In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

PROLOGUE This volume, in addition to being a personal history, is intended as a chronicle of the U.S. arms control and disarmament policymaking process during the late twentieth century. It is also an accounting of the role played in that process by the agency for which I worked for twenty-seven years, the United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA). This book sets forth my personal recollections of the events described and is not a precise, exact accounting of the subject. In this, I am motivated by the style of General Douglas MacArthur's autobiography entitled Reminiscences , which I read many years ago. It has no footnotes and does not pretend to be objective. My purpose is to tell a story in an interesting way, while attempting to record the facts of those times and the issues as honestly as I can remember them. I do have some notes and tapes, but they are secondary. This book is written largely from recollection rather than research. Thus, I beg the reader's indulgence as I present my reminiscences and opinions. I should also note that quotation marks are often used throughout, not usually to present a precise quote, but rather to set forth the gist of what I remember from the conversation and to present the story in a conversational format. Onlyoccasionally will I present precise excerpts or quotes, which will be indicated. "Arms control, non-proliferation, and disarmament" is the phrase used to describe the subject of this volume. It used to be called "arms control and disarmament," with non-proliferation considered a subset of arms control. In distinguishing between arms control and disarmament, arms control could be said to refer to limitations, either numerical or otherwise, placed on a particular class of arms, while disarmament could be used to refer to the elimination of a certain type of armament. Disarmament can mean reductions as well as elimination, however. But the two terms were and are often used interchangeably. With the end of the Cold War and the increased threat of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction as the principal threat to the security ofthe civilized world, non-proliferation has been receiving separate billing. Thus, I shall use in these pages the two terms "arms control" and "disarmament" interchangeably to mean all forms of arms limitation and regulation, including both reduction and elimination, and shall not repeat the phrase "arms control, non-proliferation, and disarmament," or "arms control and disarmament," except when necessary for clarity. Often, I shall simply use the word "disarmament," which is the word in longest usage of the three and is the most eloquent. U.S. policy in these areas is developed and established by the president and his national security bureaucracy. The general practice of past presidential adminXlll istrations has been to establish committees for various disarmament subjects such as the test ban, chemical weapons, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), conventional armed forces in Europe, strategic nuclear arms negotiations , intermediate-range nuclear arms, etc., at the assistant secretary level. In the national security policy process, they report to a deputies committee, which reports to a committee of agency principals (or agency heads). For the most part, the principals committee meetings are chaired by the assistant to the president for national security affairs-the national security advisor. The other members of the disarmament principals committee during my government career were the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, the director of central intelligence (DCI), the director of ACDA, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Jcs), and, depending on the issue, the secretary of energy, who has authority over the nation's nuclear stockpile. This committee operates on the basis ofconsensus; ifany member dissents from a proposed course of action, the issue is sent for decision to the president, who is advised of the views of the committee by the national security advisor. The National Security Council (NSC), a statutory committee actually chaired by the president with many of the same cabinet officials as members or advisors, also exists, but is rarely used for developing disarmament policy. The deputies committee is composed of the same agencies but is represented at the deputy level, for example, the deputy national security advisor as chairman, the deputy secretary of state, and the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It too operates on the basis of consensus. If an issue can be settled at the deputies level it does not proceed to the...

Share