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Sale 40
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Lot 86
Carter, Jimmy (1924 -) 39th President of the United States (1977-81). Typed Letter Signed "Jimmy" as President, on mint-green White House stationery, 3pp, 10½" x 7", Washington, 9 May 1979. Mint condition; marked "File" at top. To Oklahoma Senator Henry Bellmon, with superb content. In part:
"After more than six years of negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union, we have essentially completed our work on a new SALT agreement. President Brezhnev and I have therefore decided to schedule a summit meeting as soon as it can be arranged. At that time we will confirm the agreement and sign the SALT II Treaty and protocol. We will also discuss a wide range of bilateral and global issues, including other arms control matters. The Treaty will then be submitted to the Senate for ratification. I know that the Treaty will receive sober and searching consideration by the Senate, for we share no greater responsibility than the custody of our nation's security. The American people have no more deeply felt wish than to reduce the risk of nuclear war. The Treaty is the culmination of the work of three Administrations. It is the next major step in the continuing process of bringing the nuclear arms race under sensible control. This process has already produced concrete benefits for othe united States. The Limited Test Ban Treaty, signed by President Kennedy in 1963, stopped the poisonous testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere. SALT I, signed by President Nkxon in 1972, helped to contain a costly and potentially destabilizing race in defensive missiles at a time when the Societs were building up and we were not. SALT II continues and strengthens the process of controlling the nuclear arms race. It establishes for the first time the principle of equal numbers of strategic systems, both overall limits and limits as applied to particular kinds of systems, which will result in the first negotiated reductions in operational Societ strategic systems. It will impose the first limited but important restraints on the race to build new systems and improve existing ones -- the so-called 'qualitative' nuclear arms race. The SALT II Treaty is not a substitute for a strong defense…. [It] will not end the political competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. But without the Treaty, each crisis, each confrontation, each point of friction will take on an added measure of significance and an added dimension of danger….If you have any concern or question about the details of the Treaty…I trust that you will give me an opportunity to discuss these matters with you before you make a final judgment…." More excellent content.
At the signing of the arms pact in Vienna during June 1979, Carter sought a commitment from Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev to a five percent annual reduction of strategic arms over the five-year life of the treaty and asked Brezhnev to agree that the SALT III talks would aim for limits fifty percent below the level of arms that SALT II allowed. Brezhnev rejected the five-percent yearly cut and remained noncommittal on the SALT III talks.
Estimated Value $4,000 - 6,000.
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