ABSTRACT
The most critical negotiations, the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT), have been conducted with policy debates and decision making confined within a small segment of the executive branch. From 1969 to 1976 the secrecy of the SALT negotiations became equated by most skeptics and arms controllers alike with the talks’ "seriousness." Arms control is perhaps the leading victim of official obscurantism. The general paucity of discussion about specific arms control solutions is true not only of the professional and academic community, but of the news media as well. More specific than the government process issue is the indispensability of more open negotiations to improving prospects for effective arms control. The degree of secrecy surrounding strategic arms control efforts until 1977 had several adverse effects. The professional community’s contribution to public and congressional discussion of means to halt the arms race was significantly lessened.
