Overview

The editors have reviewed the already published official record, particularly the annual publication of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Documents on Disarmament, and have examined documentation available in government repositories. They decided to focus the record published in this volume on the following subjects: 1) levels of production of fissionable materials for nuclear weapons production; 2) negotiation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty; 3) negotiation of the Outer Space Treaty; 4) seabed arms control policies and discussions; 5) nuclear testing policy and its relationship to a possible comprehensive test ban agreement; and 6) the origins of the talks with the Soviet Union on strategic offensive missile and defensive anti-missile systems.

The volume presents a comprehensive collection of the records of the Committee of Principals, a high-level interagency group that formulated policies on arms control issues for the President's approval. It also presents the authoritative record of the correspondence between President Johnson and Nikita Khrushchev and Alexei Kosygin, the President's Soviet counterparts, on disarmament matters.

The volume includes intelligence information, such as the ability to verify possible arms control agreements, which is contained in National Intelligence Estimates and memoranda prepared in the Department of State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research. The editors did not, however, attempt to document the more technical and scientific dimensions of verification or to explore fully the scope and impact of intelligence gathering on arms control policies. Nor did they seek to document the intelligence available to top policymakers regarding the activities and intentions of the Soviet Union in the arms control area.