New Approaches to Disarmament

Report Outline
Kennedy Administration and Arms Control
1960: Year of Stalemate on Disarmament
New Lines of Attack on Arms Problem

Kennedy Administration and Arms Control

Resumption of Negotiations in New Atmosphere

Fresh Hope for agreement on a nuclear testing ban is evident as the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union prepare to resume at Geneva, March 21, the negotiations that were recessed last Dec. 5 to await the change of administrations at Washington. The United States will be represented at the three-power talks by a new team of negotiators, headed by Arthur H. Dean. President Kennedy said on Jan. 30 that this country would “resume negotiations prepared to reach a final agreement” provided the Soviet Union was willing to accept “an effective and enforceable treaty.” The administration considers the coming test ban negotiations of primary importance—as providing an indication of whether it will be possible to reach agreement with the Russians on actual disarmament and as a first step in that direction.

Release of the RB-47 fliers immediately after President Kennedy took office, and mention in cordial messages from Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev of “disarmament …with strict international control,” have suggested a readiness on the part of the U.S.S.R. for serious negotiations on arms control and related matters. Americans who attended the Sixth International Conference of Scientists in Moscow last December, including two Kennedy advisers, noted a greater willingness than in the past to discuss arms inspection and control problems.

It was reported, March 13, that the two Kennedy advisers—Jerome B. Wiesner and Walt W. Rostow, then private citizens but now occupants of White House posts. —while in Moscow informed Kremlin officials that voluntary Soviet release of the fliers was essential as a first step to improve U.S.-U.S.S.R. relations. White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger, commenting the same day on this New York Herald Tribune dispatch, said it was his understanding that all two dozen members of the American scientific group joined in indicating to the Russians that release of the fliers would be “a healthy first step.” In any case, Soviet authorities apparently were in a mood to accept the counsel of American scientists as to how the way might be prepared for resumption under the Kennedy administration of arms control negotiations.