The Arms Control and Disarmament Agency: an unfinished history

Abstract

The U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency was established by Congress in 1961 as an independent agency of the federal government with responsibility for developing, negotiating and implementing international agreements to control and reduce arms. In the words of Senator Claiborne Pell, ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and an original sponsor of the Agency: “we intended it to play the role of an advocate for arms control… as a way to enhance our national security. We wanted, in short, an agency that would more often than not counter-balance what was coming out of the Pentagon.”Since the advent of the Reagan Administration the Agency has become mired in controversy, as was clearly apparent in the three months of hearings and debate conducted by the Senate last year on the appointment of Kenneth L. Adelman to head the Agency. In the following article Ambassador Smith raises a number of questions concerning the Agency's status and activity—or inactivity—during the Reagan years, questions which in turn raise doubts about the Administration's commitment to arms control.—The Editors