Office of the Historian

43. Memorandum of Conversation1 2

Washington, December 30, 1969, 11 a.m.

SUBJECT:

  • NPT—Simultaneous Deposit

PARTICIPANTS:

  • Soviet Ambassador Anatoliy F. Dobrynin
  • Acting Secretary Richardson
  • Mr. James F. Leonard; ACDA
  • Mr. Lewis W. Bowden, EUR/SOV

Dobrynin said he had come to report on the results of the Soviet diplomatic canvass of countries that have yet to ratify the NPT. Out of some 30 governments contacted most had responded favorably, but many could not give specific dates when they might deposit their instruments of ratification. He asked what the results of our canvass had been.

The Acting Secretary said he believed that we could go ahead with our planned simultaneous deposit, our contacts having turned up 24 countries that felt they could deposit their instruments by mid-January. That [Page 2] actually gave us six more than needed. We would like some of these countries to act at the same time as we and the Soviets deposit and believe that all parties concerned should have four weeks notice of the specific date we agree on.

Mr. Richardson said that the first week in February 1970 was best for the Secretary and that he would check with the White House to see whether that was an agreeable period.

Dobrynin commented that if 24 countries could deposit by mid-January then the treaty would be ready to go into force. Mr. Richardson rapidly read to Dobrynin the list of 24 countries. This list was typewritten and handed to Dobrynin at the end of the meeting. The Acting Secretary pointed out that 13 other countries thought they probably could act by mid-January and, therefore, our chances of getting the needed 18 out of a total of 37 possibilities seem very good.

Dobrynin said the first week in February sounded all right to him but he would check with Moscow and would expect word from us if that week posed any problems for the White House. It was agreed that we would get in touch with each other during the week of January 5 to 9 to fix a date early in February if no great obstacles arose to that period.

[Omitted here is discussion unrelated to NPT.]

  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 711, Country Files, Europe, USSR Vol. VI. Confidential. Drafted by Bowden (EUR/SOV); concurred in by Leonard (ACDA); and approved on December 31 by Abramowitz. The meeting was held in Richardson’s office. The memorandum of conversation is Part I of V.↩
  2. Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin and Under Secretary of State Richardson discussed efforts to persuade enough countries to ratify the NPT to allow the treaty to come into force. By December, twenty four nations had indicated their intention to deposit their ratification by January, 1970. Should this occur, the two men tentatively agreed to hold a joint U.S.-Soviet ceremony for the deposit of instruments of ratification in early February.↩