Office of the Historian

36. Telegram From the Consulate in Frankfurt to the Department of State1

Frankfurt, April 8, 1987, 2056Z

5317. Personal for Secretary from Matlock. Following text is Moscow 52. Subject: Dobrynin on Your Visit.

1. Secret—Entire text.

2. In two-hour private conversation today, Dobrynin indicated that Soviet aim during your visit is to “clear the way” for completion of an INF treaty before the end of 1987, and also—if possible—agreement on the elements of a START/DST agreement. These would be concluded at a summit in U.S. this year.

3. Re INF he indicated that Soviets would have no major problem with our verification proposals, and that they would wish to have inspectors in missile-producing facilities. (He implied that if there is a problem re verification, it would be because they were more demanding than we.)

4. Re SRINF, he indicated that Soviets will propose that SRINF be reduced to zero in a specified number of years (period subject to negotiation). He implied that Soviets could not accept Pershing II conversion, but did not rule out a U.S. right to deploy up to the Soviet ceiling. On latter, however, he observed that since Soviets willing to go to zero rapidly, we would hardly find it practical to deploy weapons in this category.

5. Regarding START and DST, he repeated the observation made to Horowitz last December2 that it might be possible to proceed with 50 percent reductions on the basis of a simple non-deployment commitment for a fixed number of years, plus agreement not to withdraw from the ABM Treaty for that period. I received the impression that Gorbachev might make such a proposal to you in private, through Dobrynin did not promise that he necessarily would do so.

6. Since pouch to Frankfurt is closing for today, I will report other details of this conversation to you tomorrow,3 and in person in Helsinki.4 I do want to alert you, however, to the possibility that you may [Page 132] be faced with Soviet proposals along the lines indicated when you come next week.

Matlock
  1. Source: Reagan Library, Ermarth Files, Secretary Shultz’s Moscow Trip April 1987 Pre-Trip Background Material (9). Secret; Immediate; Nodis. Shultz later wrote in his memoirs that the cable was hand-delivered from Moscow to Frankfurt as a result of security concerns at the Embassy in Moscow and that he received it on April 9. (Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph, p. 883)↩
  2. See Documents 9 and 11.↩
  3. Not found.↩
  4. Shultz was in Helsinki April 12–13 and met with Finnish President Koivisto.↩