Office of the Historian

69. Editorial Note

Following the U.S. announcement of the venting of radioactive debris into the atmosphere from the Soviet test of January 15, 1965 (Document 62), and the Soviet Government’s oral reply, January 25, denying any violation of the Limited Test Ban Treaty (Document 66), the Committee of Principals grappled with this issue at its meetings on January 25 and February 3. At the former meeting the Principals decided to issue a Department of State press release that summarized the Soviet’s oral reply and stated, “The United States is continuing its own evaluation of the facts involved.” (Department of State Bulletin, February 8, 1965, page 187) McGeorge Bundy’s handwritten edited version of the draft press announcement, January 25, which had been prepared by Seaborg, is in Johnson Library, National Security File, Subject File, Nuclear Testing—USSR, Volume I, Box 31. Notes of the January 25 meeting are in Seaborg, Journal, Volume 10, page 103. A summary of actions of this meeting is in Johnson Library, National Security File, Disarmament, Committee of Principals, Volume 2, Box 14. Foster also prepared a draft oral statement [Page 189] from Rusk to Dobrynin, January 25, for the January 25 meeting and he circulated a revised version of it under cover of a memorandum from him to Secretaries Rusk and McNamara, General Wheeler, Seaborg, Hornig, McGeorge Bundy, and McCone, January 26. (Department of State, S/S Files: Lot 70 D 217)

At its February 3 meeting, the Principals further considered the matter in light of intelligence data gathered about the Soviet test and wrote a draft aide-mémoire, February 3. (Ibid., S/S-RD Files: Lot 68 D 452, Committee of Principals, January-May 1965) Seaborg’s notes of this meeting are in Seaborg, Journal, Volume 10, page 133. A later revised version of the aide-mémoire, February 8, is in Department of State, S/AL Files: Lot 67 D 2.

Regarding the decision to present the aide-mémoire to the Soviet Union and the final draft text, which contained a few revisions of the February 8 draft, see Document 70.