Edward L. Rowny with Vice President George Bush, 28 September 1983.
It was interesting that the Japanese and the Chinese both put pressure on the Soviets
through diplomatic channels to accept the global zero position.
This was done very cleverly. They did not, of course, stress that they had their
interests at heart and did not want to be targeted by Soviet SS-20s. Instead, they
pointed to the difficulties we in the U.S. would have during the ratification process
with verification, since zero was easier to verify than some finite number.
Furthermore, they pointed out, these missiles were mobile and could be moved so
as to target Europe. Therefore the U.S. could not claim there would be no
warheads targeted against Europe.
I experienced some of this diplomatic pressure applied against the Soviets. In June
1987 I attended an East-West meeting under the auspices of the United Nations at
Dagomys on the Black Sea. The Soviets had high-level representatives at this
conference. Bessmertnykh, who became the Soviet ambassador to the United States
and was then a deputy foreign minister, attended, as well as General Chervov.
Chervov, a colonel general, was in the Soviet Defense Ministry and was reportedly
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