8. Memorandum From Linton Brooks of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Scowcroft)1
SUBJECT
- Arms Control Review
Attached is a proposed NSR2 for the arms control review along with a forwarding memorandum3 to the President. The draft has been informally reviewed by Paul Wolfowitz (Defense), Jon Howe (JCS), Ron Lehman (prospective ACDA) and Reggie Bartholomew (State), as well as by our working level contacts in DOE and the DCI’s staff.
We have assigned due dates which, except for START and Defense and Space, are optimistic but attainable. Due dates for START and Defense and Space are exceptionally ambitious but are necessary in order to complete an initial review by early May. We think it is important to have this first pass through the START issues completed by then in light of (a) the President’s commitment to make tentative decisions in April and to complete the review by May 9, and (b) Secretary [Page 32] Baker’s May 10-12 ministerial meeting in Moscow where, he told Dubinin, “he would be in a position to discuss NST [Nuclear and Space Talks] in detail.”
Because the schedule for START is so ambitious and so important, we have included considerable detail (due dates, etc.) in the NSR itself. While we would normally not include this level of detail in a Presidential document, in this case we think we need the strongest impetus we can get behind the review if we are to have any chance of finishing on time. Nick Rostow has discussed this with Boyden Gray, who has no problem with our approach.
As part of the review, we task the Arms Control PCC with determining a date for resumption of START talks. The schedule laid out in the NSR protects a date as early as mid-June. We think anything earlier is unrealistic. Our guess is that the review will raise dozens of issues for decision, if only because many of the decisions made in the past year will be reopened by agencies which were on the losing side.
The review of areas other than START and Defense and Space is straightforward. The conventional arms control tasking includes those items agreed at the recent Deputies Committee review of European relations. The tasking on Nuclear Weapons Free Zones meets your commitment to the Australian Foreign Minister that we would review the topic. Finally, the NSR tasks a review of so-called “naval arms control.” While there is no enthusiasm for either the topic or reviewing it anywhere in government (including on the NSC staff), naval arms control is a major Soviet propaganda initiative and we think it essential the President be able to say he has reviewed it.
We have omitted all mention of non-proliferation from this NSR. The question of whether the Arms Control PCC or another body will deal with such issues has not been decided. Because we believe it is vital to distribute the Arms Control NSR in the next few days, we have elected not to wait for the resolution of that issue; once it is resolved we believe follow-on tasking to review our proliferation policy will be appropriate.
RECOMMENDATION
That you sign the memorandum to the President at Tab I forwarding the arms control NSR for his approval.4
Nick Rostow, Nancy Menan, Don Mahley, Will Tobey, Judyt Mandel, Bob Blackwill, Condi Rice and Phil Zelikow concur.5
- Source: George H.W. Bush Library, Bush Presidential Records, National Security Council, Richard A. Davis Files, Subject Files, OA/ID CF01590–009, Arms Control PCC [2]. Secret. Sent for action. Sent through Kanter. Brackets are in the original. A stamped notation at the top of the memorandum reads: “Signed.”↩
- Attached but not printed. See Document 10.↩
- Attached but not printed. See Document 9.↩
- Scowcroft indicated his approval.↩
- Brooks bracketed this line and wrote in the left-hand margin: “ALL CONCUR IN DRAFT.”↩