Office of the Historian

Abbreviations and Terms

    • ABM, anti-ballistic missile
    • ACDA, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
    • AD, Anatoly Dobrynin
    • AFL–CIO, American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations
    • ALCM, air-launched cruise missile
    • Alpha, handling restriction
    • AMH, Alexander M. Haig
    • ARA, Bureau of Inter-American Affairs, Department of State
    • ARA/CCA, Office of the Coordinator of Cuban Affairs, Bureau of Inter-American Affairs, Department of State
    • ASAP, as soon as possible
    • ASEAN, Association of Southeast Asian Nations
    • AWACS, Airborne Warning and Control System
    • BW, biological weapons
    • BWC, Biological Weapons Convention
    • C, Carter; Office of the Counselor of the Department of State; Confidential
    • C3I, command, control, communications, intelligence
    • CAT, conventional arms transfers
    • CBMs, confidence-building measures
    • CCC, Commodity Credit Corporation
    • CCD, Conference of the Committee on Disarmament
    • CD, Committee on Disarmament (U.N.)
    • CDE, Conference on Disarmament in Europe
    • CEA, Council of Economic Advisers
    • CEMA, Council for Mutual Economic Assistance
    • CG, Contact Group
    • CIA, Central Intelligence Agency
    • COCOM, Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls
    • COMEX, Commodity Exchange, Inc.
    • COS, Chief of Staff; Chief of Station
    • CPSU, Communist Party of the Soviet Union
    • CSCE, Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe
    • CTB, Comprehensive Test Ban
    • CV, Cyrus Vance
    • CW, chemical weapons
    • CWW, Caspar W. Weinberger
    • D, Office of the Deputy Secretary of State
    • DA, David Aaron
    • DAS, Deputy Assistant Secretary
    • DCI, Director of Central Intelligence
    • DCM, Deputy Chief of Mission
    • DIA, Defense Intelligence Agency
    • DOD, Department of Defense
    • DOE, Department of Energy
    • DRA, Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
    • EA, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Department of State
    • EDT, Eastern Daylight Time.
    • EC 10, the 10 nations of the European Community as of 1983
    • EEC, European Economic Community
    • EM, Edmund Muskie
    • EmbOff, Embassy officer
    • EPA, Environmental Protection Agency
    • ERW, enhanced radiation weapon
    • EUR, Bureau of European Affairs, Department of State
    • EUR/SOV, Office of Soviet Union Affairs, Bureau of European Affairs, Department of State
    • Exdis, Exclusive Distribution
    • FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation
    • FonOff, Foreign Office
    • FRG, Federal Republic of Germany
    • FYI, for your information
    • G–7, Group of Seven industrialized nations: Canada, Federal Republic of Germany, France, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, United States
    • GDR, German Democratic Republic
    • GE, General Electric Company
    • GLCM, ground-launched cruise missile
    • GNP, Gross National Product
    • Gosbank, State Bank of the USSR
    • GRU, Soviet foreign military intelligence directorate
    • GS, George Shultz
    • HHS, Department of Health and Human Services
    • HUD, Department of Housing and Urban Development
    • IA, Interim Agreement
    • IAEA, International Atomic Energy Agency
    • ICA, International Communication Agency
    • ICCUSA, Interagency Coordinating Committee on U.S.-Soviet Affairs
    • ICBM, intercontinental ballistic missile
    • IG, Inspector General
    • INR, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Department of State
    • INR/AA, Office of Analysis for Africa, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Department of State
    • INR/CA, Office of Consular Affairs, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Department of State
    • INR/PMA, Office of Politico-Military Analysis, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Department of State
    • INR/SEE, Office of Analysis for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Department of State
    • IO, Bureau of International Organization Affairs, Department of State
    • JCS, Joint Chiefs of Staff
    • KGB, Soviet Committee for State Security
    • KOR, Komitet Obrony Robotnikow (Workers Defense Committee) (Poland)
    • LDX, Long Distance Xerography
    • L/PM, Politico-Military Affairs, Office of the Legal Adviser, Department of State
    • LRTNF, Long-Range Theater Nuclear Forces
    • LTA, Long-Term Agreement
    • MBFR, Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions
    • MDS, Marshall D. Shulman
    • memcon, memorandum of conversation
    • MFA, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
    • MHD, magnetohydrodynamics
    • MIRV, multiple independently-targeted re-entry vehicle
    • MOLINK, Moscow Link (Moscow-Washington Direct Communication Link or Hot Line)
    • MPLA, Movimento Popular para a Libertação de Angola (People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola)
    • NAC, North Atlantic Council
    • NAS, National Academy of Sciences
    • NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization
    • NEA, Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs, Department of State
    • NF, No Foreign Dissemination
    • Niact, Night Action
    • Nocontract, Not Releasable to Contractors
    • Nodis, No Distribution
    • Noforn, Not Releasable to Foreign Nationals
    • NOAA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
    • NPT, Non-Proliferation Treaty
    • NSA, National Security Agency
    • NSC, National Security Council
    • NSDD, National Security Decision Directive
    • NSF, National Science Foundation
    • NSPG, National Security Planning Group
    • NSS, National Security Strategy
    • NSSD, National Security Study Directive
    • NTM, National Technical Means
    • NYT, New York Times
    • OAS, Organization of American States
    • OAU, Organization of African Unity
    • OECD, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
    • OMB, Office of Management and Budget
    • OPD, Office of Policy Development
    • OPEC, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
    • Orcon, Originator Controlled (handling restriction)
    • OSTP, Office of Science and Technology Policy
    • P, Office of the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs
    • Pak, Pakistan
    • PBS, Public Broadcasting System
    • PDRY, People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen
    • PermRep, Permanent Representative
    • PL–480, Public Law 480, also known as Food for Peace
    • PLO, Palestine Liberation Organization
    • PM, Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs, Department of State
    • PNE, peaceful nuclear explosion
    • PNET, Peace Nuclear Explosion Treaty
    • PolCouns, Political Counselor
    • PRC, People’s Republic of China; Policy Review Committee
    • PRM, Presidential Review Memorandum
    • PZPR, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza (Polish United Workers Party)
    • R&D, research and development
    • RCM, Robert C. McFarlane
    • reftel, reference telegram
    • RFE/RL, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
    • Roger Channel, channel for communications between the Director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) and the Chief of Mission
    • rpt, repeat
    • RR, Ronald Reagan
    • RV, re-entry vehicle
    • S, Office of the Secretary of State; Secret
    • SAG, Saudi Arabian Government
    • SALT, Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
    • SAWG, Special Actions Working Group
    • SC, Security Council
    • SCC, U.S.-Soviet Standing Consultative Commission
    • SCG, Special Consultative Group (NATO)
    • SecDef, Secretary of Defense
    • septel, separate telegram
    • SFRC, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
    • SHAPE, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers, Europe
    • SIG, Senior Interdepartmental Group
    • SLCM, surface-launched cruise missile; submarine-launched cruise missile; sea-launched cruise missile
    • S/MS, Office of the Secretary of State, Marshall Shulman
    • SNIE, Special National Intelligence Estimate
    • S/P, Policy Planning Staff, Department of State
    • Specat, Special Category message
    • S/S, Executive Secretariat, Department of State
    • SSG, Special Situations Group
    • S/S–I, Information Management Section, Executive Secretariat, Department of State
    • S/S–O, Duty Officer, Operations Center, Department of State
    • SSOD, Special Session on Disarmament (U.N.)
    • Stadis, State Department distribution only
    • START, Strategic Arms Reductions Talks
    • SU, Soviet Union
    • SWAPO, South West Africa People’s Organization
    • TASS, official Soviet news agency
    • TNF, Theater Nuclear Forces
    • Todep, telegram indicator for telegrams to the Deputy Secretary of State
    • Tosec, telegram indicator for telegrams to the Secretary of State
    • TTBT, Threshold Test Ban Treaty
    • TV, television
    • UK, United Kingdom
    • UN, United Nations
    • UNGA, United Nations General Assembly
    • UNITA, União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola)
    • UNSYG, UN Secretary General
    • USA, United States Army
    • USAF, United States Air Force
    • USDA, United States Department of Agriculture
    • USG, United States Government
    • USN, United States Navy
    • USNATO, United States Mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
    • USSR, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
    • USTR, United States Trade Representative
    • USUN, United States Mission to the United Nations
    • VOA, Voice of America
    • WH, White House
    • WHCA, White House Communications Agency
    • Wnintel, Warning Notice: Intelligence Sources and Methods Involved (handling restriction)
    • WPC, William P. Clark; World Peace Conference
    • Z, Zulu Time (Greenwich Mean Time)