Kenneth Adelman submitted his resignation as head of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency on Thursday to become a syndicated columnist, saying he was leaving at a time when arms control was ”coming up roses.”
Also Thursday, it was announced that Secretary of State George Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze will meet Sept. 15-17 in Washington to narrow differences on arms control. State Department spokesman Charles Redman said ”substantial progress” has been made in recent days in Geneva on an agreement to eliminate Soviet and American medium- and shorter-range nuclear missiles from Europe.
”We want to keep up the momentum in these talks, but we are also determined to make progress toward an agreement to reduce strategic (long-range) nuclear forces,” Redman said.
He said Shultz would also press U.S. concern over Soviet human-rights policies and discuss with his Soviet counterpart such trouble spots as the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, the Middle East and Central America.
The hard-line Adelman said he had ”no doubt” that there will be a U.S.-Soviet agreement on arms control this year. In a letter to President Reagan, he said he was planning to leave in mid-October but would stay longer if a summit meeting was held later in the fall.
Adelman, 41, said he had decided to leave over the last three days and has arranged to write a syndicated column and other articles and to work with a Washington think tank.
White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Adelman ”has done an outstanding job guiding our arms-control effort. He`s been steadfast since the early days of this administration in pursuing the President`s goals, and we owe him a large measure of gratitude for his leadership.”
He said Adelman`s resignation ”doesn`t give any signal on the substance of arms control.”
”I feel I have accomplished what I set out to do,” Adelman wrote Reagan, ”to help you chart a new course for U.S.-Soviet arms control that dramatically reduces nuclear weapons and helps reduce the risk of war.”
The Soviets last week agreed to the global elimination of intermediate-range nuclear forces.
Two disagreements persist. The Soviets are demanding that 72 shorter-range Pershing missiles in West Germany be scrapped, too, but Adelman called this an ”11th-hour objection” that would be resolved soon. Disagreement also remains over some terms of verification.
Though Adelman predicted an accord on intermediate missiles, he told reporters, ”Unless the Soviets change fundamentally, we are dead in the water” on the two other major issues in the negotiations. One is the effort to reduce by 50 percent the long-range bombers, missiles and submarines on both sides. The other concerns space and defensive weapons.
The Soviets this week renewed their demand for significant limitations in the U.S. ”Star Wars” program, which seeks to develop ways of destroying missiles in space. Otherwise, the Soviets said, there can be no treaty cutting long-range weapons.
Adelman acknowledged that he had less ”bureaucratic clout” than Cabinet officers and the military Joint Chiefs of Staff in advising Reagan. But he said his resignation was not caused by any policy dispute. ”I have had no gripes; I have no complaints on being cut out of any arms-control
participation,” he said.
In his sometimes stormy confirmation hearings, Adelman was accused of being opposed to arms agreements with the Soviet Union.
