Ralph Earle II, arms control expert, dies
Envoy was lead negotiator for SALT II
Ralph Earle II, an arms control expert who served during the Carter administration as lead U.S. negotiator at the SALT II talks with the Soviet Union and as director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, died Jan. 13 at a hospital in Sarasota, Florida. He was 91.
The cause was complications from Parkinson’s disease, said his son,
Ralph Earle III.
Earle’s government service spanned three decades, beginning with his appointment in 1968 as a Pentagon aide for international security affairs. A decade later, President Jimmy Carter appointed him to succeed Paul Warnke as chief negotiator for the second round of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, known as SALT II. Earle, whose post accorded him ambassadorial rank, had previously acted as Warnke’s deputy.
The SALT II agreement, which would have limited the number of nuclear warheads the two nations could maintain, ultimately broke down after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979.
Earle, whom The New York Times described as “an able administrator who has managed to steer clear of controversies,” went on to lead the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency from 1980 until Carter was succeeded by President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
Having begun his career in legal practice, Earle worked with the Lawyers Alliance for Nuclear Arms Control, later the Lawyers Alliance for World Security, before returning to the arms control agency as deputy director in 1994. He retired in 1999.