181. Telegram From the Department of State to the Mission in Geneva1
290031. Del by OOB 12/6 Bern pass to Amb. Warnke. Subject: Instructions for CTB Negotiation.
1. The following White House CTB instructions have been received from Dr. Brzezinski for Amb. Warnke.
[Page 427]2. Begin quote. “When the trilateral CTB negotiations resume on December 5, the President wants you to respond to the recent Soviet initiative in a way that is responsive to the positive aspects of the Soviet proposals while maintaining the essential elements of our position on key issues. In doing so, you should be guided by the following considerations.
3. You should maintain our existing position in favor of a stable and durable treaty that could continue indefinitely without French and Chinese adherence. You should propose that each party should have the right, however, after a period of three years, to withdraw from the treaty, giving one year’s advance notice, if it determined that continued testing by a nonparty affected its security.
4. You are authorized to accept the Soviet suggestion of a protocol banning PNEs provided that the protocol would be an integral part of the treaty and would therefore remain in force for all parties concurrently with the treaty banning nuclear weapon test explosions. You may also indicate that we could accept a commitment in the protocol to keep under consideration whether arrangements should be made in the future for carrying out PNEs, provided that an amendment to the treaty with our consent would be required for establishing such arrangements.
5. In continuing discussion of on-site inspections, you should maintain the previous position. You are also authorized to indicate to the Soviets that we are prepared to consider ways in which differences might be narrowed between mandatory and voluntary on-site inspection provisions, while maintaining on the table our present position. You might encourage the Soviets to propose as a compromise the small annual quota idea by referring at some point to Khrushchev’s 1962–1963 proposal.2
6. You should outline our approach to obtaining authenticated seismic data from internal seismic stations with agreed characteristics and indicate that we would be prepared to accept various modes of operation—manned or unmanned, joint or national—provided that our technical requirements are met for obtaining timely, useful, and authenticated seismic data.
7. Consistent with these considerations, you should table the modified working paper which will be sent to you by separate cable to present US views on the key substantive elements of a CTB treaty and protocol.3 In discussion of the working paper, you should indicate that the terminology used to describe the substantive elements dealing with [Page 428] prohibition of nuclear weapons tests and nuclear explosions intended for peaceful purposes may require mutually acceptable understanding regarding distinctions between prohibited explosions and permitted nuclear experiments.” End quote.
- Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, P940083–0507. Secret; Immediate; Nodis. Sent for information Immediate to Bern. Drafted by Keeny; cleared by Sydney Goldsmith (S/S–O); and approved by Keeny.↩
- See footnote 6, Document 180.↩
- See footnote 2, Document 180.↩