September 04, 1985 Letter by the Chairman of the SPD, Brandt, to the General Secretary of the CC of the CPSU, Gorbachev

Transcription

1 Digital Archive International History Declassified digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org September 04, 1985 Letter by the Chairman of the SPD, Brandt, to the General Secretary of the CC of the CPSU, Gorbachev Citation: Letter by the Chairman of the SPD, Brandt, to the General Secretary of the CC of the CPSU, Gorbachev, September 04, 1985, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Archives of Social Democracy, Willy Brandt Archive, A 9, 10. Published in: Berliner Ausgabe, vol. 10. English translation: Dwight E. Langston. Included in CWIHP e-dossier #22. Summary: Brandt shares his opinion with Gorbachev, that a constructive American reply to the Soviet moratorium can be, materially and psychologically, a first important step toward curtailing the arms race and toward a reasonable relationship for the two world powers. Original Language: German Contents: English Translation Scan of Original Document

2 No. 17 Letter by the Chairman of the SPD, Brandt, to the General Secretary of the CC of the CPSU, Gorbachev 4 September AdsD, WBA, A 9, 10. Published in: Berliner Ausgabe, vol. 10 English translation: Dwight E. Langston Dear Mr. Gorbachev, I would like to thank you for your equally interesting and informative letter of 26 August [1985]. 2 Since our discussions 3 you will not be surprised by my opinion that a constructive American reply to the Soviet moratorium can be, materially and psychologically, a first important step toward curtailing the arms race and toward a reasonable relationship for the two world powers. The latter aspect in particular may speak in favour of the moratorium issue being able to play a primary role in your meeting with the American president. 4 I would be surprised if, by then, overtly recognisable changes in the public attitude of the USA became discernable. Your willingness, which I noted with positive interest, to extend the moratorium beyond the first of January [1986] can be of particular significance at the meeting itself. If one wanted to or could go further, there remains the unsolved problem of bilaterally discontinuing tests of explosive devices as well as tests of atomic missile systems. Possibly, it would also be interesting to tie this in with the Tripartite Negotiations which collapsed in Geneva in : there we were close to an agreement on the number of automatic mechanical controls (black boxes); whether this has to be five or ten or fifteen seems to me, given the political significance of the issue, not a point on which an agreement should be allowed to fail, especially given the scope of the intentions which you expressed to me in your letter.

3 As to the matter of the moratorium, at your discussions in Paris 6 you will detect no change in the position of the French, who want to retain a free hand as long as there is no agreement between the two world powers. 7 When the parties working together in the context of Scandilux meet 8 on 20 and 21 September and when the conference of the Socialist International takes place 9 in mid-october in Vienna, your initiatives will certainly be object of discussion and of a response which will be well along the lines of what we know to be your fundamental position. 10 Yours respectfully, <signed Willy Brandt> 11 1 Template copy is a carbon copy on which is handwritten the notation: to J[ohannes] Rau 5/9 to take along to Moscow. The SPD s designated candidate for the Chancellorship visited the Soviet capital on 9/10 September 1985 and personally handed Brandt s letter to the Soviet General Secretary. For this see also the minutes of the Gorbachev-Rau discussions in: AdsD, WBA, A 9, See Gorbachev s letter of 26 August 1985 to Brandt in: AdsD, WBA, A 9, 10. In it the General Secretary commented more specifically on the Soviet Union s unilaterally declared end to atomic testing which had been in effect since 6 August 1985 and was initially supposed to last until the end of that year. Cf. also No. 20, Note Cf. No The summit meeting between Reagan and Gorbachev took place on November 1985 in Geneva. 5 From 1977 until 1980 the USA, Great Britain and the Soviet Union had conducted talks in Geneva on a comprehensive ban of nuclear weapons testing. Cf. EA 35 (1980) 16, p. Z Gorbachev travelled for a state visit to the French capital from 2-5 October Cf. EA 40 (1985) 21, p. D 583 D Brandt had met with French President Mitterrand on 12 July 1985 in Paris. See AdsD, WBA, A 19, 173. France rejected the Soviet suggestion for a moratorium mainly because it was conducting several underground nuclear tests in the South Pacific in Cf. No. 8, Note 6. 9 Subsequent to a session of the Bureau of the Socialist International, a special conference of the SI on disarmament took place on 16/17 October 1985 in Vienna at which high-ranking representatives from the USA, the Soviet Union, China and India also took part. Cf. AdG 55 (1985), p

4 10 The Bureau of the SI adopted a unanimous appeal for disarmament which called on the USA and the Soviet Union to respect the SALT Accords, to adhere to the ABM Treaty, to renounce the development of weapons in outer space and to agree on a moratorium on nuclear weapons to take effect starting in January Cf. AdG 55 (1985), p Signature by rubber stamp.

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