Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T20:39:18.075Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Soviet Images of the U.S. as Nuclear Adversary 1969–1979

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2011

William D. Jackson
William D. Jackson
Affiliation:
Political Science at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
Get access

Abstract

Images of the United States as nuclear adversary presented in official Soviet commentary provide useful clues in the analyses of Soviet strategic policy. Hard, high-threat images stressing the continuing danger of nuclear war are functionally associated with conservative policies emphasizing the need for efforts to improve war-fighting capabilities. Less militant adversary images appear associated with more moderate defense policies. In the 1970s, sharp divergences in adversary images appeared in official Soviet commentaries, indicative of disagreement within the Soviet Union on the defense policy implications of SALT. The policy implications of shifts in adversary images and the location of the political leadership in terms of conflicting moderate and conservative images are examined for the period 1969–1979.

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 33 , Issue 4 , July 1981 , pp. 614 - 638
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Good discussions of the linkage of adversary images and policy advocacy may be found in Kolkowicz, Roman, “Strategic Parity and Beyond: Soviet Perspectives,” World Politics, XXIII (April 1971), 431–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Zimmerman, William, Soviet Perspectives on International Relations (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969)Google Scholar. See also Wolfe, T. W., Soviet Strategy at the Crossroads (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1964)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 See, for example, Sokolovsky, V. D., ed., Soviet Military Strategy, 3rd ed., H. F. Scott (New York: Crane, Russak, 1968), 56–57Google Scholar. The Sokolovsky analysis, prepared by a military commission, offered one of the most authoritative commentaries on U.S. policy. Similar themes dominated general press commentaries; see, for example, Dimitriyev, B., “Amerikanskaya Strategia,” Izvestia, July 9, 1967Google Scholar.

3 Sokolovsky (fn. 2), 58.

4 Ibid., 65.

5 Ibid.,

6 Ibid., 62.

7 Ibid., 60–62, 186–89.

8 Pravda, February 23, 1969. Translations from Russian-language publications are by the author.

9 Grechko, A., “V. I. Lenin i stroitel'stvo sovetskikh vooruzhennykh sil,” Kommunist, No. 3 (February 1969), 15–26Google Scholar, at 3. Grechko repeated these remarks the following year: “Na strazhe mira i sozialisma,” Kommunist, No. 3 (February 1970), 63Google Scholar.

10 Pravda, February 24, 1968.

11 See, for example, Suslov's remarks in Pravda, October 31, 1965; Brezhnev, Pravda, July 4, 1965, and June 8, 1969. Also see Suslov, , “Leninism i revolutsionnoe preobpazovanie mira,” Kommunist, No. 15 (October 1969), 13–37Google Scholar.

12 Pravda, July 9, 1968.

13 See, for example, Aboltin, V., “Monopolii i Voiny,” Kommunist, No. 2 (January 1966), 110–19Google Scholar, esp. 117. The overall resurgence of conservative themes in this period is discussed in Zimmerman (fn. 1), 231–34, and Kolkowicz (fn. 1), 445–46.

14 Pravda, October 16, 1967. Brezhnev had moved to encourage less militant images of the Western powers in late 1966, declaring, “to perceive promptly . . . the concrete political tendencies of various countries, even those from which we are divided by social barriers, is as important as watching the intrigues of aggressive forces and seeing the dangers they are creating” (Pravda, November 2, 1966).

15 Rybkin, , Kommunist vooruzhennykh sil, xviii (September 1968)Google Scholar.

16 Pravda, June 8, 1969.

17 Vishnevsky, S. and Yakhontov, Yv., “Vazhnaya tsel,” Pravda, November 19, 1969Google Scholar.

18 Arbatov, , “American Foreign Policy on the Threshold of the 1970s,” S Sh A, No. 1 (January 1970), 21–34Google Scholar; reprinted in Current Digest of the Soviet Press [hereafter cited as CDSP], XXII, No. 8, pp. 4–6, 16Google Scholar.

16 Ibid., 4.

20 Ibid., 5.

21 Ibid., 6.

22 Pravda, February 23, 1971.

23 Pravda, April 3, 1971.

24 Arbatov, , “A Step in the Interests of Peace,” S Sh A, No. 11 (November 1971)Google Scholar; reprinted in CDSP, XXIII, No. 51, pp. 1–4 (emphasis added)Google Scholar.

25 Ibid., 2.

26 Lutov, , “Eskalatsia militarizma v s sh a,” Voenny vestnik, No. 2 (1972), 114–18Google Scholar, at 115.

27 Ibid., 116.

28 Podgorny did defend the moderate image in a speech on June 9, 1970; see Pravda, June 10, 1970.

29 “Peredovaya,” Kommunist No. 14 (September 1970), 11Google Scholar.

30 Arbatov, , “The Strength of a Policy of Realism,” Izvestia, June 22, 1972, pp. 3–4Google Scholar; reprinted in CDSP, XXIV, No. 25, p. 46Google Scholar.

31 Inozemstov, Pravda, June g, 1972.

32 See, for example, Brezhnev's remarks in Pravda, June 28, 1972.

33 Krasnaya zvezda, July 12, 1972.

34 Krasnaya zvezda, March 28, 1973.

35 Kulikov, V., “Sovetskie vooruzhennye sily i voennaya nauka,” Kommunist, No. 3 (February 1973), 76–88Google Scholar.

36 Nikitin, , “Novye stavki pentagona,” Voenny vestnik, No. 1 (1973), 115–16Google Scholar.

37 Arbatov, , “Ob sovetsko-amerikanskikh otnosheniyakh,” Kommunist, No. 3 (February 1973), 101–13Google Scholar, at 106–7.

38 Ibid 105.

39 Pravda, July 28, 1973.

40 Pravda, July 26, 1973. For a similar speech in Alma Ata, see Pravda, August 16, 1973.

41 Pravda, September 23, 1973; reprinted in CDSP, xxv, No. 35, p. 3.

42 Pravda, October 27, 1973.

43 Pravda, June 5, 1974.

44 Pravda, June 4, 1974.

45 Pravda, June 12, 1974.

46 Gromyko, , for example, stated that “a historic step has been taken to lessen and ultimately eliminate the threat of war.” Pravda, June 11, 1974Google Scholar.

47 Krasnaya zvezda, May 30, 1975.

48 Izmailov, Col. V., “Kharakter i osnovennosti sovrenennykh voin,” Kommunist vooruzhennykh sil, VI (March 1975), 67–75Google Scholar.

49 Pravda, June 14, 1975.

50 Pravda, July 12, 1975.

51 Pravda, January 1, 1976.

52 Materiali xxv syezda KPSS (Moskva: Politizdat, 1976), 20–23Google Scholar.

53 Pravda, April 23, 1976.

54 Pravda, June 28, 1976.

55 Pravda, August 4, 1976.

56 Pravda, October 26, 1976.

57 Pravda, December 19, 1976.

58 G. A. Arbatov, Pravda, April 2, 1976.

59 Trofimenko, , “Evolutsia voenno-politicheskoi strategii S sh a,” Voprosy istorii, No. 3 (March 1976), 64–90Google Scholar, at 79.

60 Ibid., 89.

61 Ibid.

62 Pravda, January 19, 1977.

63 Izvestia, April 3, 1977.

64 Pravda, April 8, 1978.

65 Svyatov, , “O politike S sh a v oblasti stroitel'stva vooruzhennykh sil i ogranichenia,” Voprosy istorii, No. 2 (February 1978), 66–92Google Scholar.

66 “Gonka vooruzhenny,” Sovetskaya voennaya entsihlopedia (Moskva: Ministerstva obroni S.S.S.R., 1976), 11, 604Google Scholar.

67 Katerinich, Col. V., “Za dymovoi zavesoi antisovetizma,” Kommunist vooruzhennyk h sil (May 1978), 77–82Google Scholar.

68 “Oprasnie plani protivnikov pazpyadku,” Kommunist vooruzhennykh sil (September 1978), 79–83Google Scholar.

69 “Mif o sovetskoi voenny ugroze i realnost,” Pravda, August 2, 1979Google Scholar; see also Ustinov, D. F., “Zashchita sotsialisticheskovo otchestva,” Kommunist vooruzhennykh sil (March 1978), 17–18Google Scholar.

70 Rybkin, , “Antinauchnost’ burzhuaznykh conceptsy militarizma i aggressii,” Kommunist vooruzhennykh sil (March 1979), 15–23Google Scholar.

71 Rybkin (fn. 15).

72 “Realny put k vprochenonu miru,” Pravda, June 20, 1979Google Scholar.

73 “Vsegda nacheku,” Krasnaya zvezda, July 14, 1979Google Scholar.

74 Pravda, October 7, 1979.

75 Korionov, V., “Igra s ognem,” Pravda, October 4, 1979Google Scholar.

76 “Na poroge novovo desyatiletia,” Pravda, March 3, 1980.