94. Personal Note Prepared by the Deputy Secretary of State (Dam)1
[Omitted here are discussions not related to START.]
I attended a meeting in the Situation Room this afternoon chaired by Bud McFarlane of the Strategic Arms Control Policy Group.2 The question was options for entering into negotiations with the Soviets in space arms control. This issue has come front and center in public attention on arms control, because the Soviets, having chosen to stay away from the table in the nuclear talks, are now demanding that the United States open talks on ASAT. As typical, Richard Perle and OSD generally are opposed to any movement (beyond the harmless idea of an agreement on incidents in space, so named by analogy to the Incidents at Sea agreement entered into with the Soviets in the early 1970’s). As Perle said, there was no harm in the incidents in space notion, but [Page 343] there was no problem that had to be solved because there were no incidents in space. We in State are now pushing for some kind of a negotiation with the Soviets, because we believe that it would solve a serious political problem at home and might possibly be of benefit to the United States. The great public argument is, of course, that we ought to do something to limit military competition in space before it is too late. Frankly it appears too late already, because both countries have a great deal going on in space, including some “black” programs, I suspect, of which I am not even aware. But there is still something to the point, and the United States may be more dependent upon satellites than the Soviet Union, and therefore there is something to be said for limiting competition in ASAT weapons. But of course, there is always the problem that we can limit our own developments, but it is hard to limit Soviet developments, even with an arms control agreement, because of the possibility of Soviet cheating.
[Omitted here are discussions not related to START.]