Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume XI, START I

73. Telegram From the Delegation to the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks in Geneva to the White House¹

Geneva, July 14, 1983, 0708Z

395. To: Judge Clark, the White House, Wash DC. From E. Rowny, US START Delegation, Geneva. Note: Deliver during duty hours.

1. I am certain you saw the Washington Post article on me a week ago.² The article was completely erroneous. I have the highest confidence in my delegation and believe that feeling is reciprocated. I have had no shouting matches with the Soviets and my relations with Nitze are excellent.

2. While I am inclined to dismiss it as a personal attack on me, the timing of the article was such that it has blunted the impact of what we are doing in Geneva. The article was reprinted in the International Herald Tribune on 7 July, the very day we tabled our draft treaty.

3. As you know, I urged the President to give me authority to be flexible in Geneva and worked hard to achieve compromise language so I could table a treaty. It remains my strong conviction that tabling a treaty was essential. If we had failed to do so the Soviets could have continued to claim that our flexibility was all words and no deeds. Tabling a treaty took away that Soviet argument.

4. Nevertheless, the fact that the Reagan Administration has shown flexibility and that I am carrying it out, has been deflected by the Washington Post article on 6 July and others which have directed attention elsewhere. It would be helpful, therefore, if in background talks with newsmen you (and perhaps VP Bush and others) could weave in some comments on what is going on here in Geneva. For example, you could say that we have been negotiating flexibly and that Rowny has been part of the process of displaying more flexibility. I believe it is necessary to counter the erroneous impression that the Reagan Administration is not seriously striving for an arms control agreement and is not competently represented in Geneva.

5. In addition to backgrounding newsmen, our new flexibility in START could be the subject of a presidential speech or a statement he would read prior to a news conference.

6. In short, the new flexibility expressed by the President on June 8 was a big step in the right direction. In fact, it has brought about some movement (although not on central issues) in the part of the Soviets. I have demonstrated that flexibility in concrete terms by tabling the treaty. We should not let personal attacks and other stories cause us to lose the high ground gained by the President’s new initiatives in START.

7. Warm regards.

1. Source: Reagan Library, Executive Secretariat, NSC: Cable Files, Privacy IN (01/22/1981–07/26/1983). Secret.
2. Reference is to James McCartney, “START Sessions ‘Acrimonious’,” Washington Post, July 6, 1983, A1. The article began: “Serious problems have developed in the seven-man U.S. delegation to the strategic arms reduction talks (START) in Geneva, according to administration officials directly involved and others have closely monitored the negotiations. The problems range from internal dissension in the delegation to extreme tension between the head of the delegation, retired Lt. Gen. Edward L. Rowny, and other key figures in the administration’s arms-control apparatus, officials say.”