24. Editorial Note
On May 4, 1973, the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs, Henry Kissinger, traveled to Moscow to meet with Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. They met to discuss a variety of issues, including strategic arms limitation, in preparation for the upcoming June summit in Washington. The first meeting was held on May 5, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:55 p.m., in Brezhnev’s office in the Politburo Villa at Zavidovo, the Politburo’s hunting preserve located outside Moscow. According to the memorandum of conversation Kissinger and Brezhnev discussed primarily an agreement on the prevention of nuclear war. Their comments concerning a further strategic arms limitation agreement were strictly in the context of the nuclear agreement. (National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Kissinger Office Files, Box 75, Country Files–Europe–USSR, Kissinger Conversations at Zavidovo, [Page 81] May 5–8, 1973) The full text of the memorandum of conversation is printed as Document 104 in Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, Vol. XV, Soviet Union, June 1972–August 1974.
In message Hakto 6 to Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Brent Scowcroft, May 5, Kissinger summarized his limited discussion with Brezhnev about SALT: “I get strong impression that they do not want anything concrete at summit but see agreement on principles. I intend to stress very strongly the desirability of making summit as concrete as possible on SALT.” (National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Kissinger Office Files, Box 32, HAK Trip Files, HAK Moscow, London Trip, HAKTO & Misc., May 4–11, 1973)
Kissinger and Brezhnev returned to the subject of SALT during conversations on May 7 at Zavidovo. During their first meeting, from 11:35 a.m. to 2:55 p.m., Brezhnev handed Kissinger a Soviet draft, “Basic Principles on Negotiations on the Further Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms,” which they discussed in general terms in their meeting from 7:40 to 11:40 p.m. Kissinger described his conversation and the Soviet draft in message Hakto 19A to Scowcroft, May 8, with instructions to inform the President:
“I again made strong argument that principles alone would not advance SALT Two very far since they were bound to contain much compromise language which would later be subject to dispute. I agreed to continue working on principles but urged major effort to obtain some concrete agreement, to supplement present Interim Agreement, on urgent aspects of MIRV problem, as discussed in Verification Panel and approved by you. So far, Brezhnev has shown no inclination to proceed with concrete negotiations. As regards the principles, there are the expected differences on such points as forward-based systems and it is unlikely that a document can be agreed here during my stay. This will give us opportunity to decide whether it is desirable to have such a document on principles promulgated at the summit.”
For the memoranda of conversation and Kissinger’s message, see Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, Volume XV, Soviet Union, June 1972–August 1974, Documents 108, 109, and 110, respectively. The text of the Soviet draft of SALT principles is in National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, Kissinger Office Files, Box 75, Country Files–Europe–USSR, Kissinger Conversations at Zavidovo, May 5–8, 1973.