AN6 5 mm is isms i or ESTATF November 16 1979 While I cl sred in draft PM's memo about the response to Brezhnev on the false alert the folloWing points occurred to me as I gfad the final product just now 1 Notice at the ottom of page one that the 30 does not provide for n ification of the Secretary of i State in the event of an all out attack I think this procedure should be questxofed 2 What the memo doesn g say is that false alerts BS of this kind'are not a rare Excurrence There is a complacency about Handling tho that disturbs me hidden political purposes on the5 ert of the Soviet Union in raising this question with us % not very sensible Wouldn't We be concerned if we ha' information of a similar false alert in the Soviet in the scrambling of a dozen planes 4 The proposed reply although t3mewhat less snide than the original draft is kindergartt stuff not worthy of the United States Why do we have to be so gratuitously snotty I would prefer a more straightforwar- response along the following lines The concern expresseo in your messag over reports of a technical malfunction during a military raining exercise is understandable I have looked into the me or and can tell you that the press accounts were incomplete an therefore misleading Thus the incident to which you refer doe not-bring into question United States control over its military forces This instance in fact demonstrates that the multiple safe guards we employ operate reliably I'agreesgith there should be 7M new such matters page es asserts rampage 2 1 Dept Mug er GmfeliDir 3 gm i Lisa o as Downgnaeto Dmef Ekdus oa Exemg ees - is when 22 i AVAV 3 1 I 3 g yiqg mz 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