Smith, Gerard C.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 had an immediate impact on U.S. policy toward Pakistan and U.S. aid to the anti-Soviet resistance through Islamabad. With these considerations, the U.S. chose to “set [the nuclear issue] aside for the time being.”

Gerard Smith advises Kissinger against assisting the French weapons program. He warns that this assistance might jeopardize SALT negotiations and also hurt US relations with Germany.

This document has two parts. The first is a memo addressed to the Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, that focuses on the increasing immediacy of the Pakistan nuclear situation. The second part is a telegram that details the growing pushback from U.S. political leaders after the Carter Administration decided to invoke the Symington Amendment towards Pakistan.

The memorandum describes a discussion of State Department officials on President Carter's nuclear nonproliferation policy.

The memorandum conveys Smith's proposal of rethinking US nonproliferation policy on reprocessing.