Office of the Historian

105. Memorandum From Secretary of Defense Weinberger to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Clark)1

Washington, June 9, 1982

SUBJECT

  • Prevention of Accidental Outbreak of War

If, as I suspect, it proves to be not possible to insert the proposal on prevention of accidental war into the President’s Bonn speech,2 I would suggest that the UN Special Session on Disarmament would offer a particularly good and appropriate time to make the point.3

Again, simply to summarize points I have previously made, there would be a strong element of a new, easily understood, basically simple proposal, about which there should be a very wide measure of agreement on all sides. Too, the President would thus certainly appear to have taken the initiative to develop a particular, constructive, and affirmative suggestion, whereas the rest of the meeting will be the usual bloodbath of rhetoric out of which very little is expected to emerge.

Cap
  1. Source: Reagan Library, Executive Secretariat, NSC Agency File, Department of Defense (05/06/1982–06/10/1982); NLR–747–2–29–11–3. Secret; Eyes Only. A stamped notation in the top right-hand corner of the memorandum indicates that Clark saw it. Another stamped notation indicates that it was received at 2:36 p.m. on June 10. Poindexter initialed another copy of the memorandum, on which an unknown hand wrote: “6/11 Staff: Blair—per WC. Darman read memo. Indicated already being done.” (Ibid.)↩
  2. See footnote 3, Document 104.↩
  3. See Document 106.↩