In the controversial legacy of the Nixon presidency, the administration's effort to curb and control the spread of the world's weapons of mass destruction is often overlooked. And yet by the time President Nixon left office under the cloud of the Watergate scandal, his actions on this front had surpassed those of all his predecessors combined and laid the foundations of WMD arms control and nonproliferation policies that persist to this day. In Averting Doomsday, Patrick Garrity and Erin Mahan explore and assess Nixon's record, addressing not only nuclear but also biological and chemical weapons. Drawing substantially on presidential recordings and other primary sources not widely consulted, the authors shed new light on milestones such as the first SALT agreement on strategic nuclear weapons and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, as well as the renunciation of US offensive biological weapons and a Seabed treaty. The WMD-control landscape had accumulated many divergent visions and interests over time-technical, diplomatic, domestic political, and utopian. The Nixon administration had to adjust to and build on this eclectic foundation, creating a new layer of policies to deal with WMD that substantially set the course-and perhaps limited the options-for future administrations in ways that are still with us.

The "Foreign Relations of the United States "volumes of the series include all records needed to provide comprehensive documentation of major foreign policy decisions and actions of the United States Government.The documentation in this volume illuminates the sustained high-level attention to the negotiations and the difficulties involved in establishing agreement--first on U.S. Government positions and negotiating strategies and then with the Soviet Union. This volume picks up where "Foreign Relations," 1969-1976, Vol. XXXII, SALT I, 1969-1972 (Print ISBN: 9780160784019) leaves off, with the Nixon administration working to establish objectives and negotiating positions beginning in October 1972. This work is represented primarily through the internal memoranda drafted by National Security Council staff members; the formal interagency process is reflected in minutes of the Verification Panel and the National Security Council, with the subsequent decisions reflected in six National Security Decision Memoranda. As in previous volumes, the reader encounters extraordinary working relationships between top U.S. and Soviet interlocutors in the form of Henry Kissinger's backchannel with Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin and his negotiations with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, as well as Nixon's summit with Brezhnev in June 1974, a period in which his presidency was collapsing. Throughout these three administrations, critics of the SALT II deliberations warned of the implications for the strategic balance. In a time of rapid modernization and expansion in Soviet strategic forces, they were especially anxious about the divergence between the United States and Soviet Union when it came to missile throw-weight, an asymmetry of particular concern with the advent of MIRV'd ICBMs. The selections in the this volume include letters from Senator Henry Jackson outlining his concerns; NSC minutes and other memoranda of conversation portray him as a constant thorn in the side of the White House and the Department of State.While the editor believes this volume stands on its own, it is best read in conjunction with several other volumes. "Foreign Relations," 1969-1976, Vol. XXXII, SALT I, 1969-1972 (Print ISBN: 9780160784019), documents the decision-making and negotiations on the limitation of strategic arms from the beginning of the first Nixon administration through the signing of the Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems and the Interim Agreement on Certain Measures With Respect to the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms at the June 1972 Moscow Summit. In addition, a number of volumes print documentation in full that is presented in part in this volume include documentation relating to Brezhnev's June 1973 visit to the United States, Kissinger's March and April 1974 visits to the Soviet Union, and Nixon's June 1974 meetings with Brezhnev in Moscow is printed in full in "Foreign Relations," "1969-1976, Vol. XV, Soviet Union, June 1972-August 1974 ("Print ISBN: 9780160830013) . Full documentation on conversations between Ford and Brezhnev at the November 1974 Vladivostok Summit can be found in Foreign Relations,1969-1976, Vol. XVI, Soviet Union, August 1974-December 1976 (Print ISBN: 9780160884627). Other volumes that provide useful context for the issues covered in this volume include "Foreign Relations, 1969-1976, Vol. XXXIV, National Security Policy" (Print ISBN: 9780160844119), 1969-1972; Vol. XXXV, National Security Policy, 1973-1976; Vol. E-2, Documents on Arms Control and Nonproliferation, 1969-1972; Vol. E-14, Part 2, Documents on Arms Control, 1973-1976; and "Foreign Relations, "1977-1980, Vol. IV, National Security Policy; and Vol. VI, Soviet Union.

The Foreign Relations of the United States series presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. The series, which is produced by the State Department's Office of the Historian, began in 1861 and now comprises more than 350 individual volumes. The volumes published over the last two decades increasingly contain declassified records from all the foreign affairs agencies.

The Foreign Relations of the United States series presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. The series, which is produced by the State Department's Office of the Historian, began in 1861 and now comprises more than 350 individual volumes. The volumes published over the last two decades increasingly contain declassified records from all the foreign affairs agencies.