40. Letter From the Deputy Under Secretary of State for Security Assistance (Nye) to the Director of the United States Information Agency (Reinhardt)1

Dear Mr. Reinhardt:

This is in response to your April 8, 1977 memorandum2 to Under Secretary Benson on “USIA Support for U.S. Non-Proliferation and Nuclear Export Policy”.

I agree completely with your point on the need to provide proper public affairs support for U.S. non-proliferation and nuclear export policies abroad. To this end, I have asked my staff to work closely with yours to ensure that USIA has available all relevant background material as our policies evolve.

With regard to the President’s April 20 energy message,3 it is highly doubtful that it will contain a significant nuclear energy element. And I do not anticipate that it will be the vehicle utilized to transmit to the Congress the Administration’s legislative proposals on non-proliferation and nuclear exports. Rather, I expect that our legislative initiatives will be treated in a low-key manner consistent with the delicate “negotiations” that will ensue with concerned congressional committees which have introduced their own non-proliferation bills.

On the general subject of U.S. Nuclear Power Policy, you are, of course, aware of the President’s April 7 statement,4 which, for the most part, dealt with domestic issues. Additional Presidential decisions are pending on several international questions, but it is as yet unclear [Page 113] precisely what form these will take, or even if they will be announced publicly. To the extent that they are issued in public fora, we would then have to decide on the desirability of using USIA resources in support of the new policies. Obviously, this will require an evaluation of the political risks of such a public affairs campaign in the context of the sensitive consultations we will be conducting with our nuclear trading partners—many of whom will not be enthusiastic with some of our non-proliferation objectives.

We will monitor the situation closely over the weeks ahead and keep your staff informed as Presidential decisions emerge and the desirability of a public affairs program to support them becomes clearer.

Sincerely,

Joseph S. Nye 5
Deputy to the Under Secretary
  1. Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, P770068–0163. Limited Official Use. Mink sent a copy of the letter and a copy of Reinhardt’s April 8 memorandum (see Document 33) to Nye under an April 19 action memorandum, recommending that Nye sign the letter to Reinhardt. (National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, P770068–0167)
  2. See Document 33.
  3. See footnote 2, Document 33.
  4. On April 7, during a question and answer session held in the Briefing Room at the White House, the President announced that the administration had engaged in a review of issues related to the use of nuclear power; as a result of that review, the administration would pursue a major change in U.S. domestic nuclear energy policies, designed to limit the production of plutonium, encourage research into alternative nuclear fuel cycles, increase production capacity for enriched uranium, and continue discussions with a number of governments over the establishment of an international nuclear fuel cycle evaluation program. (Public Papers: Carter, 1977, Book I, pp. 581–583) The White House also released a statement on nuclear power policy, containing these and other objectives, on April 7. For the text of the statement, see ibid., pp. 587–588. See also Edward Walsh and J.P. Smith, “U.S. Acts to Curb Plutonium, Asks Allies to Assist,” The Washington Post, April 8, 1977, p. A1.
  5. Nye signed “Joe Nye” above this typed signature.