this meeting and the following meetings and there was considerable difference of opinion as to whether we should table a comprehensive treaty, whether we should indicate a revised pattern of control stations at this time, whether we should indicate a reduced number of on-site inspections or alternatively whether we should first proceed to propose a comprehensive atmospheric treaty with no inspection.
Ambassador Dean favored the former; Secretary Rusk the latter. During these long exchanges considerable information was [Facsimile Page 2] developed on just what the new seismic technology had revealed with respect to the number of natural events in the Soviet Union, the capabilities of [Typeset Page 374] a detection system of 20 stations and the attitude of the neutrals at Geneva.
The meeting was adjourned until the following day.
- Readout of NSC meeting on Geneva test suspension negotiation procedures. Secret. 2 pp. CIA Files, Job 80B01258A, Meetings with President, 7/1/62–12/31/61.↩