4 SOCIAL SCIENTIST Security Council was unanimous in its belief in ^the necessity for reducing arms sales" and was determined to place "very tight restraints on future commitments" to US arms producers and their overseas customers.8 Carter assigned the task of implementing this policy to Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who subsequently told reporters that ^we are committed to a basic principle, and that is to find a way to reduce the sale of arms." Vancc suggested that Washington would ultimately try to persuade other arms producers to reduce their foreign sales, but added that, ^as the largest seller of arms/5 America has ^a particular responsibility to first put our own house in order"3 (emphasis added). Volume and Direction of US Arms Sales As the first step in this campaign to^put our own house in order", Vance ordered Leslie Gelb, Director of the State Department's Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs, to develop a set of policy options for the President. Gelb naturally began his work by studying all of the issues raised by the explosive growth in military exports. Most of this effort was conducted behind closed doors at the State Department and the Pentagon, but it is not difficult to imagine the major problems he considered in the course of this study. To begin with, US arms sales have risen at an astronomical rate from an average of $750 million per year in the 1950's and 1960's to approximately $9 billion per year in the mid-1970's. (These figures represent sales by the US Government to foreign governments under the Pentagon's Foreign Military Sales programme. Direct sales by US corporations to foreign buyers under the Commercial Sales programme rose at a comparable rate, from $100 million to over $1 billion per year.) All told, the United States sold over $55 billion worth of arms, equipment and services between 1971 and 1977, or three times the total for the'prcceding twenty years.4 While competition from other nations (particularly France^ Great Britain and the Soviet Union) remains fierce, the United States remains the world's leading arms supplier with just under 50 percent of total world sales.6 Further, whereas prior to 1970 most US arms sold abroad went to Japan, Canada, and Western Europe, today the bulk of such exports are going to the less-developed nations of the Third World. According to Pentagon statistics. Third World purchases rose from about $230 million per year in the 1950's and 60's to an astonishing $6 billion annually in the mid-1970's. Most of this increase is accounted for by sales to the oil-rich kingdoms of the Middle East, but a large chunk also represents purchases by the poor, debt-ridden nations of Latin America^ Africa, and Southeast Asia.6