207. Editorial Note
On September 15, 1987, Secretary of State George Shultz hosted Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze in his private office at the Department of State. In their first private conversation, which lasted from 8 to 10:40 a.m., Shultz and Shevardnadze discussed arms control, bilateral and regional affairs, and human rights. Shevardnadze indicated that “the Soviet side was prepared for a separate START agreement.” Shultz replied that the two sides “should ‘do it.’” Later on in the conversation, Shevardnadze expressed frustration at the slow pace of progress in the Nuclear and Space Talks in Geneva, and handed Shultz a letter from Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to President Ronald Reagan, dated September 10, calling for the accelerated completion of a draft agreed text on strategic offensive arms. Shultz “agreed that the two Ministers should give some political push to their negotiators and ‘up front’ the arms control group.” After a discussion of the logistics of the plenary session that afternoon, Shultz and Shevardnadze stood for photographs with their respective delegations, and departed to the White House to meet President Reagan. (Memorandum of Conversation, September 15; [Department of State, Executive Secretariat, S/S-IRM Records, Memoranda of Conversations Pertaining to United States and USSR Relations, 1981–1990, Lot 93D188, Shultz-Shevardnadze—Wash—9/87]; Letter From Gorbachev to Reagan, September 10; [Reagan Library, Ermarth Files, Meetings File, President’s Meeting With Soviet Foreign Minister Shevardnadze September 1987]) The memorandum of conversation and Gorbachev’s letter are in Foreign Relations, 1981–1988, vol. VI, Soviet Union, October 1986–January 1989, Documents 66 and 64.
At 12:00 noon, Shultz escorted Shevardnadze, along with Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksander Bessmertnykh and Soviet Ambassador Yuri Dubinin, into the Oval Office to meet President Ronald Reagan. After an exchange of pleasantries and a brief question from the press corps, Reagan led Shultz and the Soviet delegation into the Rose Garden for the signing of an agreement establishing Nuclear Risk Reduction Centers. Following the ceremony, the delegations returned to the White House and entered the Cabinet Room. At approximately 12:30 p.m., Reagan commenced the first plenary session of Shevardnadze’s visit. Present at this sessions were President Reagan, Vice President George H.W. Bush, Secretary of State Shultz, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, Chief of Staff Howard Baker, Deputy Chief of Staff Kenneth Duberstein, President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs Frank Carlucci, Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater, Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency Kenneth Adelman, Special Advisor to the President and Secretary of State on Arms Control [Page 902] Matters Paul Nitze, Counselor to the Department of State Max Kampelman, Special Advisor to the President and Secretary of State Edward Rowny, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs Rozanne Ridgway, Ambassador Jack Matlock, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Simons, Robert Linhard and Fritz Ermarth of the National Security Council Staff, Interpreter Dimitry Zarechnak, as well as Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksander Bessmertnykh, Ambassador Yuri Dubinin, Head of Information Department Gennadi Gerasimov, Ambassador Victor Karpov, Special Assistant to the Foreign Minister Teymuraz Stepanov, Head of the General Secretariat Sergei Tarasenko, and Interpreter Pavel Palazhchenko. After remarks covering bilateral and regional affairs and human rights, Reagan turned to arms control. “The START agreement,” he said, “should be our top arms reduction target. Since Reykjavik, there have been some useful procedural steps, such as exchanging draft treaty texts, but on substance, we are about where we were a year ago.” The President encouraged Shevardnadze and Shultz to “take a fresh look at the issues and see what can be done to solve them.” After some brief exchanges on outstanding disagreements between the two countries, President Reagan led the delegations to a luncheon in the East Wing that lasted until 2:00 p.m. (Memorandum of Conversation, September 15; [Department of State, Executive Secretariat, S/S-IRM Records, Memoranda of Conversations Pertaining to United States and USSR Relations, 1981–1990, Lot 93D188, Shultz-Shevardnadze—Wash—9/87] The memorandum of conversation of Shevardnadze’s White House visit is printed in Foreign Relations, 1981–1988, vol. VI, Soviet Union, October 1986–January 1989, Document 67.
From 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., Shultz hosted Shevardnadze and other U.S. and Soviet officials in a plenary session in the Madison Room at the Department of State. After a discussion of arms control topics including the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, Shultz summarized “the U.S. view of where things stood: We agreed on 6000 warheads and 1600 delivery systems; We agreed on a bomber counting rule; We agreed on 154 heavy ICBM’s, and the U.S. side had said this should be expressed in warheads, assuming ten per delivery system; The Soviet side had said that the effect of agreed reductions would be to reduce Soviet throw-weight by 50%, and we thought this should be translated somehow into the agreement.” Shultz went on to describe the difficulties of verifying submarine-launched cruise missiles (SLCMs) and land-based mobile missiles. (Memorandum of Conversation, September 15; [Department of State, Executive Secretariat, S/S-IRM Records, Memoranda of Conversations Pertaining to United States and USSR Relations, 1981–1990, Lot 93D188, Shultz-Shevardnadze—Wash—9/87]) The memorandum of conversation of Shultz and Shevardnadze’s afternoon [Page 903] plenary session is printed in Foreign Relations, 1981–1988, vol. VI, Soviet Union, October 1986–January 1989, Document 68.