Item NUCLEAR AGE 11/1 - Interview with David Aaron, former Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, 1986

Typescript transcript of interview with David Aaron, US Deputy Assistant to US President James Earl 'Jimmy' Carter for National Security Affairs, 1977-1981, relating to the US arms control proposal offered to the USSR by Cyrus Roberts Vance, US Secretary of State, and Paul Culliton Warnke, Director, US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and Chief US Arms Control Negotiator, Moscow, USSR, Mar 1977; the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks II (SALT II), Geneva, Switzerland, 1977-1979; US development of the Martin-Marietta MGM-118 (MX) Peacekeeper Heavy Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), 1974-1981; the signing of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty II (SALT II) on agreed limits on the numbers and testing of new types of Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) by US President Carter and Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, Vienna, Austria, Jun 1979; the increase in Soviet and Cuban influence in Ethiopia, 1977-1980; the visit to Ethiopia by Aaron and his meeting with Ethiopian President Col Mengistu Haile Mariam, 1978; the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Dec 1979; the official visit to the USA by Deng Xiaoping, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, and the establishment of diplomatic relations between the USA and the People's Republic of China, Jan 1979; the Iran hostage crisis, the capture of the US Embassy and sixty six US hostages by Iranian followers of the Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, Nov 1979-Jan 1981; the deferment by the US Senate to ratify the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty II (SALT II), due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Jan 1980; US Presidential Directive 59 (PD 59) on the development of the US counter force strategy, of attacking an enemy's nuclear and military forces instead of centres of population or economic targets, in order to deter an enhanced Soviet first strike capability, Jul 1980.