Interviewer:
CAN YOU THINK IN
TERMS OF SALT II AND AN EXAMPLE THAT WOULD SUGGEST THAT KIND OF THINKING IN THE SOVIETS WHERE
THE UNITED STATES WAS WILLING TO GIVE SOMETHING UP IN EXCHANGE FOR SOMETHING FROM THE SOVIETS
AND THE SOVIETS DID NOT GIVE IT UP, AS EASILY AS WAS THOUGHT?
Rowny:
Well, there are many
examples. You know, we thought that if we would constrain some of our bombers that they would
constrain their missiles. We thought that if they we restrained from building heavy missiles
maybe they would cut back on their heavy missiles. We thought that if we said that you didn't
have to put all the forces in the agreement immediately that they would then bring others in
later. No, they just took whatever they had and pocketed those and wouldn't in others. I can
recall earlier in the game that I thought that we could strike a deal with the Soviets and there
was six parts to a problem. And I said to my counterpart, "Look, there are six parts, and I
think we can strike a deal. We'll give you three and you give us three." And so the next day I
got the floor from my ambassador. I said, "On behalf of the United States, we'll give you A and
B and C. On signal then they got up and left the room. I said, "What are you doing?" They said,
"Well, we're finished." I said, "No, you haven't heard our side." "What side?" "Well, you
haven't heard the, what we want to extract from you." And they said, "You told us what you're
ready to give up, and we agree with you." And I said, "Well, what about the other half?" And
they said there's no other half. So then later next week I went and said, "Look if you give us
D, E, and F, I'll tell you what we're ready to give up". And they said, [speaks in Russian],
"What do you think we are, idiots? You know, we don't negotiate that way." So you find out these
things by negotiating with them over long periods of time.