140. Letter From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Scowcroft) to Senator Helms1
Dear Senator Helms:2
This is in response to your May 23 letter3 to the President asking about the tentative agreements made with the Soviet Union on strategic forces during the May Ministerial in Moscow.
At the outset, I can assure you that the Administration is fully cognizant of the provisions of the Jackson Amendment. Any treaty the President submits to the Senate for its advice and consent will not limit the United States to levels of strategic forces inferior to the limits provided for the Soviet Union.
With respect to ALCMs, let me correct an error that has appeared in certain press reports on this issue. START will not specifically limit the number of ALCMs nor ALCM-carrying heavy bombers. We, like the Soviets, will be allowed to deploy as many ALCM carriers as we choose within the overall START limits of 1600 delivery vehicles and 6000 weapons.
We have agreed to an ALCM counting rule that is clearly in our interest. Up to 150 U.S. bombers could carry 20 ALCMs, but would only count as carrying 10. Up to 210 Soviet bombers could carry as many as 12 ALCMs, but they would count as 8. This counting rule would exclude from the 6000 warhead limit a maximum of 1500 U.S. ALCMs and 840 Soviet ALCMs. The 150/210 numbers are not limits, rather points beyond which there is no “discounting” and every additional ALCM counts as one against the START 6000 warhead limit.
Finally, we have informed the Soviets of the fact that we have no plans to convert the non-nuclear Tacit Rainbow ALCM to a nuclear ALCM. However, nothing in START nor in any other commitment we have made would prohibit such a conversion if that becomes in our interest at some point in the future. If a non-nuclear ALCM were ever converted to a nuclear ALCM, that missile would of course become subject to all of the START provisions on nuclear ALCMs.
[Page 757]With respect to SLCMs, we have achieved the key U.S. negotiating objective. The Soviets sought a provision in the START Treaty that would limit nuclear SLCMs, which we could not accept because there is no effective and acceptable way to verify any such limit. They have now agreed to our proposal for separate U.S. and Soviet political declarations of the numbers of deployed nuclear SLCMs with a range greater than 600 kilometers. We did agree to a maximum number the U.S. could declare at any one time that is well above the number of nuclear SLCMs we have today and expect to have during the period of the treaty.
The Soviets wanted all SLCMs with a range in excess of 600 km included in the declaration. We wanted to restrict the declaration to nuclear SLCMs whose range was above a 300 km threshold. In the end, we reached a compromise: all nuclear SLCMs above 600 km are included in the declaration but the two sides will also exchange data about nuclear SLCMs with ranges between 300 km and 600 km. Since this approach is limited to nuclear SLCMs, it would have no effect on our more than 3000 conventional SLCMs.
We have made good progress in negotiating START. The major, substantive limits have been agreed. That said, there remains much to do before an agreement is complete and can be submitted to the Senate. The President greatly appreciates your interest and hopes that you will support this solid agreement that is in our national interest.
Sincerely,
- Source: George H.W. Bush Library, Bush Presidential Records, Brent Scowcroft Collection, USSR Chronological Files, START Files, OA/ID 91122–005, Soviet Power Collapse in Eastern Europe—Strategic Arms Control (May 1990). No classification marking.↩
- Scowcroft crossed out “Senator Helms” in the salutation and wrote “Jesse” above it.↩
- See Document 133.↩
- Scowcroft signed the letter “Brent” above his typed signature.↩