Edward L. Rowny
a close friend and advisor to Marshal Akhromeyev, the head of the Soviet armed
forces.
The Chinese representative at the Dagomys conference made quite a strong case for
a global zero solution to INF. Bessmertnykh and Chervov talked to me about it
and asked how strongly the U.S. felt about global zero. I told them the U.S. felt
quite strongly and told them that the Japanese were adamant. They said they knew
about the Japanese view because they had heard from them directly. While
Bessmertnykh and Chervov made no commitments, I could see that wheels were
turning. I became more convinced than ever that the Soviets wanted an agreement
on INF and wanted it badly.
I also had an opportunity at Dagomys to work out with Chervov and Bessmertnykh
some ideas I had about how we might treat air- and sea-launched cruise missiles
in START. Chervov was quite receptive to my idea that we count all air-launched
cruise missiles on a bomber as one warhead and a bomber as one missile system.
We also discussed that we might simply declare how many sea-launched cruise
missiles we had rather than include them in the count.
On my way home I stopped off in Moscow and talked to Karpov. He was
surprised at what I told him about my discussions with Bessmertnykh and Chervov,
but listened very carefully. As it turned out later in Reykjavik, these proposals
were the very ones that were put forth by Akhromeyev and eventually included in
START.
Q ..
Could you discuss some of the details of the meeting at Reykjavik?
A ..
Reykjavik was not planned to be a summit meeting. It came about largely because
o f Soviet pressure for a meeting between the get-toknow-you session in Geneva
and the next summit meeting which was scheduled for the fall. But the Soviets
kept making overtures about the desirability of a meeting and it became difficult
for Reagan to say that he was too busy with domestic issues. As a result, Reagan
decided that he and Gorbachev would meet briefly over a weekend at some place
halfway between Washington and Moscow. The halfway point was chosen as
Reykjavik in Iceland.
Q ..
Can you tell me something about the preliminaries to Reykjavik?
A
Early in 1986, Gorbachev seized the initiative in arms control. He called for the
elimination of all nuclear weapons by the year 2000. The proposal was obviously
designed for its propaganda effect, made obvious by the fact that Gorbachev made
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