HOPE FOR EARLY SALT ACCORD HAS ALL BUT VANISHED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400400029-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 9, 2004
• Sequence Number: 29
• Publication Date: December 21, 1977
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2005/01/12 :CIA-RDP88-01315R00 09V
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By Henry S. Bradsher. { Much of the skepticism has de-
washingtonStar Staff Writer veloped out of attitudes in the Penta-
in some
h
d
l
d
ec
o
a
ou
: resident Carter said the other ! gon,that fin
w that he has "gotten to know (the Capitol Hill offices. The most active
office has been that of Sen.. Henry M.
Diets} and their attitudes much
ter than before on SALT'.' and
er subjects.
ouch greater understanding has
ssed the new administration to
;tpone once again hopes for the
av strategic arms limitations treaty
it the Ford administration had'
ginalty planned to sign in the sum-
-r of 1975::,.,; .:::;...
~arter came into office hoping that
iiet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev
uld make his repeatedly delayed
it to the United States for the
eaty signing last summer. That
Aped, but Carter said in October
at "within a few weeks, we will
ve a SALT agreement that will be
pride of this country-" - .
But one of his negotiators. in
:neva said last week that "next
ring would be reasonable, but by
means certain," for concluding an
reement. Then Carter made his re-
erk about knowing Soviet attitudes
Ater at a news conference last
ZARTER CAME INTO office with
nes of getting .a' better. SALT treaty
in the one the Ford administration
d been trying unsuccessfully to
details of the rebuttal. The spokes-
man presanised'togetit',:.,~:.
The new president sought- substan-
a1 reductions in the numbers of
sategic weapons that'had been
utatively' agreed upon by Brezhnev
td then-President Gerald R. Ford in
adiVostok in November 1974. Car-
r wanted cuts made in-ways that
auld reduce the threat of huge
.vier land=based missiles to the
inuteman force of U.S. missiles
used underground across the Great
gins.
But there is now skepticism in the
!w administration about what can
agreed, written into a treaty, and
titled. d A t
Jackson, D-Wash., but enough other
senators are. concerned about the
developing SALT iI agreement to-
raise'.serious questions of a treaty's
winning approval by two-thirds of the
Senate. .
A . PRELIMINARY OUTLINE of
the new treaty came out of Secretary
of State Cyrus R. Vance's third round
of SALT negotiations with Soviet For-
eign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko
..last September. Although it was.
I fairly close to the 1974 agreement,
thus- representing an administration
es,
ho
l
p
y
retreat from many of its ear
.it contained enough controversial
points to raise warnings-of opposi-
tion.
Despite those warnings, however,
the administration has pushed ahead
on the September outline. Work on it.
in Geneva provided the basis for opti-
mistic headlines in last week's
papers, based on a news conference
.1w rnrtpr s chief arms negotiator,
hard to reduce to agreed treaty Ian-!
guage. One point is pinning down
definitions of weapons to be covered.
Another is specifying workable ways
for one side to verify that the limita-
tions are in fact observed by the
other side.
The negotiations are now in Christ-
mas recess. They will resume Jan. 9.
THE CARE IN getting precise lan-
guage is explained by some sources
as being at least partially a reaction
to the skepticism. But it also reflects
the experience of the SALT I agree-
ment. That treaty was informally
extended beyond its expiration last .
Oct. 3.
A controversy developed in 1975
over Soviet adherence to the 1972
treaty. They were accused by a nuns-
ber of leaks from within the Ford ad-
ministration and other sources of vio-
lating the spirit and sometimes the
letter of the treaty.
Melvin R. Laird renewed and ex-
panded in the current issue of
Reader's Digest charges that he firstt
made in June 1975 of Soviet cheating;
on SALT I terms. Laird was secre
tary of defense when the Nixon ad-'
ministration concluded that treaty in I
Warnke said he was "quite hopeful signing ceremony during then-Presi
SALT and two- other arms control j visit to Moscow. The haste to sign left
,and uminng muuaey iurwca. ua .,,c =a= eluded building rtlissiles larger than
than Ocean