Telegram, Podtserov to Cde. A.A. Gromyko

TELEGRAM

from Paris      

MOSCOW, USSR MFA

19 November 1951     

Cde. A. A. GROMYKO

I am sending document A/S.1/667 of 19 November 1951:

“The regulation, restriction, and balanced reduction of all armed forces and all armaments.

The United Kingdom, the United States of America, and France: a draft resolution.

The General Assembly,

desiring to lift from the peoples of the world the burden of increasing armaments and to rescue them from the fear of war, and also to liberate new energy and new resources to perform the positive work of reconstruction and development,

believing that the development of all-encompassing and coordinated plans under international control through the medium of the United Nations for the regulation, restriction, and balanced reduction of all armed forces and all armaments to a level sufficient for defense, but not for aggression, and also for the effective international control of atomic energy in order to ensure the prohibition of atomic weapons and the use of atomic energy for exclusively peaceful purposes is a necessary means for the achievement of this goal.

recognizing that a genuine system of disarmament must include all kinds of armed forces and armaments, it should be adopted by all countries which have considerable armed forces and should include safeguards that will ensure its compliance by all such nations.

noting the report of the Committee of the Twelve instituted by virtue of Resolution 495(V), and particularly its recommendation that the General Assembly set up a new commission for the continuation of the tasks initially entrusted to the Atomic Energy Commission and the Commission for Conventional Armaments,

1. establishes under the Security Council a Commission for the regulation, limitation, and balanced reduction of all armed forces and all weapons, which commission will be known under the name of the Commission on Disarmament. The membership of this Commission is the same as the membership of the Commission on Atomic Energy and the Commission on Conventional Weapons, and the Commission will function in accordance with the rules of procedure of the Committee on Atomic Energy with those changes which it finds necessary;

2. dissolves the Atomic Energy Commission and recommends that the Security Councildissolve the Commission for Conventional Armaments;

3. charges the Commission on Disarmament with working out proposals to be embodied in a draft treaty (or treaties) for the regulation, restriction, and balanced reduction of all armed forces and all armaments. The Commission will be guided in its work by the following principles:

A) the top priority task of the United Nations is the accomplishment of the restriction and balanced reduction of all kinds of armed forces and all armaments to a levelsufficient for defense, but not for aggression, of all armed forces and all weapons, and also for the establishment of effective international control of atomic energy ensuring the prohibition of atomic weapons.

B) a system of guaranteed disarmament should include the progressive declaration and verification of all armed forces on a permanent basis including paramilitary organizations, security forces, and police units, and all types of armaments, including atomic weapons.

C) such verification must be based on effective international inspection information to ensure the adequacy and accuracy of thedisclosed;

D) when formulating the proposals for the above draft treaty (or treaties) without damage to any other plan capable of being submitted, the plan of the United Nations regarding the international control of atomic energy and a prohibition of atomic weapons should continue to serve as the basis for the control of atomic energy until a better or no less effective system is developed.

E) a corresponding system of guarantees should be created which ensures the observance of a program of disarmament such as to ensure the prompt detection of violations, while at the same time causing the minimum degree of interference in the internal life of each country.

F) This treaty (or treaties) should be open for all countries to accede to it, and should be at least ratified by those countries whose military resources are so significant that their non-participation in this program would put it under threat.

4. Directs the Commission, when preparing the foregoing proposals, with considering from the outset plans for the progressive and permanent declaration and verification in point 3, the implementation of which is recognized a first and indispensible step in carrying out the program of disarmament envisaged in the present resolution.

5. Directs the Commission, in working out the plans for the regulation, limitation, and balanced reduction of all armed forces and all armaments:

A) to strive to formulate generally-accepted criteria which can be presented simply and clearly;

B) to work out proposals for each country, with consideration for the criteria adopted, regarding the overall limit and restrictions on all armed forces and all armaments;

C) to consider methods according to which countries under the supervision of the Commission can agree among themselves regarding the allocation of the national armed forces and armaments permitted them within the bounds of their respective national military establishments.

6. Directs the Commission with setting about its work no later than 30 days from the adoption of this resolution and periodically submitting informational reports to the Security Council and General Assembly or to members of the United Nations if the General Assembly is not in session.

[Translator’s note: the first part of the above paragraph was highlighted in the left margin and a handwritten notation at the bottom of the page reads: “sheet 5, see page 46ob.”]

7. Declares that a conference of all countries should be convened for the consideration of proposals for a draft treaty (or treaties) worked out by the Commission as soon as the work of the Commission reaches such a stage in which, in the Commission’s opinion, any of the parts of its program is ready for submission to the governments; [Translator’s note: the last part of the above paragraph was highlighted in the left margin]

8. Directs the Secretary General with convening this conference at the suggestion of the Commission.

9. Suggests that the Secretary General put at the disposition of the Commission such experts, personnel, and facilities which the Commission might find necessary for the effective accomplishment of the goals of this resolution”.

PODTSEROB

Authenticated [by]: [illegible signature]

Distributed

to comrades:

Stalin

Molotov

Malenkov

Beria

Mikoyan

Kaganovich

Bulganin

Khrushchev

Nº 498-GS/is