Office of the Historian

279. National Security Decision Memorandum 1671

Washington, May 17, 1972.

TO

  • The Secretary of State
  • The Secretary of Defense
  • The Director, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
  • The Director, Central Intelligence

SUBJECT

  • Additional Instructions for the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks at Helsinki (SALT VII)

The President has made the following additional decisions for Helsinki (SALT VII):

1.
The Delegation should continue to press as long as possible for the U.S. position on OLPARs. However, if the Soviets continue their insistence on an OLPAR ceiling of about 10 million watt-meters squared or greater, the Delegation should withdraw the U.S. proposal for an agreed interpretive statement limiting OLPARs of potential greater than the MSR. At the same time, the Chairman of the Delegation should [Page 821] make a formal statement that the U.S. would view with serious concern future deployments of OLPARs with a potential greater than the MSR, except for purposes of space-tracking or national technical means.
2.
The Delegation should continue to press as long as possible for the inclusion of mobile ICBMs in the Interim Agreement. However, if the Soviets continue to resist this, the Delegation should withdraw the U.S. proposal on mobile ICBMs. At the same time, the Chairman of the Delegation should make a formal statement along the following lines: The U.S. agrees to defer the question of specific limitation of mobile ICBM launchers to the subsequent negotiations on more complete offensive limitations, but would consider the deployment of operational mobile ICBM launchers during the period of the interim agreement as inconsistent with the objectives of that agreement and as jeopardizing its continued validity.
3.
The steps in paragraphs 1 and 2 should be taken near the close of the Helsinki session. The Chairman of the Delegation should, at his discretion, decide on the exact timing.
4.
Assuming continued Soviet rejection of the U.S. proposal to include in the Interim Agreement the provision regarding covered facilities for submarines, the Delegation should withdraw the proposal. At the same time, the Chairman of the Delegation should, unless he believes that this would seriously hamper the negotiations, make a formal statement along the lines of our present proposal.
5.
The timing of the steps in paragraph 4 are at the discretion of the Chairman of the Delegation.
6.
As recommended by the Delegation, paragraph 17 of NSDM 1582 is hereby rescinded.

Henry A. Kissinger
  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 364, Subject Files, National Security Decision Memoranda, NSDMs. 145–264. Top Secret; Nodis; SALT.↩
  2. Document 243.↩