Office of the Historian

57. Memorandum by the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy)0

Washington, August 29, 1961.

MEMORANDUM FOR

  • The Secretary of State
  • The Secretary of Defense
  • The Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission
  • The Director of Central Intelligence
  • The Adviser to the President on Disarmament
  • The Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology

At his meeting on August 17, 1961 with the Committee of Principals on disarmament matters,1 the President:

1.
Noted that the omission of any language linking Stage 1 measures on strategic delivery vehicles or fissionable materials with measures on conventional arms and force reductions in the proposed US disarmament program was without prejudice to the merits of this issue. If the US actually became engaged in serious negotiations about such measures, the question of linking them would be examined at that time.
2.
Approved the new proposals for Ambassador Dean to present in the Test Ban Conference at Geneva, with the amendment that instead of proposing total elimination of any threshold, the US would propose putting this threshold as low as scientifically possible. However, the US delegation could point out that the US would in practice be willing to reduce the threshold as far as Soviet acceptance of controls would permit. Thus, if there were sufficient controls the treaty threshold could in effect be removed for all practical purposes.
3.

Directed that the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs, in consultation with the Departments of State and Defense and the AEC, recommend the appropriate time for the AEC to make an announcement about the resumption of contingent preparations for nuclear testing and for the President to issue a statement that this did not mean we were resuming tests at any given time. The above group should also consider whether there should be any announcement at the time of actual resumption of tests.

The President later indicated his belief that it would probably not be appropriate to have public announcement on these matters before the UN General Assembly.

McGeorge Bundy2
  1. Source: Washington National Records Center, RG 383, ACDA/DD Files: Lot 77 A 17, McGeorge Bundy. Secret.↩
  2. See Document 56.↩
  3. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩