THE BUREAUCRATIC SALT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400400058-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 8, 2004
• Sequence Number: 58
• Publication Date: January 13, 1976
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Releas 29@ '(0lf RC M-1D*PI31,4RU "tfd-4
1-4 January 1976 ----
the Bureaucratic - SALT4
By ROBERT.L. BARTLEY -
'Secretary -of- State- KisSinger~will. be.
Saying off to Moscow,' perhaps as. soon as
this coming weekend,- in- an effort- to firm.
Zip a- second - strategic arms pact:witf- the=
Soviet Union:' In` doing. so, he is, briishing
off -both- Soviet- Activities-An-'Ango,la and
charges by former U.S. defense--officials.
that-the Soviets are cheating on the first:
arms pact
Some of these charges were. detailed in-
-an article in this space on Decem-ber,.19. Its.
theme-awasthat theP Soviets.' have been ems'
hibiting.-shyster hke behavior on SALT-I,'
which concerns easily monitored 'thingsi-
lie huge missile- aifos; and that thus it
-would: be foolish to rely on SALT-II'1p limit'
their-:deployment of small and elusive
cruise missile's t.. s
To, the. charges of. Soviet: misbehavior
Secretary: Kissinger hoffersa1undairientally?
dom-:aggrees there are no t`violations,,, so:
impress some?people,,atleast'to judge by a
'
column lit The wash!ngtori Post by Stephen
S. P.osenield. So-a few-words are needed on,
_
sures us that in the Verification Panel, 'a
.high-level inter-agency. group on SALT, all,
decisions have been unanimous In fact,
e.-To k C6j-Q-OJLA
CIA
g~ 5c.
In ,the meekitig Mr: ~Kissir,ger bargained (.-
.with . Admiral ' Thorrias' 1'r: ' Mbbrer, chair ? me
man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Penta- .me
gon.,wanted a speed-up of development of rec
new Trident .submarines, and Mr. Kissin- 'pwr
ger asked how many boats the Russians ! con
would have without an agreement by'1978, ',Dr.
when the first Tridents could be'ready. The ,Judi
answer was 80, and Mr. Kissinger said the = have violates any of the. SALT. agreements.
agreement should hold them to a lower If the Director .believe3,that the. Soviets
meaning of the exchange between, Kissin
ger._ and _Moorer. was clear to those who
SLBM deal- that, gave the''Soviets nearly
~haif.. again as many missile-carrying sub-
Trident program But the, - SALT. deal had
a]ready beeli`= "woi:ked out" between Mr.: rIfssinger na' Secretary Brezhnev:' rilr.`
-Kissinger ;;oricealed' thus information from I
with'and manipulated-its members-to win
their'acquiesence to the Soviet proposals
.` Having ordered the-bur-
eauCracy31Ot "t(7, and viola
If)I2S '- ('? - tary.. loss n,~er
'
tnou--asks us to '.take comfort
-
1 Ithe fact-that the bureau
CraC has, -found nQ viola-
the Verification Panel- s.a discussion and.
whether . there As any;
meaningful sense iri:which it makes deci~
sions is a moot question. ":bar ' in forum;, ' g ~~- _ Certainly it does; 31ot operate by voting, as Mr. Kissnger's-p-ens there'-might berunderstoad by stud
yp
In- the way SALT X'.was .negotiated; as. d'e
scribed by John Newhouse . In '.`Corot
Dawn,-,'a - -book written= on" information
probably supplied-. with lLr.: Kissinger's aux.
thorization.:. fi .
negotia
One issue 'staling. fta he . Sr ALTI. r?
'tiens was.. `submax ne launched' ballistic
missiles;,the?U-Schad a numerical lead but.'
+hc+ cavipts were building'.rapidly. In April
Nowr comes Secreaiyl:issinger"to poin# fo
?'iirianimous", V'enficatron Panel' decisions..
as r'reason for confidence In the ludg-
entsIof government" official
m dom
filial the issue of'Soviet' compliance with
SALT-1 has been treated air a similar-fash-
ion can?'scarceily7be;tlou'bteid by-anyone who-;
Nixon's security .advisor-flew off to bios
cow; Congressman Pike's "SE.lect Committee on
so secretly that eentlie head of the Intelligence: A 1973`memn to the acting di-
T deledation'did-not know he was rector-of the CIA from Edward W. Proeto1;
U S S.
,
b . . -
-there'-In those; meetiimgs-- Soviet Party 1 deputy director for iiite:lligence; corriplainai
Chairman Brezhne'r$aid:submarines could, that'24 days=-after detection of a possible
be?included in the agreement if the Soviets violation,'the ="information :was= still being
.
iwere-.alIowed 62`submarines with 950 mis `ylthheld from;-' among others;' Secretary-?of
silos,'compared with the theft-existing U.S. State Rogers the- headof'our SAL delega
:'.-A Verification*PaneUmeeting'-has been,
scheduledfor;;April-,`2$: ,One- : conceivable
lion;, and _our' represenl:afive td they Stand-
s=
ing Consultative Commiori;`'they-Soviet American body that-- deals with passible
way to roceed.would.harve been to put the 'l violations
Soviet offer on the table for discussion ands 'A,principal'reason.for-establishmentof.
decision, unanimous or otherwise: Instead,], the 'h?Id' on th'is information, was to insure
Mr. Kissinger 'pondered- the' probleni of that -there be no leakal;e while the Soviets
,holy.to-move lvhatMr-?Newhouse describes I were. being "queried 'on the matter," the
as; a..'deal..worked out"..-from the "back memo, reads.' In short, Mr. Kissinger was.
finger ,ordered ;a. briefing paper` on what he tried to strike a bargain with the Rus-
'
"
'
Russians
submarine"numbers-thz
might. sians. The CIA concern over, Mr. Kissin- prdpose":(italics:-from the original). The ger's habit`of.withholding information is
mid-range number turned otyq *&1Fio *=dnO?5 2r.-eMAdFgpn8-O1315ROOO4OO4OOO58-4
the meeting was convened, 'blc.,,Newhouse ,"gev' concrete- assurance from ' Dr.' Kistn-
" reports,?'.some; -though probably not all of : gec?:that the President:is aware.of-the deer
the"PAn paLs knew that-Bmz tnev had-put sion_,to,withhoid this?information.from key.1
eject of a memorandum 'from: him to Dr.
Kissinger. The judgment tliat-a violation is'.
considered. to have occurred-,is one that
will be made at the.NSC level
Having ordered the"bureaucracy not to
'find violations; Secretary."' Kissinger now
asks us to take coinfortan--the'factthat the
.bureauracy has,found-no-violations-. , ..;:-
To be fair, the words " NSC level" could
in' practice ineari Mr. Kissinger's. personal
NSC'staff, or-theycould mean -the official
members- of-the National' Security;- Council.
, Dr.,;Kissinger_. has said-that; there, is
Mer. ora jdum by department,. heads oe
chiefs ,of, staff raising- `any ,of the issues"_..
`recently- discussed, This. is spectacularly
untrue in at.least one instance, since in his
closing days as Chief of Naval Operations,'
Admiral E. R. Zumwalt sent a personal
letter to President .'Nixon raising. among
other things, Soviet compliance with SALT.
73efore:?the' assembled NSC,`the former
"
cheap
President dismissed the letter, as a
shot.
political future, andlater.much of. his polit-
ical survivalon detente'-and SALT;: His
treatment --of ;Admiral, 7umwalt's letter
served to bring home -the point: Do` not
press the compliance issue unless you are
prepared to resign
held -finfcrtmlation, =some,- Senators `have#
-started to worry about whether anything {
'was withheld from them 4vhen they. ratified
the - 19172' accords' In particular,' some of
`them are intria ed lay Secretary Kissin--
ger's December'9 statement that the Soviet
Union has "specifically disavowed" Ameri-,
caii' unilateral statements iarticularly-, the
one defining' the "heavy -' ' missile"limited:
but left undefined in'the!i'rormal pact. The;
'Senators would like to knoi the date of this.
. 'specific disavowal ' ginde when ratifica-.
lion Nvas'pending Mr.,Kissinger mentioned
.no such--thing,-.though-`h~: did: point to? the
terms -o'f"- the unilateral ,statement': a
, "safeguard s `a: r a
"'Cho Soviets have ln{,fact deployed 'mis-
siles: that clearly breach the U.S: 'defini-
'tion, in the process increasing their missile
throw' iveight,or lifting power, to an extent
-other parts of the treaty'were intended' to
'preclude.`Today , U S officialdom'does hat
'Consider this a violation:' :The, impression'
13.5: officialdom succeeded irrleaving Viii
'197213 recorded by Mr I`lewhouser , ' '