General Advisory Committee Report excerpts

Abstract

The Arms Control and Disarmament Act of 1961 established the General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament (GAC), whose members are private citizens appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate. The committee's duties are to advise the president, secretary of state and director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency on matters affecting arms control and disarmament and world peace. In response to President Reagan's request and in fulfilling its statutory mandate, GAC conducted a one-year study of the long-term pattern of Soviet performance concerning arms control obligations arising both from agreements and from unilateral commitments. The resultant classified report, A Quarter Century of Soviet Compliance Practices under Arms Control Commitments: 1958–1983, was submitted to the president on December 2, 1983, and an unclassified summary was prepared for transmittal to Congress. The Bulletin is reprinting the following excerpts from that summary to provide a published record of the nature and range of GAC's charges against the Soviet Union.—the Editors