SALT II, 1972–1980


211. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski) to Vice President Mondale, Secretary of State Vance, and Secretary of Defense Brown)

Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 56, SALT: Chronology: 7/11/78–9/8/78. Top Secret; Sensitive. Also sent to the Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Director of Central Intelligence.


212. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski) to Vice President Mondale, Secretary of State Vance, and Secretary of Defense Brown

Source: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Harold Brown Papers, Box 11, Harold Brown–Private File–SALT 1978. Top Secret; Sensitive. Also sent to the Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Director of Central Intelligence. Brzezinski initialed at the bottom of each page.


213. Memorandum From the Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (Warnke) to President Carter

Source: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Harold Brown Papers, Box 11, Harold Brown–Private File–SALT, 1978. Top Secret; Sensitive. Copies were sent to Mondale, Vance, Brown, and Brzezinski.


214. Memorandum From Director of Central Intelligence Turner to President Carter

Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 53, SALT: 8–9/78. Secret. At the top of the first page, Carter wrote, “Zbig—Work on these ideas. J.”


216. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski) to President Carter

Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 56, SALT: Chronology: 9/29/78–10/22/78. Top Secret; Sensitive; Eyes Only.


217. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski) to President Carter

Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 53, SALT: 8–9/77. Top Secret; Sensitive. Sent for information.


218. Memorandum of Conversation

Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Staff Material, Office, Box 81, Sensitive XX: 9/26–9/30/78. Secret; Nodis. The meeting took place in the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room. This portion of the meeting apparently took place in the Cabinet Room. The memorandum indicates that the meeting lasted from 9:15 until 9:45 p.m., which is in error. According to the President’s Daily Diary, the meeting began in the Oval Office at 9:33 a.m. with a meeting among Carter, Vance, Brzezinski, and Gromyko plus interpreters. Then at 9:44 a.m., the group went to the Cabinet Room and met until 1:18 p.m. During this meeting, the President left at 12:18 p.m. and met with Warnke, Malcolm Toon, and Reginald Bartholomew from 12:19 to 12:24 p.m. At 12:24 p.m., Carter returned to the meeting with Gromyko in the Cabinet Room. (Ibid., Presidential Materials, President’s Daily Diary) An unknown hand made several edits to the text of the document. The substantive changes have been accounted for in the footnotes below.


219. Memorandum From the President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (Aaron) to President Carter

Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 53, SALT: 10–11/78. Top Secret.


220. Memorandum From Secretary of Defense Brown to President Carter

Source: Washington National Records Center, OSD Files, FRC 330–81–0202, USSR 388.3. Secret.


221. Telegram From the Embassy in the Soviet Union to the White House

Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 56, SALT: Chronology: 10/23/78–1/15/79. Secret; Flash; Eyes Only.


222. Telegram From the Embassy in the Soviet Union to the White House

Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 56, SALT: Chronology: 10/23/78–1/15/79. Secret; Flash; Eyes Only.


223. Summary of Conclusions of a Meeting of the Special Coordination Committee

Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 56, SALT: Chronology: 10/23/78–1/15/79. Top Secret; Sensitive. The meeting took place in the White House Situation Room.


224. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski) to President Carter

Source: Carter Library, Plains File, Subject File, Box 29, NSC Weekly Reports, 6–12/78. Top Secret; Sensitive. Carter initialed the memorandum at the top of the first page.


225. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski) to President Carter

Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 53, SALT: 10–11/78. Top Secret; Sensitive. Sent for information. Carter initialed at the top of the first page and wrote: “JCS—Summit, Security leaks, Budget limit/priority.”


226. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski) to President Carter

Source: Carter Library, Plains File, Subject File, Box 29, NSC Weekly Reports #81, 6–12/78. Secret. At the top of the first page, Carter wrote: “Zbig—You comment as though you’ve not been involved in the process, & that everyone else has been wrong except you. J.”


227. Letter From President Carter to Secretary of State Vance

Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 53, SALT: 12/78. Top Secret.


228. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski) to Vice President Mondale, Secretary of State Vance, and Secretary of Defense Brown

Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 53, SALT: 12/78. Top Secret. Also sent to the Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Director of Central Intelligence. At the top of the first page, Carter wrote, “ok, J.C.”


229. Telegram From Secretary of State Vance to President Carter

Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 56, SALT: Chronology: 10/23/78–1/15/79. Secret; Sensitive; Nodis; Cherokee. The telegram was sent to Plains, Georgia, where the President was spending Christmas, as telegram WH81684. At the top of the first page of the telegram sent to Georgia, Carter wrote his initial. (Ibid.)


230. Telegram From Secretary of State Vance to the White House

Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 56, SALT: Chronology: 10/23/78–1/15/79. Secret; Flash; Nodis; Cherokee. The telegram was sent from Vance’s aircraft. A note on the first page indicates it was read to Brzezinski on December 24 and was sent to the President in Plains.


231. Telegram From Secretary of State Vance to the White House

Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 56, SALT: Chronology: 10/23/78–1/15/79. Secret; Nodis; Cherokee. The telegram was sent to Plains as telegram WH81695, December 24, 00311Z; Carter wrote his initial on the first page. (Ibid.)


232. Summary of Conclusions of a Meeting of the Special Coordination Committee

Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 56, SALT: Chronology: 10/23/78–1/15/79. Top Secret; Sensitive. The meeting took place in the White House Situation Room.


233. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski) to President Carter

Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 56, SALT: Chronology: 1/16/79–2/79. Top Secret; Sensitive; Eyes Only. Both Carter and Brzezinski initialed the memorandum.


234. U.S. Oral Message to the Soviet Leadership

Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 56, SALT: Chronology: 1/16/79–2/79. Secret. Tarnoff sent a copy of the message to Brzezinski under a covering memorandum of February 2 that reads: “The attached, for your personal use, is a copy of the final version of our oral message which the Secretary passed to Dobrynin today.” The positions contained therein were incorporated from the Summary of Conclusions of a January 23 SCC meeting, which Brzezinski sent to Carter under a covering memorandum dated January 25, and on which Carter initialed his approval. The Summary of Conclusions of the January 23 SCC meeting is ibid.


235. Letter From Soviet General Secretary Brezhnev to President Carter

Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 56, SALT: Chronology: 3/79–5/23/79. No classification marking. Unofficial translation. A covering March 12 memorandum from Tarnoff to Aaron indicates that Dobrynin handed the letter to Warren Christopher that day and that a copy was sent to Vance. (Ibid.)


236. Memorandum From the Joint Chiefs of Staff to Secretary of Defense Brown

Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 54, SALT: 3/79. Secret.


237. Letter From President Carter to Soviet General Secretary Brezhnev

Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 56, SALT: Chronology: 3/79–5/23/79. No classification marking. A March 22 covering memorandum from Brzezinski to Carter to the Summary of Conclusions of the SCC meeting of March 21 indicates that the President intended for this letter to close out the telemetry issue and that it was to be accompanied by an oral note to be transmitted by Vance to Dobrynin that reads: “I also wanted to clarify a possible misinterpretation regarding our citing of the July 29 and December 21 SS–18 tests in connection with the Common Understanding on this issue. We are not asserting that all encryption used in the tests we cited would be illegal. These tests, however, included some encryption of information which, in the case of a new or a modified missile, would impede the verification of specific characteristics limited by the agreement.” (Ibid.)


238. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski) to President Carter

Source: Carter Library, Plains File, Subject File, Box 29, NSC Weekly Reports, 4–9, 1979. Top Secret; Codeword. Sent for information.


239. Memorandum of Conversation

Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 37, Memcons: President: 6/79. Secret. This meeting took place at the U.S. Embassy. President Carter arrived in Vienna for the summit with Brezhnev on June 15. Documentation on the summit is scheduled to be printed in Foreign Relations, 1977–1980, Vol. VI, Soviet Union.


240. Memorandum of Conversation

Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 37, Memcons: President: 6/79. Secret; Nodis. The conversation took place at the Soviet Embassy. Drafted by Krimer on June 21.