Office of the Historian

41. Summary of Actions1

Washington, July 23, 1964, 8 a.m.

MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE OF PRINCIPALS

1. Verification of the Freeze

References:

(a)
July 9, 1964, Memorandum for Members of the Committee of Principals, Subject: Draft US Statement to the ENDC on Verification of a Freeze on Strategic Nuclear Vehicles2
(b)
July 17, 1964, Memorandum for Members of the Committee of Principals, Subject: Proposed Modifications in Draft US Statement to the ENDC on Verification of a Freeze on Strategic Nuclear Vehicles3

Reference (a) with amendments included in Reference (b) was approved for presentation at Geneva with the following modifications:4

a.
An introductory paragraph would be added which placed the speech in an illustrative context rather than as fixed complete U.S. position. The incompleteness of the subjects covered should be described using the ABM problem as an example.
b.
Paragraph 1, Page 14, was approved without the amendment in Reference (b), and with the final clause to be modified to describe the intrusiveness in comparison to GCD inspection.

2. Other Business

a.
It was agreed, on Secretary Rusk’s suggestion, that studies be made of other modes of handling arms control negotiations which might facilitate unilateral measures not requiring treaties and which might increase attention toward arms control by nations other than the U.S. and the USSR. Any international discussions of this should be handled with great care.
b.
Announcement was made by Mr. Foster that a new non-dissemination paper, based on the discussions at the 16 June meeting, would be shortly distributed on a limited basis to the Principals. It was also agreed that it would have been inappropriate for Mr. Butler to have given [Page 93] Khrushchev assurances that the veto would never be removed from the MLF. However, statements should not be made on any basis which would imply that the veto would be given up. A radical change in U.S.-European relationships would occur if the Europeans had an independent nuclear force.
  1. Source: Department of State, S/S-RD Files: Lot 68 D 452, Committee of Principals, January-July 1964. Secret. No drafting information appears on the source text. The meeting was held in the James Madison Room, Department of State.↩
  2. See footnote 3, Document 40.↩
  3. See footnote 4, Document 40.↩
  4. Regarding presentation of the approved paper at the Eighteen-Nation Disarmament Committee conference, see footnote 12, Document 40.↩