8. Editorial Note
On June 16, 1973, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev arrived in the United States for a summit meeting with President Richard M. Nixon. Brezhnev and Nixon held talks in Washington; Camp David, Maryland; and San Clemente, California. Records of these conversations are printed in Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, volume XV, Soviet Union, June 1972–August 1974, as Documents 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 131, and 132. During the summit, Nixon and Brezhnev signed 11 agreements, including the Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War. The texts of the agreements are printed in the Department of State Bulletin, July 23, 1973, pages 158–175. Article I of the Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War, signed by Nixon and Brezhnev on June 22, reads:
“The United States and the Soviet Union agree that an objective of their policies is to remove the danger of nuclear war and of the use of nuclear weapons.
“Accordingly, the Parties agree that they will act in such a manner as to prevent the development of situations capable of causing a dangerous exacerbation of their relations, as to avoid military confrontations, and as to exclude the outbreak of nuclear war between them and between either of the Parties and other countries.” (Ibid., page 160)