Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E–2, Documents on Arms Control and Nonproliferation, 1969–1972

76. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon¹ ²

Washington, March 17, 1969

SUBJECT:

• Instructions for Ambassador Gerard Smith for the ENDC

Attached for your approval is the cable of formal instructions to Ambassador Smith for the ENDC which resumes its sessions tomorrow, Tuesday, March 18, in Geneva. This would supplement your letter of general instructions (copy attached) to Ambassador Smith that will be released simultaneously tomorrow in Geneva and Washington.

I am submitting this for your personal review since it authorizes Ambassador Smith to propose a change in the verification procedures connected with our proposal for the Cutoff of Production of Fissionable Material for Weapons. Although this change, which had been agreed to by the NSC Review Group, has now been cleared with all agencies, including the AEC and JCS, it does go beyond the decision that emerged from the NSC meeting and is incorporated in your attached letter to the effect that we simply repeat our previous Cutoff proposal.

Specifically, the cable authorizes Ambassador Smith to propose that we rely solely on IAEA inspection of declared fissionable-material-production facilities and would drop our previous requirement for on-site inspection for undeclared clandestine facilities. This would parallel the verification procedures required of non-nuclear weapon states under the NPT. Given our level of intelligence on the Soviet atomic energy program and the quantity of material involved in significant cheating, there is agreement that the IAEA system supplemented by our unilateral intelligence can adequately monitor such an agreement. By reducing the on-site inspection requirement, our proposal would appear to be much more forthcoming and would counter a central Soviet objection. There is still no reason, however, to believe that the Soviets would accept this proposal, at this time.

I recommend that you approve the attached cable instructions.

Approve [Nixon initialed]
Disapprove
Other

1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 319, Subject Files, Eighteen-Nation Disarmament Conference (ENDC). Confidential. Sent for action. Nixon initialed “Approve.” Attached are Documents 75 and 77.
2. Kissinger discussed Director of U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency Smith’s formal instructions for the ENDC. He attached a cable with a proposed change to the U.S. position on the fissionable material cutoff for Nixon’s approval.