42. Letter From President Reagan to the Chairman of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (Armstrong)1
Let me thank you once again for the Board’s outstanding work on your recent recommendations to me2 on START/verification. I know the long hours that the Board has spent on this, especially your efforts and those of Johnny Foster’s and his Task Force and consultants. Your letter was extremely helpful to me, and I am moving to implement a series of actions based upon your timely advice. I consider the review which led to your recommendations an absolutely first rate piece of work. As you know, I have asked Judge Clark and my staff to carefully review these recommendations and that process is continuing.
There is one recommendation, however, which I believe the Board itself might properly undertake for me. I strongly concur with your recommendation for a detailed review of Soviet cover, concealment, and deception activities related to strategic arms. Because this may require a carefully chosen team of both government and non-government experts, I would like to ask the Board, in cooperation with the DCI, to develop and conduct such a thorough review. I believe it is imperative that we ask ourselves the difficult questions about these Soviet practices as we move forward in the strategic process.
Once again, I appreciate the time and effort that the Board has given to its important mission of improving our intelligence capabilities. Please continue to work closely with Bill Clark on these matters and keep up the good work.
Sincerely,
- Source: National Security Council, National Security Council Institutional Files, Box SR–080, NSDD 0065[Arms Control Verification Committee]. Top Secret.↩
- See Document 38.↩