Negotiating with the Soviet Union: then and now. (Edward L. Rowny address) (transcript)

Address before the seminar on Global Security and Arms Control at the University of California in Santa Cruz on June 30,1988. Ambassador Rowny is special adviser to the President and the Secretary of State for arms control matters.

Several years ago, I wrote an article entitled "Ten 'Commandments' for Negotiating with the Soviet Union." I tried to condense my experience in negotiating with the Soviets, first as the representative of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the SALT 11 [strategic arms limitation talks] delegation and then as chief START [strategic arms reduction talks] negotiator, into some brief guidelines for others who would have to sit across the negotiating table from the Soviets in the future. I admonished future negotiators:

* Above all, remember the

objective;

* Be patient;

* Keep secrets;

* Bear in mind the differences between the two political systems;

* Beware of 'Greeks' bearing gifts;

* Remember that for the Soviets, form is substance;

* Don't be deceived by the Soviet

"fear of being invaded";

* Beware of eleventh hour negotiating;

* Don't be deceived by words; and

* Don't misinterpret the human element.

It is an appropriate time to see how these 'commandments' apply today.

A New Juncture in U.S.-Soviet Relations

Since I wrote that piece, there have been three General Secretaries of the Communist Party. We have gone from Brezhnev, the consummate apparatchik, car collector, and invader of Afghanistan; to Andropov, the former head of the KGB and the individual bearing much of the burden of responsibility for turning psychiatry in the Soviet Union into an instrument of state terror and repression; to Chernenko, who is probably most notable for having the good grace to make timely way for Gorbachev.

There can be little Question that we are now at a new juncture in the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. In arms control, we have signed and ratified the INF [Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces] Treaty, which will eliminate an entire class of U.S. and Soviet nuclear missiles. We also achieved Soviet agreement on extensive verification provisions, including onsite inspections and monitoring that many believed unthinkable just a few years ago.

More importantly for the long-term development of superpower relations, we have made the U.S.-Soviet relationship four-dimensional. No longer do U.S.-Soviet summits focus exclusively on arms control. We discuss a whole spectrum of issues. Human rights now occupy a position of high priority on the agenda in a way never realized beforenot only …