117. Minutes of a Verification Panel Meeting1
Washington, December 8, 1970, 3:05–4:05 p.m.
SUBJECT
- SALT
PARTICIPATION
- Chairman—Henry A. Kissinger
- State
- John Irwin
- Thomas Pickering
- Frank Perez
- Seymour Weiss
- Defense
- David Packard
- Gardiner I. Tucker
-
CIA
- Richard Helms
- Carl Duckett
-
JCS
- Adm. Thomas Moorer
- Col. Paul Von Ins
-
ACDA
- Philip J. Farley
- Spurgeon Keeny
- Justice
- Attorney General Mitchell
-
OST
- Dr. Edward David
- Ambassador Llewellyn Thompson
-
NSC Staff
- Dr. K. Wayne Smith
- Helmut Sonnenfeldt
- Col. Jack Merritt
- James Woolsey
- William Hyland
- Jeanne W. Davis
SUMMARY OF DECISIONS
It was agreed that:
- … the Working Group would try to find a new term to replace “non-limited nuclear systems;”2
- … the Delegation’s recommendation for a substantive position on non-limited nuclear systems should be rejected;
- … the Working Group should prepare various formulations for rejection of the Soviet proposal on non-limited systems, for consideration by the SRG and presentation to the President;
- … to propose at Helsinki a joint study looking toward improvement of the Hot Line;3
- … the Working Group will prepare various positions to respond to the Soviet NCA ABM proposal.
[Omitted here are the minutes of the meeting.]
- Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, NSC Institutional (H-Files), Box H–107, Verification Panel Minutes Originals 1969–3/8/72. Top Secret. The meeting was held in the White House Situation Room.↩
- The term refers to what the administration previously called forward-based systems (FBS). According to the meeting minutes, Kissinger asked: “Can we all agree to use ‘non-limited nuclear systems’ rather than forward based systems?’” He then explained his reasoning: “Of course, if we accept a limitation on a non-limited system, it is immediately removed from the non-limited category—we have a major epistemological problem.”↩
- According to the meeting minutes, Kissinger made the following suggestion: “A new dedicated satellite would be the best and most secure, but use of a commercial satellite would reduce the vulnerability of the system and the delivery time. If we could agree on a specific proposal it might be a concrete outcome of the Helsinki talks. But we have to agree on what system to propose.”↩