Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XI, Arms Control and Disarmament

246. Memorandum From the Under Secretary of State (Katzenbach) to the Deputy Secretary of Defense (Nitze)¹

Washington, June 18, 1968.

SUBJECT

• Arms Control and the Ocean Floor

At Tab 1 is a revised recommended US position on arms control for the ocean floor. You will note that we have added “and should be subject to the appropriate means of verification” to the end of the last sentence. My people tell me that we can live with this addition. Since it meets your basic objection, I hope that DOD can now join State in recommending its acceptance by the President.²

Frankly, the basic issue we must face is how we avoid a bloody nose in handling the Soviet initiative in New York. While I recognize that there is merit in DOD’s position, I doubt that it is wise from a public relations point of view. Our failure to advance any proposal will clearly not inhibit other UN delegations from making proposals. Ambassador Malik in New York has informed our delegation that the USSR will press for a complete demilitarization of the ocean floor when he makes the Soviet speech later this week. If we have no affirmative and reasonable proposal of our own to put forward, we run the risk of being isolated by the Soviet tactic. In addition, we run the risk that the UN Ad Hoc Committee may adopt the Soviet proposal or something like it. I think you will agree that the latter result would be far less acceptable from your point of view than what we have here suggested. By putting forward a sound proposal of our own, we at least have some chance of directing the debate along lines that would produce an outcome we could live with.

Since this is likely to be a luncheon topic tomorrow, I would appreciate your urgent consideration of the above.

Nicholas deB. Katzenbach

Tab 1³

ARMS CONTROL AND THE OCEAN FLOOR

“The United States is prepared to enter into serious discussions at an international forum such as the Eighteen-Nation Disarmament Conference [Committee] in order to achieve an appropriate international agreement pursuant to which each party would agree not to emplace or fix nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction on, within, beneath or to the seabed beyond a narrow band along its coast and up to the coast of any other State. The width of this narrow band would be determined by negotiation. The prohibition on emplacement or fixing should be aimed not only at the weapons themselves but also at launching platforms or delivery systems for such weapons, and should be subject to appropriate means of verification.”

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, DEF 18-6. Secret.
2. For the position taken by the Department of Defense, see Document 244.
3. Secret.