Arms Control and Disarmament


181. Letter From the Permanent Representative to the United Nations (Stevenson) to President Kennedy

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 700.5611/5-1062. Secret. Attached to the source text is a May 11 note from Stevenson to Secretary Rusk, indicating that the enclosed is “a copy of a letter I delivered to the President today.”


182. Memorandum of Meeting

Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Kaysen Series, Disarmament, Current, 5/62-8/62. Secret. Drafted by Kaysen. In a May 14 note to Bundy, attached to another copy of the memorandum, Kaysen wrote: “As you can see from the attached, Dean did nearly all the talking. I don’t know whether the record makes clear the only impression I got from the thing: Dean’s confidence that he is doing a great job is unlimited. The President was not very much interested and had relatively little to say. He expressed no opinion on any of the specific questions that Dean raised. (p. 2) Foster’s purpose, I think, was to get Presidential support to deny all these requests. At the moment none of them is pressing although I think we will require some give in our position on the first three in order to continue the discussions.” (Ibid., Departments and Agencies Series, ACDA, Disarmament, 18-Nation Conference, Geneva, 5-6/62)


183. National Intelligence Estimate

[Source: Department of State, S/S-RD Files: Lot 71 D 171, May-June 1962. Top Secret; Restricted Data. Extract—6 pages of source text and the document number not declassified.]


184. Telegram From the Delegation to the Eighteen-Nation Disarmament Committee to the Department of State

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 700.5611/5-1662. Confidential.


185. Memorandum From the Joint Chiefs of Staff to Secretary of Defense McNamara

Source: Washington National Records Center, RG 330, OASD/ISA Files: FRC 65 A 3501, Gen. 388.3, Jan-July 62. Top Secret.


186. Letter From President Kennedy to the Permanent Representative to the United Nations (Stevenson)

Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Departments and Agencies Series, ACDA, Disarmament, 18-Nation Conference, Geneva, 5-6/62. Secret. Regarding the drafting of this letter, see Document 182. A draft of this letter was prepared in ACDA, concurred in by Harlan Cleveland and Ambassador Dean, and transmitted under cover of a May 15 memorandum from Foster to Secretary Rusk for the Secretary’s approval. The Secretary’s initials indicating his approval appear on the memorandum. Also attached to this draft is a May 21 memorandum from William H. Brubeck (S/S) to McGeorge Bundy, indicating that the draft response, “which has the approval of the Secretary, Mr. Foster, and Mr. Cleveland, may be of use to the President in responding to the Ambassador.” (Department of State, Central Files, 600.0012/5-2462) The first, fourth, and fifth paragraphs of the text printed here are identical to the draft, but some minor differences appear in the second and third paragraphs. In a letter to Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., May 15, in which he enclosed a copy of Stevenson’s May 10 letter, Kaysen wrote that he would probably answer the letter. (Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Kaysen Series, Disarmament, Current, 5/62-8/62) No further documentation on the White House role in preparing this reply has been found.


187. Memorandum of Conversation

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 611.6112/5-3062. Secret. Drafted by Hillenbrand and approved in S on May 31. The meeting was held in the Secretary’s office.


188. Memorandum of Conversation

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 600.0012/5-3162. Secret. Drafted by Gathright and approved in S on June 8.


189. Memorandum for the Record

Source: Central Intelligence Agency, Meetings with President, 12/1/61-6/30/62. Secret; Eyes Only. Drafted by McCone on June 26.


190. Memorandum of Conversation

Source: Department of State, Secretary’s Memoranda of Conversation: Lot 65 D 330. Secret; Limit Distribution. Drafted by Kohler and approved in S on June 28. The meeting was held at Carleton Gardens. The Secretary was in London during a visit to several European capitals June 18-28.


191. Memorandum of Conversation

Source: Department of State, Secretary’s Memoranda of Conversation: Lot 65 D 330. Secret. Drafted by Bohlen and approved in S on July 3. The meeting was held after lunch in the British Foreign Ministry.


193. Memorandum of Conversation

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 700.5611/7-662. Confidential. Drafted by Marie deGunzburg (ACDA/IR). The meetings were held at the British Embassy.


194. Memorandum of Conversation

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 600.0012/7-1262. Secret; Limit Distribution. Drafted by Hillenbrand and approved in S on July 13. The meeting was held in the Secretary’s office.


196. Memorandum From the President’s Deputy Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kaysen) to President Kennedy

Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Subjects Series, Nuclear Weapons, Testing, 4/5-7/30/62. Secret. Copies were sent to Bundy and Wiesner.


197. Memorandum of Conversation

Source: Department of State, Secretary’s Memoranda of Conversation: Lot 65 D 330. Secret. Drafted by Kohler. The meeting was held during luncheon at the British Mission. Secretary Rusk was in Geneva July 19 for sessions of the Eighteen-Nation Disarmament Committee, which reconvened on July 16, and for the signing of the Laos Accords on July 23.


198. Memorandum of Conversation

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 110.11-RU/7-2462. Secret. Drafted by Hillenbrand and Akalovsky on July 26. The meeting was held at the Soviet Mission.


199. Memorandum of Conversation

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 110.11-RU/7-2562. Secret; Limited Distribution. Drafted by Kohler and approved in S on July 31. The meeting was held at the Soviet Mission.


201. Memorandum of Conversation

Source: Department of State, Secretary’s Memoranda of Conversation: Lot 65 D 330. Secret. Drafted by Gathright and approved in S on August 16. McCone also wrote a memorandum for the record of this meeting, July 26. (Central Intelligence Agency, DCI Memos for Record 4/7/62-8/21/62) See the Supplement.


202. Memorandum From the Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (Foster) to President Kennedy

Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Departments and Agencies Series, ACDA, Disarmament, General, 7/27/62. Confidential. Attached to the source text is a note from McGeorge Bundy to the President that reads: “Here is a basic paper for tomorrow’s testing-disarmament meeting—set for 10:15 AM. It puts the main issues clearly. The positions relating to the general disarmament treaty are easy—and unanimously agreed. The testing scenario is the hard one. My belief is that you will want to listen hard, and not decide, tomorrow morning.”


203. Memorandum of Meeting With President Kennedy

Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Departments and Agencies Series, ACDA, Disarmament, General, 7/27/62. Top Secret. No drafting information appears on the source text. A list of the 19 participants at the meeting is in the President’s Appointment Book. (Ibid.) McCone also prepared a summary memorandum of this NSC meeting. (Central Intelligence Agency, DCI, ER Subject Files, NSC, 7/1/62-7/31/62) See the Supplement.


204. Memorandum From Secretary of Defense McNamara to President Kennedy

Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Kaysen Series, Nuclear Testing, Vol. II, 7/62-2/63. Secret. In a July 28 note to McNamara, attached to a carbon copy of this memorandum, Harold Brown wrote that Adam Yarmolinsky, Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense, and Jack Ruina, Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency, Defense Research and Engineering, had drafted the memorandum on the previous day and, regarding the final paragraph, Solis Horwitz, DOD’s Director of Office of Organizational and Management Planning, “concurs in the proposed assignment of responsibility. So do I, though somewhat reluctantly.” (Washington National Records Center, RG 330, OSD Files: FRC 66 A 3542, Atomic 000.01-400.112, 1962)


205. Memorandum From the Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (Foster) to President Kennedy

Source: Department of State, S/P Files: Lot 69 D 121, Atomic Energy—Armaments 62. Confidential. Copies were distributed to the Principals under cover of a July 30 memorandum from Foster, which is attached to the source text.


206. Memorandum of Meeting With President Kennedy

Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Departments and Agencies Series, ACDA, Disarmament, General, 7/29-31/62. Top Secret. No drafting information appears on the source text. McCone summarized this meeting in a memorandum for the files, August 2. (Central Intelligence Agency, Meetings with President, 7/1/62-12/31/62) See the Supplement. A July 30 memorandum from McGeorge Bundy to the President, which sets forth the agenda for this meeting, indicates that Foster’s memorandum (Document 205) and two memoranda each from McNamara and Haworth, submitted in response to “certain questions on which you asked for reports over the week end,” were attached to his memorandum. (Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Departments and Agencies Series, ACDA, Disarmament, General, 7/29-31/62) None, however, is attached. An “index” identifies the subjects of these memoranda as follows: The US-USSR Military Balance With and Without a Test Ban, The Diffusion of Nuclear Weapons With and Without a Test Ban Agreement, Maintaining Readiness to Test During a Test Ban, and Relative Technical and Military Advantages of Testing or Non-testing Under Various Testing Constraints. (Ibid.) Undated drafts of the former two are ibid. Haworth’s two memoranda have not been found.


207. Report of the Inspection Study Group

Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Kaysen Series, Inspection Study Group. Secret. The typescript report is 12 pages, plus 4 pages of front matter and 7 appendices, totaling 98 pages. Regarding the interagency Inspection Study Group (also known as the Foster Panel), see footnote 3, Document 140. In an August 31 letter to McGeorge Bundy, Foster enclosed copies of the report “for yourself and for the President if you find, as I hope you will, that it is worthy of his attention.” He called the report “the most thorough investigation of inspection and verification, and of the relations of intelligence to arms control inspection, that has so far been made,” though he emphasized that it was “but a beginning, and that its preliminary estimate of the scope of inspection that might be required for comprehensive arms control on a zonal basis, for example, is only illustrative.” (Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Departments and Agencies Series, ACDA, Disarmament, General, 7/62-6/63)


208. Memorandum of Meeting With President Kennedy

Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Departments and Agencies Series, ACDA, Disarmament, General, 8/1/62-8/23/62. Top Secret. No drafting information appears on the source text.


209. Memorandum for the File

Source: Central Intelligence Agency, Meetings with President, 7/1/62-12/31/62. Secret; Eyes Only. Drafted by McCone.


210. Telegram From the Delegation to the Eighteen-Nation Disarmament Committee to the Department of State

Source: Department of State, Central Files, 700.5611/8-362. Secret; Niact; Limit Distribution.