' Jf' o '1 -JLt 21OIflCI Of SlCIIT oo '''''' '0It D C Of DffENSE - o o MILITARY ASSISTANT NEMORANDUM FOR COLONEL WILLIAM 0 TO THE ASSISTANT T THE PRESIDENT AFFAIRS FOR NATIONAL SECORI SUBJECT Propos ed Oral Moooo S R Attached for your considetat messaae to the Soviet government Def'e nse would suppo rt n 1 a draft U S oral ich the SecTetary of I I I ' Attachllent j iI DECLASSIFIED BY ISA DATE 212012003 i o l o I i o o ---- 'h - - - ' J ' U S ORAL MESSAGE TO S The United States Government hi lET GOVERNMENT I ' uFeived the oral from President Brezhnev conceminl T cent press reports pu orted alert of American strate c h1 c s oTal message was based on inac uT te Because ttl and misleading informa ion the assertions in the message are in ccurate and unacceptab to the United States Government The level of alert of U S stra egie offensive forces was not raised above its usual level 'because the U S command and control system assures re v iew an officials at all levels peace or stra egic It does no control by r sponsibl' serve the purposes of s tability for the Soviet Union to base its a e tions or its d i plomatic exchan es on press reports or to exploit such reports fOT purposes of propaganda United State Government aSSUT S The the Soviet Governm nt hath that its local commanders have and w 11 exercise the authority to put their forces in condi tion to urvive attack and that control of the offen s ive use of our orees is totally reliable o as was demonstrat e d in this caso DECLASS IFIED BY ISA DATE 2 2012003 I o 1 I I i-I I _j c - ' ' i' 1 - Girw U S ORA ' IESSAGE ' TO SOV J lOT GOVERNMENT The United States Government has received the oral messa ge from President Brezhnev co ncerning re ce nt press reports of a purported alert of American strategic force ' an oral message was based on inaccurate Because the misleading information the assertions in the message are inacc urate and unacceptable to the United States Government The level of alert of U S strategic offen sive f orce s was not rai sed above i ts usua l le ve l beca use th e U S command and control syst em assures review and cont rol by re s ponsible officials at all le vels pea c e o r - It doc s not se rve the purpos es of stabil i t y for t he So viet Unjon t o base strar gic its act ions or its dip lomatic exchang es on pr css -c------- ------ - to -eX ploit s l Ch T'Wprt5 fo' ' pOi pose Gi pliJpug United Stat es G6vernment oI that its l oc al comman dcr s to pu t their O I'CC S control of the ss ur es hilVC use of and will ex ercise the a uthority OIlT as as demonst rat ed in this case 1-v t c' _ '- ' ' ' r ' ' I ' o k- o ' f OECLASSIFIED BY ISA OATE 2120 2003 ' lIl' ' ive atta c k and that for c es is t ota ll y rcljable tJa c 1 ' r w ' 1 - o '- srf UI Cn - The fda tile Sovi et Gove rnm e nt both in condi t ion t o offcn ve rcp o rt s - e ' - ' J 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