127. Telegram From the Department of State to the Mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and European Regional Organizations0

Topol 1110. Re Polto 998, rptd London 195, Brussels Polto 34, Bonn Polto 187 and Moscow Polto 114.1 Breakdown of nuclear test ban talks2 should not be interpreted as anything more than US unwillingness continue indefinitely with talks which Soviet rejection of concept of international control had made devoid of content. Trend of test ban talks had been pointing towards this conclusion for many months. That talks resumed at all after Soviet Fall series only reflected US desire to exhaust all efforts to reach agreement before deciding test ban treaty on acceptable terms was unlikely outcome at early date. Soviet tactic in presenting four-point Nov 28 proposal3 was assessed by us as attempt recoup propaganda losses and shift blame for lack of agreement to US. In this situation continuation of talks on separate test ban treaty seemed fruitless exercise. We therefore tried tactic of suggesting we willing explore relationship of test ban to other disarmament measures. When this too was rejected it was apparent that proposal for conference recess was only sensible course. This outcome, of course, means that impetus which agreement might have given to disarmament prospects and to hopes for improvement in East-West relations may never be achieved through test ban route. However, other effects on disarmament and East-West relations likely be minimal.

Rusk
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 700.5611/2-262. Secret. Repeated to Bonn, Brussels, London, and Moscow.
  2. Not found.
  3. The Geneva Test Ban Conference adjourned on January 29. For the final Soviet and U.S. statements, see Documents on Disarmament, 1962, vol. I, pp. 15-18 and 18-24, respectively. In March the Eighteen-Nation Disarmament Committee established a Subcommittee made up of the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States as a forum for test ban negotiations.
  4. For text, see ibid., 1961, p. 664.