Maynard W. Glitman, Arms Negotiator, Dies at 77
Matthew Kruk
December 15, 2010
Maynard W. Glitman, Arms Negotiator, Dies at 77
By MARGALIT FOX
Maynard W. Glitman, a diplomat who led the American side in negotiating
the intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty, signed by the United
States and the Soviet Union in 1987, died on Tuesday in Shelburne, Vt.
He was 77 and had homes in Fletcher and Burlington, Vt.
The cause was complications of dementia, his wife, Christine, said.
The I.N.F. treaty, as it is known, represented a significant advance in
United States-Soviet relations amid the cold war; from 1985 onward, Mr.
Glitman, a respected veteran of the Foreign Service with expertise in
arms control, was the United States' chief negotiator. The treaty was
the first nuclear-arms agreement to mandate the reduction of weapons by
both sides, rather than simply capping the number each was allowed to
possess.
Signed by President Ronald Reagan and the Soviet leader Mikhail S.
Gorbachev on Dec. 8, 1987, the treaty banned all land-based medium- and
shorter-range nuclear missiles - that is, ballistic and cruise missiles
with ranges from about 300 to about 3,400 miles.
The treaty was approved by the United States Senate in May 1988 and
entered into force on June 1 of that year. It was the first major
American-Soviet arms accord the Senate had approved since the Strategic
Arms Limitation Treaty of 1972.
For Mr. Glitman, a career diplomat who was later the United States
ambassador to Belgium, the accord was the culmination of more than six
years of negotiations. He chronicled their progress, frustrations,
reversals and eventual resolution in a memoir, "The Last Battle of the
Cold War: An Inside Account of Negotiating the Intermediate Range
Nuclear Forces Treaty," published in 2006.
Maynard Wayne Glitman, known as Mike, was born in Chicago on Dec. 8,
1933. He earned a bachelor's degree in international affairs from the
University of Illinois in 1955, followed the next year by a master's
from Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
Afterward, Mr. Glitman joined the State Department as an economist. In
the late 1960s, he served on the staff of the National Security Council,
and in 1976 he was named deputy representative to NATO in Brussels. His
other foreign postings included the Bahamas, Canada and France.
In 1981, the I.N.F. talks began in Geneva, with Mr. Glitman as deputy
negotiator under Paul H. Nitze. In November 1983, the Soviet delegation
broke off the talks in response to NATO's deployment in Europe that
month of American-made Pershing II and cruise missiles.
During the hiatus, President Reagan appointed Mr. Glitman chief
negotiator for the mutual and balanced force reduction talks in Vienna.
The I.N.F. talks resumed in March 1985, with Mr. Glitman as the chief
negotiator on medium-range forces. (Parallel talks were held on space
and defensive arms, led by Max M. Kampelman for the United States, and
on strategic arms, led by former Senator John G. Tower.)
By all accounts, Mr. Glitman was a steady, sobering presence. "He is
generally regarded as a solid professional but not the type who is
likely to thump the table insisting on compromises," The New York Times
wrote of him in 1985.
On May 27, 1988, the Senate approved the I.N.F. treaty by a vote of 93
to 5. As was reported at the time, applause swept not only the gallery
but also the Senate floor, a highly unusual occurrence.
By June 1, 1991, as mandated by the treaty, the United States and the
Soviet Union had collectively dismantled more than 2,600 missiles. After
the Soviet breakup later that year, several former Soviet republics,
including Belarus and Ukraine, joined Russia and the United States in
carrying out the treaty.
In 2007, partly in response to American plans to deploy a missile shield
in Eastern Europe, Russian military officials threatened to withdraw
from the I.N.F. treaty. That October, however, the United States and
Russia issued a joint statement affirming their continued support.
After serving as ambassador to Belgium from 1988 to 1991, Mr. Glitman
taught political science at the University of Vermont and contributed
articles to foreign-affairs publications.
Besides his wife, the former G. Christine Amundsen, whom he married in
1956, Mr. Glitman is survived by three sons, Russell, Erik and Matthew;
two daughters, Karen Glitman and Rebecca Trieb; a brother, Joseph; a
sister, Paula Glitman; and six grandchildren.
As ambassador, Mr. Glitman was on hand in December 1988 as the last
cruise missiles were taken out of Belgium, making it the first country
to be cleared of intermediate-range nuclear weapons.
"I don't feel very emotional about it now," he told The Times that day.
"Tonight I'll go home and say: 'Gosh. It really happened.' "