Office of the Historian

273. National Security Decision Memorandum 1661

Washington, May 12, 1972.

TO

  • The Secretary of State
  • The Secretary of Defense
  • The Director, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
  • The Director, Central Intelligence

SUBJECT

  • Instructions for the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks at Helsinki (SALT VII);

Amplification of NSDM 164

The President has decided that:

1.
The Chairman of the Delegation should indicate that the U.S. has no interest in deferring the second ABM site for each country.
2.
While paragraph 3 of NSDM–1642 is still valid, the Delegation may recommend switching in whole or in part from the MARC concept to a numerical limit on individual ABM radars, if the Delegation believes that this modification would facilitate the negotiations.
3.
The Delegation should propose the following procedures for replacement of old ICBM or SLBM launchers with new SLBM launchers:
a.
Notification of the number, type and location of launchers to be deactivated shall be given by the time construction begins on the replacement SLBM launcher. (The Chairman of the Delegation, at his discretion, may fall back to proposing that the time of notification be prior to the launch of the replacement submarine and to the dismantling or destruction of old launchers.)
b.
Dismantling or destruction of the missile launchers to be replaced by new SLBM launchers shall be initiated by the time of the launch of the replacement SLBM submarine.
c.
Notification and dismantling or destruction shall be accomplished under specific procedures to be agreed in the Standing Consultative Commission.

Henry A. Kissinger
  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, NSC Institutional Files (H–Files), Box H–233, National Security Decision Memoranda, NSDMs 145–164. Top Secret; Nodis; SALT.↩
  2. Document 271.↩