Office of the Historian

156. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in the Soviet Union1

317002.
Washington, September 18, 1990, 2336Z

SUBJECT

  • Presidential Correspondence (S/S 9020209)

1. (S—Entire Text)

2. Embassy is requested to deliver text of letter in Para 3 from President Bush to President Gorbachev. Signed original will follow by pouch. White House does not/not intend to release letter.

3. Begin text

September 17, 1990

Dear Mr. President:

When you and I met in Helsinki,2 we reaffirmed our goal of completing the CFE and START treaties this year. I have now received a [Page 854] report3 of the just completed Bartholomew-Karpov meetings in Moscow that were intended to accelerate progress toward that goal.

I must tell you frankly that the results were very disappointing. No major issues were resolved and few differences were narrowed. Indeed, on some questions, the sides moved further apart. Put simply, we are not now on a track that will lead to the completion of either treaty this year.

As we have discussed, these agreements are keys to putting the relationship between our two countries on a new footing and building the new world order we both seek.

The START agreement will codify and regulate a more stable US-Soviet strategic nuclear balance and will provide a solid basis on which to pursue—as we also agreed at Washington—further stabilizing measures. The CFE agreement will provide the framework for the new security structure in Europe. Circumstances in Europe are, of course, changing rapidly, but I am convinced that the CFE framework can be adapted to these and other changes in follow-on negotiations. Conversely, it will be extremely difficult to manage the military aspects of those changes without the CFE framework in place. Convocation of the CSCE summit and talks about shorter-range nuclear forces both depend on completion of CFE.

You and I must take a direct role if we are to ensure that the START and CFE agreements are completed this year. Foreign Minister Shevardnadze will be in the United States for several days within the next two weeks. I am now persuaded that unless all the remaining substantive issues are resolved during the Shevardnadze visit, it will literally be impossible to complete START or CFE this year. Accordingly, we must commit ourselves to use this time intensively and wisely.

Here is what I propose. I will ensure that the U.S. side will be ready. As I told you in Helsinki, I will give Secretary Baker the flexibility he needs to reach mutually satisfactory solutions and the authority to take necessary decisions. I ask that you give Foreign Minister Shevardnadze the same flexibility and authority so that they can make best use of this last opportunity to achieve the goal we set for ourselves.

Sincerely,

George Bush

His Excellency Mikhail Gorbachev

President of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Moscow

Baker
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, Electronic Telegrams, N900007–0169. Secret; Immediate; Nodis. Drafted by Ordway, based on text from the White House; cleared by Vershbow and in S/S-O, S/S-S, and S/S; approved by Kamman.↩
  2. On September 9, Bush and Gorbachev met in Helsinki to discuss developments in the Persian Gulf in the wake of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait as well as Soviet economic reform. The memorandum of their conversation is scheduled for publication in Foreign Relations, 1989–1992, vol. III, Soviet Union, Russia, and Post-Soviet States: High-Level Contacts.↩
  3. See Document 155.↩