Mutual Unilateral – lessons of effective de-escalation and Nuclear disarmament

Speech by Al Palladin at the Seattle Olympic Club on March 28, 2019

While the world mourns the recent dismantling of the INF Treaty, let us learn from a tremendous lesson in leadership that helped end the Cold War. The seemingly paradoxical principle of “Mutual Unilateral” was put to use in 1991 to drastically reduce tensions between superpowers. During an unlikely turn of events, an American and Soviet President in less than 24 hours achieved an unprecedented understanding on very complex subject matter, and in just over one week’s time both committed to eliminate a total of ~8,000 Nuclear weapons, and to also dramatically reduce their military postures. They proceeded to actually do so, on both sides, without any formal signed agreement.

The origins of what became this ultimate display of mutual trust, can be traced back to a “limo talk” between the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and the then Vice President of the United States George H.W. Bush. This notable conversation took place on December 10, 1987, in Gorbachev’s limousine on the way to the airport at the end of the Washington summit. President Reagan and Gorbachev had just signed the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), which led to the elimination of ~2,700 Nukes. Bush came along to see Gorbachev off, and during the 35-minute ride, with only Soviet interpreter Pavel Palazhchenko present, the two men engaged in a wide-ranging conversation that both would remember later as the basis for their own Presidential summits. 

Bush and Gorbachev would go on to have continual dialogue and they met face-to-face regularly. During their Malta Summit in 1989 the superpower leaders declared that the Cold War had come to an end. According to Gorbachev[1]: “When the two delegations met, Bush outlined a program of cooperation between our countries in various areas, including disarmament, which was generally constructive. I responded by stating: “The new U.S. President must know that the Soviet Union will not under any circumstances initiate a war … Moreover, the U.S.S.R. is prepared to no longer consider the U.S. as an enemy and announce this openly.”

Between Malta and their Moscow Summit in the summer of 1991, these Presidents met for a total of six times in just two years - and signed the Chemical Weapons Accord, the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, and agreed on a joint posture to repel the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. These results and joint progress on many international matters (e.g. unification of Germany) were achieved because both leaders worked hard and in earnest, instructing their teams to seek acceptable compromise. What helped was Bush’s continuation of the approach of his predecessor – according to Jack Matlock, who worked as U.S. Ambassador in Moscow from 1987 to 1991, President Reagan once pushed back on one of his senior advisors. When told that “the Russians don’t want to agree with our positions”, the Great Communicator retorted: “when I negotiated on behalf of the Screen Actors Guild, I was happy when they accepted 60-70% of our positions”.

In July of 1991 Bush and Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), which limited long-range Nuclear forces in the United States and the Soviet Union to 6,000 attributed warheads on 1,600 ballistic missiles and bombers. Like all such agreements before (including the INF Treaty) and after, Nuclear disarmament accords were usually the result of years of difficult negotiating cycles. Thus, what happened a few short weeks after the signing of START I is truly remarkable.

Not everyone in the U.S.S.R. was pleased with Gorbachev’s international and domestic policies, or the way he ran the country. In August of 1991 hardliners in the Soviet Communist Party attempted a coup d'état, during which the legitimate President was de-facto imprisoned. President Bush made a blunt demand for Gorbachev's restoration to power and stated that the United States did not accept the legitimacy of the self-proclaimed new Soviet Government. Bush issued a strongly-worded statement that followed a day of consultations with other leaders of the Western alliance, in a concerted effort to squeeze the putschists by freezing economic aid programs. He decried the coup as a "misguided and illegitimate effort" that "bypasses both Soviet law and the will of the Soviet peoples." While the attempt to overthrow Gorbachev ended just three days after its start with his release and formal reinstatement, the coup attempt accelerated the disintegration of the U.S.S.R., and both the head of the Kremlin and the head of the White House detected that massive upheaval was forthcoming. That sense of urgency promoted the U.S. to develop an extraordinary initiative.

On the morning of September 27, 1991, President Bush had a message for his Soviet colleague – it was a sincere desire to achieve an agreement that would rescue humanity from huge hordes of tactical Nuclear weapons – and to do so without any “tug of war”, years of negotiations, or political games. According to the memoir of Gorbachev’s close aide Pavel Palazhchenko[2] the steps that the American President proposed were unprecedented:

“The scale of Bush’s initiative was quite impressive. In short, it concerned the elimination of the entire arsenal of American ground-based tactical nuclear weapons, including those that were deployed abroad; the decommissioning of the tactical nuclear arms of surface ships and attack submarines (some of them would be destroyed, some - centralized at storage sites); the removal from combat duty of strategic bombers and ICBMs, which were to be destroyed according to the START I treaty, that was signed two months prior; and the termination of a number of modernization programs for American strategic nuclear weapons. For the first time the American President responded to the call of the U.S.S.R. to include the “Tomahawk” sea-based cruise missiles in the process of nuclear disarmament. Bush also proposed to mutually abandon ICBMs with multiple reentry vehicle payloads. All other steps were taken unilaterally, at the same time Bush wrote that he was counting on similar steps by the U.S.S.R.” The U.S. President made one of the boldest moves ever for Nuclear arms reduction – believing that his counterpart would be faithful to the spirit of their established relationship, and prepared to take a tremendous risk based on established goodwill, but with no formal legally binding agreement to be signed.

By evening in Moscow Gorbachev had come to a preliminary decision and he spoke with Bush, who was just beginning the morning in D.C. Based on the Soviet’s positive feedback, the U.S. President made a televised address to his nation that evening, announcing the unilateral disarmament steps and expressing hope that the Russians would follow suit.

According to Palazhchenko: “The response … was prepared in one week - by October 5th. Gorbachev announced it in a speech on television, having informed Bush of its content in advance. Some measures were mirrored (the elimination of nuclear warheads of tactical missiles, the removal from combat duty of the strategic offensive weapons that were to be reduced), others - “specifically ours” (the elimination of atomic mines that the Americans had long abandoned), some - by inviting the U.S. to similar steps (accelerating the process of reducing strategic offensive arms, a moratorium on nuclear tests — the Americans agreed with the first, and - not immediately - with the second). The answer was strong, very worthy.” 

Mutual Unilateral. Without lengthy, exhausting negotiations (it took nine years, for example, to prepare the START I Treaty), agreements were reached that freed humanity from several thousand Nukes, all of which were accumulated during the Cold War years. This is a tremendous example of leadership, rooted in an investment into true relationship-building and achieving mutual understanding on key issues, and based on earned trust and, ultimately, faith in one’s fellow man.

Watch President George H.W. Bush present this initiative, which resulted in the elimination of ~8,000 Russian and American Nukes and de-escalation of Nuclear postures.

[1]  Mikhail Gorbachev: George H.W. Bush and I Ended a War Together. https://time.com/5471437/mikhail-gorbachev-george-hw-bush-war-peace/

[2] Pavel Palazhchenko “The behind-the-scenes story of the elimination of tactical Nukes: “A giant leap for mankind” https://nomorenukes.org/stories Thank you to Mr. Palazhchenko for his permission to translate from the Russian and publish.