Arms Control and Disarmament


1. Notes of Conversations

Source: Glenn T. Seaborg, Journal of Glenn T. Seaborg, Chairman, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, 1961-1971, Vol. 7, pp. 187-188. No classification marking. Seaborg kept a handwritten journal that he edited into a typescript in 1985. It is the edited, typed version that appears in the published Journal. Of the 25 volumes, plus 3 volumes of appendices, Volumes 7-17 cover the Johnson presidency. Copies of the Journal are available through research libraries and institutions, including the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the Presidential Libraries of Kennedy and Johnson, and the libraries of the University of California at Berkeley and Los Angeles.


2. Memorandum From the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy) to Secretary of Defense McNamara

Source: Washington National Records Center, RG 330, OASD/ISA Files: FRC 68 A 306, 388.3, January 11-16, 1964. Secret. Attached to another copy of Bundy’s memorandum is a January 15 memorandum from ACDA Director William C. Foster to the Committee of Principals, recommending that Bundy’s memorandum serve as the agenda for their meeting on January 16 and transmitting a list of working papers for use as reference material. The list covers three areas: nuclear containment, immediate reductions or limitations of arms, and observation posts. (Johnson Library, National Security File, Subject File, Disarmament—ACDA Publications, Vol. I, Box 11)


4. Notes of Meeting

Source: Seaborg, Journal, Vol. 7, pp. 251-252. No classification marking.


5. Memorandum From Spurgeon M. Keeny, Jr., of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy)

Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Subject File, Disarmament, Vol. 1, Box 10. Secret.


6. Memorandum From the Legal Adviser (Chayes) to the Deputy Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (Johnson)

Source: Department of State, S/S-RD Files: Lot 71 D 171. Secret; Restricted Data. Drafted by Thomas Ehrlich (L). The meeting was held in the White House Situation Room. For another account of this meeting, see Seaborg, Journal, Vol. 7, p. 348. Seaborg’s version gives the time and place of the meeting.


7. National Security Action Memorandum No. 282

Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Subject File, Nuclear Testing, General, Vol. I, Box 27. Secret.


8. Memorandum of Conversation

Source: Department of State, Central Files, DEF 18. Secret. Drafted by M. Gordon Knox (EUR/BNA) and approved in S on February 26. The source text is labeled “Part II of V.” The meeting was held at the White House.


9. Memorandum of Conversation

Source: Department of State, Presidential Memoranda of Conversation: Lot 66 D 149. Secret. Drafted by Knox and approved in S on February 20 and by the White House on February 24. The source text is labeled “Part II of II.” On February 12-13 in Washington, Prime Minister Douglas-Home and President Johnson had their first working meetings since assuming the leadership of their respective governments.


11. Oral Message From President Johnson to Chairman Khrushchev

Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Head of State Correspondence File, Pen Pal Correspondence, Khrushchev (2), Box 8. No classification marking. Regarding the decision to send this message, see Document 10. In a memorandum to McGeorge Bundy, February 18, Fisher attached an undated draft of the proposed message to Khrushchev. (Johnson Library, National Security File, Head of State Correspondence File, Pen Pal Correspondence, Khrushchev (2), Box 8) Fisher’s draft is similar to the source text but more directly proposed “appropriate inspection of some of the closed facilities,” such as President Johnson had already offered for one of the U.S. reactors that was being shut down. A similar draft to Fisher’s, dated February 18, is reproduced in Seaborg, Journal, Vol. 8, p. 23.


12. Memorandum From the Joint Chiefs of Staff to Secretary of Defense McNamara

Source: Washington National Records Center, RG 330, OASD/ISA Files: FRC 68 A 4023, 388.3 (January-February 1964). Top Secret; Restricted Data. Attached is a February 24 covering memorandum from Barber to Fisher enclosing copies of this memorandum and JCSM-147-64, entitled “Basic Elements of a Freeze.” JCSM-147-64 has not been found.


13. Memorandum of Conversation

Source: Department of State, Central Files, DEF 18. Confidential. Drafted by David H. Henry (EUR/SOV) on February 28 and approved in S on March 9. The source text is labeled “Part I of VII.” The conversation was held in the Secretary’s office. In a memorandum to Secretary Rusk, February 26, Fisher provided talking points for this meeting. (Washington National Records Center,RG 383, ACDA/D Files: FRC 77 A 52, Memos to the Secretary, 1964)


14. Notes of Meeting

Source: Seaborg, Journal, Vol. 7, pp. 424, 429-430. No classification marking. Here and elsewhere, Seaborg has inserted reproduced documents in the Journal, which account for the interrupted pagination.


15. Oral Message From Chairman Khrushchev to President Johnson

Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Head of State Correspondence File, Pen Pal Correspondence, Khrushchev (2), Box 8. No classification marking. Attached is a March 2 memorandum from Thompson to Secretary Rusk, indicating that Dobrynin gave Thompson the oral message at 10 a.m. that morning. After reading the message, Thompson remarked that “the reply did not refer to the President’s suggestion that we might accept inspection of closed plants. The Ambassador said he had no further instructions, but remarked that traditional Soviet policy was ‘no inspection without actual disarmament.’”


16. Telegram From the Embassy in the Soviet Union to the Department of State

Source: Department of State, Central Files, DEF 18. Confidential. Repeated to Berlin, Bonn, London, Paris, USUN, and Geneva.


17. Notes of Meeting

Source: Seaborg, Journal, Vol. 8, pp. 8 and 30. No classification marking.


18. Oral Message From President Johnson to Chairman Khrushchev

Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Head of State Correspondence File, Pen Pal Correspondence, Khrushchev (2), Box 8. No classification marking.


19. Letter From the Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (Foster) to Secretary of Defense McNamara

Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Subject File, Disarmament, ACDA Publications, Vol. II, Box 12. Secret.


20. Letter From the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (Seaborg) to President Johnson

Source: Seaborg, Journal, Vol. 8, pp. 171-173. The source text, originally classified, has been sanitized. All deletions are in the source text. Though the source text is undated, Seaborg’s Journal confirms that Seaborg wrote the letter on March 25. (Ibid., p. 169) The source text was sent under cover of a March 25 memorandum from Seaborg to McGeorge Bundy. (Ibid., p. 170) It is an account of his meeting with Penny on March 24, which Bundy asked Seaborg to write after hearing Seaborg’s oral report about it. (Ibid., pp. 162-163, 169)


22. Oral Message From President Johnson to Chairman Khrushchev

Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Head of State Correspondence File, Pen Pal Correspondence, Khrushchev (2), Box 8. No classification marking.


23. Oral Message From Chairman Khrushchev to President Johnson

Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Intelligence File, Arms Control Messages Exchanged Between President Johnson and Chairman, USSR, Vol. 1, Box 11. No classification marking. A typed notation on the source text indicates that the date refers to the day the message was received.


24. Oral Message From Chairman Khrushchev to President Johnson

Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Intelligence File, Arms Control Messages Exchanged Between President Johnson and Chairman, USSR, Vol. I, Box 11. No classification marking.


26. Oral Message From President Johnson to Chairman Khrushchev

Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Intelligence File, Arms Control Messages Exchanged Between President Johnson and Chairman, USSR, Vol. 1, Box 11. No classification marking.


27. Memorandum From the Deputy Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (Johnson) to the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy)

Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Subject File, Nuclear Testing—General, Vol. 1, Box 27. Secret.


28. Letter From Director of Central Intelligence McCone to the Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (Foster)

Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Subject File, Disarmament,ACDA Publications, Vol. III, Box 12. Secret. The source text is attached to a June 18 memorandum from Fisher to members of the Committee of Principals.


30. Memorandum From David Klein of the National Security Council Staff and Steven R. Rivkin of the President’s Office of Science and Technology to the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy) and the President’s Science Adviser (Hornig)

Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Subject File, Disarmament, Vol. 1, Box 10. No classification marking. A handwritten note on the source text reads, “McGB: For your mtg with Butch Fisher this afternoon. DK” The source text is signed only by Rivkin.