13. Editorial Note
On January 1, 1985, President Ronald Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 153, “Instructions for the Shultz-Gromyko Meeting in Geneva,” which enumerated six specific goals for Secretary of State George Shultz’s upcoming meeting with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko in Geneva from January 6 until January 8: (1): “Establish, without concessions or pre-conditions, a sustained, formal negotiating process with the Soviet Union on offensive nuclear arms which would permit us to pursue our goal of achieving deep reductions in U.S. and Soviet nuclear arsenals”; (2) “Keep START and INF [Page 39] issues substantively separate, and preferably procedurally separate if possible”; (3) “Shape the nature of future discussions or negotiations in other areas to support U.S. interests by: a. proposing negotiations on nuclear defensive forces, which complement those on offensive nuclear forces, with space weapons being included in both forums as appropriate; b. avoiding a ‘space only’ forum; c. specifically protecting the SDI program and, thus, the promise offered by SDI; and d. providing for future discussions about the long-term maintenance of stability and the transition to deterrence based on the contribution of defenses”; (4) “Keep the Soviet Union on the defensive at both the private and public levels with special attention to: a. keeping the onus on Moscow to resume serious negotiations; and b. denying the Soviet Union a sustainable basis for charging that a ‘failure’ of the Geneva meeting was the responsibility of the U.S.”; (5) “Avoid public negotiation with the Soviet Union”; and (6) “Lay the groundwork necessary in the discussions with the Soviet delegation to provide the basis for later garnering public and Congressional support for the U.S. position.” NSDD 153 is printed in Foreign Relations, 1981–1988, volume IV, Soviet Union, January 1983–March 1985, Document 348.
Memoranda of conversation for the January 7 and 8 meetings between Shultz and Gromyko are printed in Foreign Relations, 1981–1988, volume IV, Soviet Union, January 1983–March 1985, Documents 355, 357, 360, 362, and 363. The U.S.-Soviet joint statement, which was released on January 8, announced a new round of negotiations, noting that “the sides agreed that the subject of the negotiations will be a complex of questions concerning space and nuclear arms, both strategic and intermediate-range, with all the questions considered and resolved in their interrelationship. The objective of the negotiations will be to work out effective agreements aimed at preventing an arms race in space and terminating it on Earth, at limiting and reducing nuclear arms and at strengthening strategic stability.” (Department of State Bulletin, March 1985, page 30)