SALT II, 1972-1980 -- Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976, Volume XXXIII

Washington: U.S. Governent Printing Office. Fine. 2013. First Edition. Hardcover. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976; xxviii, 1020 pages; Clean and secure in original red cloth binding with gilt lettering at spine. Unread, virtually as new. The "Foreign Relations of the United States "volumes of the series include all records needed to provide comprehensive documentation of major foreign policy decisions and actions of the United States Government. The documentation in this volume illuminates the sustained high-level attention to the negotiations and the difficulties involved in establishing agreement--first on U.S. Government positions and negotiating strategies and then with the Soviet Union. This volume picks up where "Foreign Relations," 1969-1976, Vol. XXXII, SALT I, 1969-1972 (Print ISBN: 9780160784019) leaves off, with the Nixon administration working to establish objectives and negotiating positions beginning in October 1972. This work is represented primarily through the internal memoranda drafted by National Security Council staff members; the formal interagency process is reflected in minutes of the Verification Panel and the National Security Council, with the subsequent decisions reflected in six National Security Decision Memoranda. As in previous volumes, the reader encounters extraordinary working relationships between top U.S. and Soviet interlocutors in the form of Henry Kissinger's backchannel with Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin and his negotiations with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, as well as Nixon's summit with Brezhnev in June 1974, a period in which his presidency was collapsing. Throughout these three administrations, critics of the SALT II deliberations warned of the implications for the strategic balance. In a time of rapid modernization and expansion in Soviet strategic forces, they were especially anxious about the divergence between the United States and Soviet Union when it came to missile throw-weight, an asymmetry of particular concern with the advent of MIRV'd ICBMs. The selections in the this volume include letters from Senator Henry Jackson outlining his concerns; NSC minutes and other memoranda of conversation portray him as a constant thorn in the side of the White House and the Department of State. .