Hon. Bill Clinton,
The White House,
Washington, DC.

Dear Mr. President:

We appreciate your letter of October 22, 1994 responding to the letter of September 19, 1994 signed by a bipartisan group of legislators regarding the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty and constraints on theatre missile defenses.

We welcome your assurances that your Administration is `not going to rush' the process of negotiating changes to the 1972 ABM Treaty. It is our expectation that the new Congress and relevant Congressional committees will want, as an early order of business, to examine the wisdom of expanding the ABM Treaty's limitations in the name of `demarcating' strategic and theatre missile defenses and multilateralization this agreement. We also anticipate that there will be considerable interest in reviewing the more fundamental issue whether a treaty that is intended to prohibit an effective defense of the United States against missile attack is consistent with our Nation's vital security interests and emerging threats.

Therefore, we respectfully suggest that further negotiations on either the demarcation or multilateralization efforts, or any other efforts that bear on the viability of the ABM Treaty, be suspended until the new Congress has had an opportunity to examine these questions with care.

Sincerely,

Richard K. Armey.

Floyd Spence.

Newt Gingrich.

C.W. Bill Young.

Henry J. Hyde.

Benjamin A. Gilman.

Christopher Cox.

Larry Combest.

Tom DeLay.

Susan Molinari.

John A. Boehner.

Bob Livingston.

Jerry Lewis.

Joe Skeen.

Bill Paxon.

Joe Barton.

Joseph M. McDade.

[Page: H1813]

Washington, DC, January 26, 1995.

Dear Mr. Leader: Thank you for your recent letter concerning theater missile defenses and the ABM Treaty. I believe it is important for the Administration and the new Congress to continue our dialogue on these important issues.

The Administration is firmly committed to two fundamental objectives in the area of missile defenses. First, we believe it is critical to preserve the viability and integrity of the ABM Treaty. This important Treaty remains a cornerstone of U.S. security policy and our new relationship with Russia. It is also essential if we are to continue implementing the dramatic reductions in strategic nuclear forces negotiated during the Reagan and Bush Administrations (START I and START II). Second, we are committed to deploying highly effective theater missile defense systems (TMDs).

The key to preserving both the ABM Treaty and a robust TMD program is the successful conclusion of ongoing negotiations in the Standing Consultative Commission (SCC). These negotiations seek to clarify the distinction in the ABM Treaty between TMDs (which are not limited by the Treaty) and strategic ABMs (which are limited by the Treaty). This is not a question of `expanding' the ABM Treaty's limitations. Rather, we are acting in consonance with the sense of Congress, as clearly expressed in the Missile Defense Act of 1991 (P.L. 102-190) and recently reaffirmed in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1995, that we pursue negotiations to clarify the boundary between TMDs and ABMs. The U.S. position in these negotiations is intended to ensure that advanced U.S. TMD systems can proceed, even though some of them may have a theoretical capability under certain scenarios to intercept certain ballistic missiles.

Over the past year, we have made considerable progress in the SCC towards achieving these objectives. All parties to the negotiations agree on the need to clarify the TMD/ABM boundary, and there appears to be an emerging consensus that such important TMD systems as THAAD, CORPS SAM, Navy Lower Tier and PAC-3 do not cross this boundary. There are, however, still a number of substantive issues that need to be resolved, including our commitment to secure specific deployment options related to air-based TMD and Navy Upper Tier. As I said in my letter of October 22, we will not rush this process or enter into any agreement that does not meet our national security requirements for highly effective TMDs. This commitment was underscored by my recent decision to proceed with demonstration/validation testing of the THAAD TMD system.

I look forward to working closely with Congress as we pursue our common objectives in this area.

Sincerely,

Bill Clinton.