Letter from President Ronald Reagan to General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, 10/31/1985

SYSTEM II 91135 THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON October 31, 1985 Dear Mr. General Secretary: As I told Foreign Minister Shevardnadze in New York October 24, I have been giving careful consideration to your letter dated September 12. The issues you raise are important ones, the ideas you have put forward are in many ways interesting, and I have wanted to study them thoroughly before replying. Many of the specific points you addressed in your letter have been or will be dealt with by our delegations in the Geneva arms control negotia- tions or by our Foreign Ministers. In this letter I will therefore focus on what I consider the most significant issues you have raised. You suggested in your letter that we might reach an understanding on the inadmissibility of nuclear war and other general principles which should guide us. Foreign Minister Shevardnadze has since proposed specific language for our consideration. As I have repeatedly made clear, it is indeed my view that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. I therefore have instructed Secretary Shultz to discuss this matter with Foreign Minister Shevardnadze in their meetings next week. As we address this and other elements which may figure in any document we may issue in Geneva, I believe it is important to give the most careful consideration to our words. The experience of the past has been that overly vague or rhetorical language has led to expectations which, given the competitive aspect of our relationship to which you referred in your letter, cannot be sustained. DECLASSIFIED / RELEASED NLS F99-0514358 BY amt NARA. DATE 10/16/00