294. Editorial Note
On December 12, 1988, President Ronald Reagan participated in a national security briefing in the Oval Office from 10:30 until 11 a.m. No minutes were found. (Reagan Library, President’s Daily Diary) According to a December 12 memorandum for the record initialed by the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs Colin Powell, Vice President and President-Elect George H.W. Bush “asked whether there was anything new in President Gorbachev’s statement to the effect [Page 1070] that” the radar at Krasnoyarsk “was being ‘dismantled.’” White House Chief of Staff Kenneth Duberstein and President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs John Negroponte “responded that there does not appear to be anything new in Gorbachev’s position,” and that turning the radar at Krasnoyarsk over to the scientific community would be insufficient to meeting U.S. concerns. (Reagan Library, Colin Powell Files, Subject File, The President)
The Office of the Executive Secretary of the National Security Council prepared a series of briefing books for President-Elect Bush in advance of his inauguration on January 20, 1989. The second briefing book, which was dated November 1988 and focused on issues requiring attention prior to the inauguration as well as those that would confront the new administration in its first six months, included papers prepared by the National Security Council (NSC) Arms Control Directorate and the NSC Defense Policy Directorate. The Arms Control Directorate paper included a section on the Krasnoyarsk Radar, which read, in part: “The United States has concluded that the Krasnoyarsk radar constitutes a significant violation of a central element of the ABM Treaty. We have called upon the Soviets to reverse the violation by dismantling the transmitter and receiver buildings and destroying their foundations. We have also made it clear to the Soviets that we will not conclude any additional strategic arms agreement while the violation remains unresolved.” A subsequent section on the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) read, in part: “SDI policy is guided primarily by NSDDs 172 and 192. The objective of the program is to determine the feasibility of effective strategic defenses that will improve the strength and quality of deterrence. The Defense Acquisition Board has certified a Phase I architecture beyond milestone I of the acquisition process. That architecture consists of: space-based interceptors; ground-based exoatmospheric interceptors; a boost-surveillance and tracking system; a ground-based surveillance probe; and battle management systems. This architecture provides for layered defenses that could intercept Soviet missiles in the boost phase and meet the JCS effectiveness requirements for strengthening deterrence.” (George H.W. Bush Library, Bush Presidential Records, National Security Council, National Security Council Institutional Files (H–Files), Transition Material, OA/ID 99015) National Security Decision Directive 172, “Presenting the Strategic Defense Initiative,” May 30, 1985, and National Security Decision Directive 192, “The ABM Treaty and the SDI Program,” October 11, 1985, are Documents 40 and 76. The Defense Policy Directorate paper proposed that a “rapid, in-depth review” of the “basic elements of U.S. National Security Strategy,” in two phases, “the faster portion” of which “could review strategy, policy, forces, and programs to provide for our strategic nuclear deterrent—much work in this area is already done.” A subsequent section on Intercontinental Ballistic Missile modernization [Page 1071] read, in part: “The funds provided in the FY 89 Authorization and Appropriations Bills will keep the Peacekeeper Rail Garrison Program on schedule and allow DOD to keep the Small ICBM contractors working at a minimal level of effort through FY 89. The new President is required to provide Congress an obligation plan for the $350M which the current Administration is prohibited from obligating, by February 15, 1989. The current direction to the Department of Defense supports a combined Peacekeeper Rail Garrison, Small ICBM program as well as completion of Peacekeeper in Minuteman Silos in December 1988. Although the FY 90 DOD Budget has not been finalized, the current version delays the Peacekeeper Rail Garrison Program by six months and eliminates the Small ICBM Program.” (George H.W. Bush Library, Bush Presidential Records, National Security Council, National Security Council Institutional Files (H–Files), Transition Material, OA/ID 99015)
On January 18, 1989, President Reagan participated in a national security briefing in the Oval Office from 10:15 until 10:30 a.m. (Reagan Library, President’s Daily Diary) No formal minutes were found. Reagan noted in a personal diary entry for that day: “Again decision called for on Krasnoyarsk radar. We view it as a serious breach of A.B.M. treaty. We do not have time to change that to a ‘Material Breach.’” (Brinkley, ed., The Reagan Diaries, volume II, November 1985–January 1989, page 1010)