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Text of a letter from the President to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate on arms control
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7347029
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Text of a letter from the President to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate on arms control
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White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)
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1977-01-19
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1977
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[1-19-77]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JANUARY 20, 1977
Office of the White House Press Secretary
THE WHITE HOUSE
TEXT OF A LETTER FROM THE
PRESIDENT TO THE SPEAKER OF THE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
January 19, 1977
Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)
Arms control as a means of maintaining peace and
security has been a principal objective of my Adminis-
tration. In this nuclear era our arms control policy
and defense efforts must be complementary. We must
seek to influence policies of possible adversaries by
maintaining strong military forces and by pursuing
negotiations to enhance stability, not by encouraging
an arms race which would increase the risk of nuclear
war.
SALT is a proven means of furthering the essential
dialogue between the United States and the Soviet Union
on arms control. Our goal is to promote stability by
mutual restraint in strategic nuclear competition, to
limit growth of the nuclear forces of both sides, and to
reduce them through verifiable agreements. This effort,
I am confident, will succeed.
As a part of our efforts to restrain strategic nuclear
competition with the Soviet Union, we have also negotiated
two treaties which limit the yield of nuclear explosive
tests: the Threshold Test Ban Treaty and the related
Nuclear Explosions for Peaceful Purposes Treaty. Both of
these treaties represent genuine progress. They contain
precedent-setting provisions which will enhance the prospects
for further progress in this area. These treaties have been
submitted to the Senate, and I urge that it provide its
advice and consent to ratification.
Complementing the resolution of nuclear rivalry with
the Soviet Union is another imperative in our dialogue for
survival: Preventing the further spread of nuclear weapons.
If nuclear arsenals proliferate in the world, the likeli-
hood of a nuclear conflict is vastly increased. The
worldwide need for peaceful nuclear energy complicates
this problem, since the same technology that produces
such energy can be diverted to the development and
production of nuclear weapons.
To emphasize more strongly our commitment to the
objective of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, I
announced a new, comprehensive United States nuclear
energy policy last October which harmonizes our non-
proliferation objectives with our domestic energy policy.
We have tightened controls on American exports of sensitive
more
(OVER)
Digitized from Box 35 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
2
nuclear materials and technology. Our sustained diplomatic
initiatives with other suppliers of nuclear technology
have also resulted in improved international comprehension
of the risks of proliferation, as well as cooperation to
prevent it.
Non-proliferation is only one example of our pursuit
of arms control through multilateral forums and arrangements.
With our Western allies we are engaged in negotiations to
reduce military forces in Central Europe. Our goal is to
obtain a more stable military balance in Central Europe at
lower levels of force. We also participate in the activities
of the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament (CCD),
which recently approved a convention outlawing the use of
environmental modification techniques for hostile purposes.
This Convention will soon be open to all nations for ratifi-
cation. The CCD is also continuing its work on a convention
to limit chemical weapons, and will soon be considering a
U.S. initiative to ban radiological warfare.
This 16th annual report on the U.S. Arms Control and
Disarmament Agency completes the record of activities and
developments in the arms control field for calendar year 1976.
But it is more than a backward look at the record. It also
reflects the need for forward planning. In an age of rapidly
advancing technologies, arms control must look at the
future as well as the present. Arms control must be
pursued vigorously and imaginatively, based upon balanced
agreements and buttressed by mechanisms to preserve
confidence in the viability of those agreements.
It is particularly important to realize that arms
control 18 a complex matter and success can be attained
only through diligent and sustained attention. Problems
will persist, but we must remain dedicated to continued
and determined efforts for the control and balanced
reduction of armaments.
Sincerely,
GERALD R. FORD
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