219. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski) to Vice President Mondale, Secretary of State Vance, Secretary of Defense Brown, Secretary of Energy Schlesinger, the Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (Warnke), the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Jones), the Director of Central Intelligence (Turner), and the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (Press)1

SUBJECT

  • Comprehensive Test Ban Instructions (C)

The United States Delegation to the Test Ban Negotiations should focus its negotiating efforts on achieving our objectives in the field of verification. For negotiating purposes, it should be assumed without commitment that the Comprehensive Test Ban agreement would have a fixed duration of three years and that in the final year of any agreement, there would be a review conference to determine whether to negotiate a replacement agreement.

In addressing the issue of verification, the United States Delegation can indicate that, assuming a three-year duration agreement, we would be willing to accept a network of 10 simple stations deferring a larger network with arrays for consideration in the context of any replacement agreement.

As these negotiations proceed, any changes in the Delegation’s position on any remaining issues should be referred to the SCC for consideration and approval.

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There should be no multilateral CTB consultations without the approval of the President.

The Delegation should bear in mind that the President has decided to resume testing at the end of the agreement unless a vigorous safeguards program and studies indicate that this is not necessary.

Zbigniew Brzezinski
  1. Source: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, James Schlesinger Papers, Subject File, Box 2, Energy Department, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, General, 1978, Sept.–Oct. Top Secret; Sensitive.