1977’s Memorandum: Finding a Solution for the Arms Race

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Henry Kissinger, Leonid Brezhnev, Gerald Ford, and Andrei Gromyko pose for the press in 1975 during negotiations for the Helsinki Accords. (Photo: Wikimedia/ Gerald R. Ford Library)

Italian memorandum from 1977 reveals three solutions for the problem of the arms race. The solutions proposed by the Soviet Union, Denmark and Warsaw Pact reflect the great tension that marked the geopolitical scene during the 1970s.

Soviet Solution

The text on old and yellowish paper, written in Courier font, first mentions what the Soviets had in mind for resolving the arms race problem. Firstly, Brezhnev emphasized in the report to the XV Congress of The Communist Party of the Soviet Union a need for a global agreement. That agreement would mean renouncing the arms race and abandoning the use of any type of arms, conventional or nuclear. In the case of the conflict, every signatory shouldn’t take violent measures to resolve the same. The Ministry of Foreign Relations of the USSR formalized the proposition that was also presented as a draft treaty to the General Assembly of the UN…

Ivana Tucak

This post was originally published on The History Avenue.

Source: “Memorandum by Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ‘Disarmament’,” 1977, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Istituto Luigi Sturzo, Archivio Giulio Andreotti, Box 168, Subseries 1, Folder 056. https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/165248