V-I Stamp Declassified 03 30 94 Embassy of the USSR in the USA --- Washington D C Top secret copy No 1 February 14 1977 Original No 127 Stamp MFA USSR Depamnent of USA Secret Ent No 0249 02 17 1977 From the Journal of DOBRYNIN A F RECORD OF THE CONVERSAnON with A HARRIMAN December 1 1976 On December 1 Harriman came to visit me I He said that he had met with J Carter on Monday November 29 at his Le Carter's home in the city of Plains state of Georgia As had been agreed he Harriman had brought to Carter's attention the messages which had been brought from Moscow on behalf of L I Brezhnev as well as other messages which the Soviet Ambassador had expressed to him Harriman in accordance with the instruction to bring this infonnation to Carter's attention The President-elect Carter's current title has authorized Harriman to convey the following answer for transmission to L I Brezhnev Harriman read further from the text which he was holding Carter received the message from General Secretary L I Brezhnev and was grateful for the feelings expressed in it Personally he highly values the fact that he received an expression of the views of the General Secretary Although he does not have the possibility to conduct negotiations before assuming his position he would like to declare that he shares the aspiration of the General Secretary for an improvement in relations between our two countries He also recognizes the importance of mutual limitations in nuclear weapons and of bringing the arms race to a halt MB 136 c 11 Mr Carter often expressed these moods during the recent presidential election campaign and he thinks that the majority of Americans agree with his desire to limit the nuclear weapons in our two countries and to stop further proliferation of nuclear capability among other countries V-2 He notes with satisfaction that Mr Brezhnev shares his point of view on the importance of cooperation between our two countries in the matter of taking' measures against the proliferation of nuclear weapons President-elect Carter expects as well the establishment of constructive relations in other areas to which Mr Brezhnev had referred With good will on both sides President-elect Carter believes progress can be made in the matter of cooperation between the USA and the USSR which will strengthen peace in the whole world Harriman said further -- continuing to read -- that Carter is very satisfied with the tone of the General Secretary's message Noting that before he assumes the post of President he in not in a position to conduct negotiations Carter at the same time declared the when he receives the authority he will quickly and insistently act to achieve an agreement on the limitation of strategic weapons Carter added that he would like to be sure that limitations will be mutually advantageous and that the relative power of the two sides will not be changed during the process of reductions In addition he stress that a means must be found to assure our peoples that the agreement will be fulf1lled ' The current problems in the negotiations on the limitation of nuclear weapons are too technical for him to comment on at the present time and he Carter cannot it goes without saying be bound by the past negotiations At the same time he fully will take into account the work that has been done over the past two years Further Harriman said that Carter hopes that the negotiations on limiting strategic weapons will be concluded at a summit meeting Le at a personal meeting between him Carter and L I Brezhnev Carter thinks that the negotiations which will begin after he assumes the post of President would be accelerated if it would be possible to maintain the practice which had justified itself in the past of dispatching at the decisive moment in the negotiations a special trusted representative of the President to set forth the President's proposals and thoughts personally to General Secretary L I Brezhnev Harriman further reported in confidence that Carter had asked him whether L I Brezhnev would accept an invitation if he Carter invites the General Secretary to come to the United States for the final stage of the negotiations and the conclusion of an agreement on the limitation of strategic weapons Harriman in his words had expressed to Carter his own opinion to the effect that he hopes that L I Brezhnev will accept such an invitation insofar as there is already established a definite order of visits of the countries' leaders to each other for summit meetings and it was now the President's turn to invite the General Secretary to the United States 2 During the conversation with Harriman in relation to his comments about J Carter's attitude 21 V-3 about strategic arms limitation negotiations I inquired of Harriman whether he could not in a more detailed way set forth Carter's position on that question In particular I asked h1m what concretely did Carter have in mind when he publicly offered a proposal for a freeze in strategic weapons within what temporal quantitative or qualitative framework was he operating Harriman said that he had asked that type of question in his conversation with Carter However Carter had answered him that for the time being he had on that issue only ideas and convictions of a general character which seemed important to him but he still had not precisely formulated comprehensive integrated positions He intends to formulate such a position when he names his chosen candidates to the posts of Secretary of State Secretary of Defense and Aide to the President for National Security Affairs whom he would as one of his highest priorities instruct to work out this position which would encompass the complex political and technical aspects of the entire problem I directed Harriman's attention to that point in the thoughts of Carter which he had ttansmitted today where Carter had said that he could not be bound by past strategic arms limitation negotiations I said that an approach like that is incomprehensible if it is fraught with serious complications for future negotiations All previous negotiations had been conducted on behalf of the United States of the country as a whole and the arrival of a new President should not mean breaking off everything positive that had been achieved before him I reminded Harriman that I had pointed this out to him at our previous meeting when in accordance with instructions certain considerations from Moscow had been expounded to him for transmittal to Carter Harriman said that he had recalled this when he was speaking to Carter and had specially directed his attention to that circumstance Carter had answered him Harriman that he understands this point and that he had therefore included in his responding thoughts to L I Brezhnev the comment that he will take the work that has been done at the SALT negotiations over the last two years fully into account However at the same time he Carter would like to reserve for himself the right to express certain possible new thoughts or correctives which might occur to him in the context of ftnishing up a fmal agreement especially if they might promote the resolution of the remaining disputed issues ' In principle he wants to reserve for himself such a possibility 3 During the conversation Harriman underlined that Carter is very interested in the question of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons which along with the question of limitation of strategic arms will be a priority in his plans regarding negotiations with the Soviet Union after he assumes the post of President ' e o He Carter is very worried by the spread of nuclear technology around the world And although many chances had already over the past years been missed there is still in his opinion time to take certain joint measures to put a brake on this process As on the question of limitation of strategic weapons so far Carter has no more concrete thoughts on this issue In Harriman's words Carter himself said that the details of his position still need to be worked out Ambassador of the USSR in the USA signature A DOBRYN IN This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu