63. Editorial Note
President Richard M. Nixon and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev signed the Protocol to the Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems and the Treaty and Protocol on the Limitation of Underground Nuclear Weapons Tests on July 3, 1974, in Moscow. The texts of the treaties are printed in the Department of State Bulletin, July 29, 1974, pages 216–218. Nixon and Brezhnev also signed a joint statement on environmental warfare. For the text of this statement, see ibid., page 185. At the conclusion of the Moscow summit, the United States and Soviet Union issued a joint communiqué that summarized these initiatives in the [Page 189] areas of arms limitation, disarmament, and environmental warfare, in addition to the other topics discussed during the course of the summit. For the text of the joint communiqué, see Public Papers: Nixon, 1974, pages 567–577.
Upon his return to the United States from the Soviet Union the evening of July 3, Nixon addressed the nation at 7:45 p.m. from Loring Air Force Base in Limestone, Maine. Nixon’s remarks were broadcast live on nationwide radio and television. Following an introduction by Vice President Gerald R. Ford, the President offered some introductory remarks before discussing the meeting outcomes. Commenting that the United States and Soviet Union continued to “advance further the relationship” developed during the 1972 Moscow summit and that the pattern of the “expanding range of agreements” contributed toward a “continuing, irreversible process,” Nixon noted that the United States and Soviet Union had “reached a number of important agreements, both in the field of arms limitation and also in the field of peaceful cooperation.” Describing the Threshold Test Ban Treaty, Nixon stated:
“It extends significantly the earlier steps toward limiting tests that began with the 1963 test-ban treaty. That original treaty barred the signatories from conducting tests in the atmosphere, in outer space, and underwater. Today, we concluded a new treaty that for the first time will also cover tests underground. It will bar both the Soviet Union and the United States, after March 31, 1976, from conducting any underground test of weapons above a certain explosive power, and it will also require both countries to keep tests of weapons below that power to the very minimum number.
“This is not only another major step toward bringing the arms race under control, it is also a significant additional step toward reducing the number of nuclear and thermonuclear explosions in the world.” (Ibid., pages 579–580)