general and complete disarmament"," which constituted a further development of the Soviet proposals of 18 September 1959" and 2 June 1960." The Soviet Government is deeply convinced that the proposal offers a good basis for the preparation and conclusion of a treaty on general and complete disarmament. The substance of the Soviet proposals is as follows:

The Soviet Government proposes that, in three successive stages over a period of four years, or some other mutually agreed period, all States should carry out complete disarmament; in other words, that they should completely and definitively eliminate all their armed forces, armaments, military production and military installations and establishments.

In the first stage, lasting for approximately one to one and a half years, the manufacture of means of delivering nuclear weapons will be discontinued and all such means of delivery will be destroyed. During this same stage all foreign military bases in the territories of other countries will be eliminated and all foreign troops will be withdrawn from such territories. The strength of national armed forces will be substantially reduced, the force level for the USSR and the United States of America being fixed at 1.7 million men. Conventional weapons and military expenditures will be reduced correspondingly.

States having nuclear weapons at their disposal will undertake not to transfer such weapons, or to transmit information necessary for their manufacture, to States which do not possess them. States not possessing nuclear weapons will refrain from manufacturing them.

What would be the situation resulting from the implementation of the disarmament measures provided for in the first stage of the Soviet programme? In the first place, it must be pointed out that when all means of delivering nuclear weapons-war rockets of all ranges, military aircraft, submarines and surface warships, artillery capable of firing nuclear missiles, etc.-have been eliminated and States no longer maintain armed forces and military installations outside their own borders, the threat of attack by one country against another with atomic and hydrogen weapons will be virtually eliminated. For the sake of achieving this great goal the Soviet Union has even expressed its readiness to begin disarmament with the destruction of all means of delivering nuclear weapons, in spite of the fact that it enjoys a universally recognized superiority in the most modern and efficient means of this kind, namely, in intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The Soviet Union cannot overlook the following circumstance: the elimination of any particular type of nuclear-weapon carrier-for example, of only intercontinental rockets-would put States in an unequal position. Intercontinental rockets are only one of the means of delivering nuclear weapons. A target may be destroyed with nuclear weapons with the help of aircraft operating either from land bases or from aircraft-carriers. Nuclear weapons may also be used by long-range artillery and submarines. To isolate the one question of ballistic missiles would be to place in a privileged position those States which have covered the whole world with their military bases. That is why it is necessary to bring about the simultaneous elimination of all means of delivering nuclear weapons without exception and of military bases in foreign territories.

It must also be pointed out that, not only at each separate stage of the Soviet proposals but within the framework of the whole programme, the disarmament measures are linked together in such a way that their implementation would not create a military advantage for any country or group of countries.

The implementation of all the measures in the first stage of the Soviet disarmament programme will mean a significant reduction in the armed forces and armaments of States as well as the prevention of a wider dissemination of nuclear weapons. All this will not only stop the dangerous arms race but

10 U.N. doc. A/4505; Documents on Disarmament, 1960 (Department of State publication 7172), pp. 241-248. See also American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1960, pp. 715–718.

"See ibid., 1959, pp. 1264–1271. 13 See ibid., 1960, pp. 702-703.

will also substantially reduce the possibility of the outbreak of a military conflict.

As can be seen, the Soviet Union is in favour of proceeding, immediately, at the very beginning of the implementation of the programme of general and complete disarmament, to carry out effective disarmament measures, which at the same time are bound to have a beneficial effect upon the international situation as a whole. Of course, the goal-the complete elimination of the threat of war-will not have been reached with the completion of the first stage. States will continue to have at their disposal the weapons of mass destruction themselves as well as rather considerable armed forces and conventional armaments. The proposals of the Government of the USSR accordingly provide that after the international control body and the Security Council are satisfied that all States have fulfilled their obligations with respect to this stage, the States will proceed to take subsequent disarmament measures constituting the second and third stages.

In the second stage, the Soviet Government proposes the implementation of the complete prohibition of nuclear, chemical, biological and other weapons of mass destruction, including the cessation of the manufacture and the elimination of stockpiles of such weapons, and the carrying out of a further reduetion of national armed forces with a corresponding reduction in armaments, military technical equipment and military expenditures.

However, the Soviet Government takes the position that matters must not stop even here. In order to reach general and complete disarmament it is necessary to go still further and, in the third stage, complete the elimination of the armed forces and armaments of all States, cease military production. abolish war ministries, general staffs and military and para-military establishments and organizations of every kind, as well as discontinue the appropriation of funds for military purposes.

The Soviet Government considers it necessary to draw attention to the fact that its proposals contain control provisions which have been worked out thoroughly and in detail. The proposals provide that from the very beginning disarmament measures-both the process of disarmament as a whole and each measure separately-will proceed under strict and effective control. With this in view, immediately after the entry into force of the treaty on general and complete disarmament an international control organization is to be set up which will have at its disposal in all countries parties to the treaty its own staff, recruited on an international basis. This organization is to station its inspectors and control officers in the territories of States in such a way as to enable them to proceed to perform their duties at the very moment when States begin to implement disarmament measures. It follows that the Soviet Union does not by any means propose to begin with disarmament and only later to establish control, as certain people in the West are trying tendentiously to make out.

The Soviet proposals contain detailed provisions concerning the structure and functions of the control organization. They provide, in particular, that the control organization is to comprise all States parties to the treaty, whose representatives are to consider all matters arising out of the implementation of effective control over disarmament. A conference is to elect a control council, which will be responsible for the practical administration of the entire control system, will draw up instructions and will in good time analyse and process the reports rendered to it.

What ought the composition of this council to be? In the view of the Soviet Government, the control council will consist of representatives of socialist countries, of representatives of States now members of Western military and political alliances, and of representatives of neutral States. In proposing this composition of the control council, the Soviet Union bases itself on the real situation which has come about in the world, on the need to secure the interests of all three main groups of States.

The Soviet programme of general and complete disarmament is based on the necessity of ensuring equal conditions with respect to control for all parties to the agreement. This constitutes a guarantee that the control organi

zation will not become a weapon in the hands of any isolated group of States but will be a body that expresses and safeguards the interests of all.

Control measures should be indissolubly linked with specific disarmament measures and should be adapted to these measures. What is important is disarmament, not control. Control is a means of verifying the fulfilment by States of this or that disarmament measure. Control in isolation, not linked to disarmament measures, would become an international system of legalized espionage.

How does the Soviet Union apply this principle in its proposals? In the Soviet programme the task of control, its functions and powers, would constantly expand as the disarmament process was carried out, embracing more and more new fields.

As has already been stated, the first stage of the programme proposed by the Soviet Government envisages the destruction of all means of delivery of nuclear weapons to their targets, together with the dismantling of foreign military bases, a substantial reduction of armed forces and conventional weapons and several other measures. The Soviet plan also includes appropriate provisions for control over these measures.

In the first stage, on-site international control would be established for the elimination of all means which could be used as vehicles for the delivery of atomic and nuclear weapons. The control organization would have the right to inspect all undertakings, plants, factories and shipyards formerly used entirely or in part for the production of rockets, aircraft, surface warships, submarines and other means of delivery of nuclear weapons. In addition, the international control teams dispatched by the control organization would have the right to carry out a thorough inspection of rocket devices launched for peaceful scientific uses and to be present at their launching.

The Soviet proposals also include effective control measures for on-the-spot verification of the disbanding of troops and the destruction of conventional weapons. They enumerate specifically and in detail the tasks and functions of the controllers.

Similarly, control measures are formulated for the second and third stages of the Soviet programme of general and complete disarmament.

Should the control organization be maintained after the programme of general and complete disarmament has been carried out? The Soviet Government's plan provides that even after the entire programme of general and complete disarmament has been put into effect, the control organization will continue to function and to maintain constant supervision to ensure that no State secretly resumes war production and begins again to build up armed forces. Given conditions of general and complete disarmament, the most thorough control must be exercised. The control organs must be assured of free access to all places without any so-called veto, any prohibition, any limitation from any quarter whatsoever, including the State in whose territory control is being exercised. The inspectors should have free entry at all times and in all places.

The Soviet Union is a consistent advocate of really effective and strict disarmament control. The Soviet Union is not a whit less desirous than the Western Powers that the agreement on general and complete disarmament should be carried out by all States, and is doing everything within its own power to prevent the problem of control from becoming a stumbling-block on the road to disarmament. The control system envisaged in the Soviet proposals is a reliable and adequate one. If the United States and other Western Powers do not agree to it, then the Soviet Government, as Mr. N. S. Khrushchev, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, has repeatedly stated, is ready to accept any control proposals put forward by the Western Powers, on condition that they for their part agree to accept the Soviet Union's proposals on general and complete disarmament.

It is of great importance that agreement should be reached on the principle that in the course of the negotiations a single treaty on general and complete disarmament should be worked out and concluded, covering all stages of such a disarmament programme and setting precise dates for the completion both of the various stages and of the disarmament programme as a whole. Any failure to reach agreement on the entire programme might enable the opponents of disarmament, resorting to ruses of various kinds, to delay or even prevent the im

plementation of disarmament measures. Only if there is a definite agreement, together with precisely specified time-limits for its implementation, will the obligations assumed by States under the terms of the treaty on general and complete disarmament have any reality.

In view of the urgent need for a solution of the disarmament problem, the Soviet Government considers that States should exert themselves to the utmost to carry out a disarmament programme within the shortest possible time. Aecordingly, the Soviet Union proposes that the programme of general and complete disarmament should be carried out within a period of four to five years. In proposing this time-limit the Soviet Union has had due regard to the actual ability of States to dismantle their war machines and convert their economies to peaceful aims.

The Soviet Union is ready to study other proposals regarding time-limits for the implementation of the programme of general and complete disarmament. In any case, however, the agreed time-limit should be entirely specific and as short as possible.

Such are the main provisions of the Soviet Union's most recent proposals of general and complete disarmament.

In working out these proposals the Soviet Government has met the Western Powers half way on a number of important points. The Soviet Union has reconsidered the order of implementation of the measures envisaged in the programme of complete and general disarmament. In including among the measures to be carried out during the first stage the elimination of means of delivery of nuclear weapons, the USSR has taken into account the view expressed by France, notably through the mouth of President de Gaulle of France during his talks with Mr. Khrushchev, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, in Apri! 1960. The Soviet Government still hopes that this approach may facilitate the achievement of agreement with the Western Powers on the entire programme of general and complete disarmament.

13

The Soviet Union has taken into account the statements of representatives of the Western Powers that from the first stage, measures relating to nuclear weapons should be combined with measures for the reduction of armed forces and conventional weapons. To that end, the Soviet proposals envisage a substantial reduction in the armed forces and conventional weapons of States at the very first stage.

As the United States and other Western Powers have repeatedly stated in the course of the disarmament negotiations that the placing in orbit or stationing in outer space of devices capable of carrying weapons of mass destruction should be prohibited from the very beginning, a provision to that effect is included in the Soviet proposals along with other disarmament measures. In accordance with the wishes expressed, in particular, by the United States, the Soviet Government has included in its proposals a provision that rockets should be launched for peaceful scientific purposes only and that such launchings should be subject to agreed control measures, including on-the-spot inspection of the rocketlaunching sites. Considering that these measures are included among the measures to be applied during the first stage, there is every justification for the view that the United States should be satisfied with the fulfilment of its wishes concerning the prohibition of the use of cosmic space for military purposes.

The Soviet Union has also taken into consideration in its programme the proposal on the prevention of the wider dissemination of nuclear weapons. As is known, a resolution on this question was supported by a majority of States at the fifteenth session of the General Assembly."

The Soviet Government cannot fail to take into account the fact that the elaboration of a treaty on general and complete disramament will require of all participants in the negotiations patience, mutual respect for the interests of the parties, and flexibility. The Soviet Government is ready, as in the past, to enter into such negotiations. In that connexion it would like to stress once again that the settlement of the disarmament problem depends to a large extent on agreement between the Soviet Union and the United States of America. Such

13 See ibid., pp. 396-398.

14 Text ibid., pp. 766-767.

agreement, if it were reached, would be a major step towards the strengthening of peace and a great blessing to all mankind.

The Soviet Government hopes that such negotiations, like the bilateral exchange of views on disarmament questions between the Soviet Union and the United States, will facilitate the efforts to find a solution of the disarmament problem acceptable to all parties, in the interests of all the peoples of the world.

556. TERMINATION OF THE WASHINGTON PHASE OF THE UNITED STATES-SOVIET BILATERAL TALKS ON DISARMAMENT: Joint Communiqué Issued at Washington by Representatives of the United States and the U.S.S.R., June 30, 1961 15

Representatives of the Governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, who have been exchanging views in Washington since June 19 on questions relating to disarmament and the resumption of negotiations in an appropriate body whose composition is to be agreed upon, have agreed to recess their further meetings until July 17.

The meetings will resume in Moscow in accordance with an understanding reached between representatives of the two Governments prior to June 19 that the first half of the discussions would be held in Washington and the second half in Moscow.

THE MOSCOW PHASE OF

UNITED STATES-SOVIET BILATERAL DISCUSSIONS ON GENERAL DISARMAMENT (JULY 17–29, 1961)

557. UNITED STATES REVISED DRAFT PURPOSES AND PRINCIPLES TO BE CONSIDERED IN GENERAL DISARMAMENT NEGOTIATIONS: Statement Submitted by the U.S. Delegation at the Soviet-U.S. Bilateral Talks, Moscow, July 17, 1961 16

The goal of negotiations should be to achieve full agreement on a program of total universal controlled disarmament which will be accompanied by the further development of reliable procedures for the peaceful settlement of disputes and of effective arrangements for the maintenance of peace in accordance with the principles of the United Nations Charter.

Total and universal disarmament should be understood to mean that the forces and military establishments, including bases, of all

15

Department of State press release No. 466 (text as printed in the Department of State Bulletin, July 17, 1961, p. 106).

10 Documents on Disarmament, 1961, pp. 246–247.