The attached folder on nuclear diffusion discussions is something the
President has asked for, and you should give it to him at the earliest
opportunity. It contains memoranda of conversations between Secretary
Rusk and Ambassador Dobrynin, with a covering note by me.
The President will want to talk to the Secretary about this matter.
Attachment
September 21,
1962
SUBJECT
- Non-diffusion: Approaches to Adenauer and de
Gaulle
I talked with several people on the German and French desks about the
question you posed this morning.
GER believes that the odds are in
favor of a positive German reaction to ACDA’s suggested approach. As far as the Germans are
concerned, this scenario has a distinct advantage over the earlier
ones in that it takes non-diffusion out of the Berlin and German
contexts and puts it into the broader one of disarmament. Moreover,
since the Germans do not believe that early agreement, or for that
matter any agreement, is possible on such an arrangement, they would
not be inclined to look at this move as one which would really
inhibit future West German nuclear developments. This subject
apparently has been discussed with the Germans and an official nod
was given to a possible approach of this kind in a recent exchange.
I have asked the Situation Room to get me the pertinent
messages.
The French picture is somewhat different. The French Desk feels there
is a 50–50 chance of a favorable de
Gaulle reaction. This is based on an assumption that
by according the French nuclear club membership, and therefore
removing France from the group of nations subjected to the
non-diffusion restrictions, the proposition might be attractive to
de Gaulle.
Attachment
SUBJECT
- Nuclear Diffusion Discussions
1. Attached are the records of the two most recent conversations
which Secretary Rusk had with
Ambassador Dobrynin on this
subject. His earlier conversations with Mr. Gromyko in Geneva in July add
nothing to this record. In addition, there are: a talking paper
still in draft form, produced jointly by ACDA and Defense, which shows what Rusk would say, and also the lines
along which a piece of paper would be drafted; and several pieces of
paper by ACDA which indicate the
approach they would take to the problem, and the areas of their
agreement and disagreement with DOD.
2. I talked to the Secretary again on the telephone this afternoon
and indicated your desire to talk with him on the subject. He will
be [Typeset Page 385] here in
Washington until 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, 22 September. After 6:30
p.m. he will be at USUN at the
Waldorf.
In my conversation, I told the Secretary that you were concerned both
about the question of talking to our allies and whether we had to
try to get agreement with them before talking to the Soviets, and
the question of discussion within the Government and with the
Congress and the attendant political problems that might raise.
Ros Gilpatric has
indicated that the Defense Department would go along with this
proposal, but the Chiefs object to it strenuously. If possible, Bob
and Ros would rather fight with them another time than now.
3. The heart of the problem, in my own judgment, is that Secretary
Rusk feels he has to give
a piece of paper to the Soviets. He may be perfectly correct that if
he is to give a piece of paper to the Soviets, he must first give it
to our allies. Otherwise, the Soviets could always use the piece of
paper with Kroll, or someone like that, as evidence of our bad
faith. However, it is not clear that more cannot be said to
Gromyko or heard from
him before pieces of paper are passed. Chip Bohlen shares the view
Mac and I hold, namely, that we should [text not
declassified].
[Facsimile Page 4]
4. As of the present moment, we think that the Germans would not be
unfavorable to the proposed agreement, since the Soviets have for
long pressed for special language concerning Germany, to which the
Germans have always objected. The major change in Dobrynin’s last communication was
his apparent willingness to do without a special reference to
Germany.
On the other hand, the French remain the French—nobody thinks it is
better than even money that they would be willing to be involved. I
myself would guess that the two cables from Paris contained in your
reading book this morning (Paris 1400 and 1406) point in the other
direction.
