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Soviet Ambitions and the Lure of Western Technology
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12214 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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Date : |
2 / 1987 |
3,086 Words |
| Author
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Jan Sejna and Joseph D. Douglass, Jr.
Jan Sejana was former first secretary of the Communist Party
of the Ministry of Defense in Czecholovika and chief of staff
of the Czech Ministry of Defense. Sejna, who defected in
1968, is an expert on Soviet military and political strategy.
Joseph D. Douglass, Jr., is a national security affairs
consultant with expertise in nuclear, chemical, and biological
strategy, Soviet military doctrine and policy, intelligence,
and U.S. defense policy. He is the author or coauthor of
numerous books and articles including Soviet Strategy for
Nuclear War. |
During his explanation of the wide-ranging benefits of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), President Reagan stated that the United States was willing to share the technology with the Soviets, an offer that was without precedent. This, he said, would mean greater security for both sides and would lead eventually to significant reductions in nuclear arms. Accordingly, it is surprising how little attention the news media has directed to this aspect of the president's program, and it is even more surprising how the Soviets turned aside the president's offer, notwithstanding their long-term and extensive efforts to obtain such technological know-how from the West.
Soviet response to Reagan's offer for a unilateral exchange of technological information has amounted to a frontal assault on SDI. Since the president first presented his plan for a space-based defensive shield in 1983, negotiations between the two superpowers on strategic arms reductions have hinged on the issue of U.S. deployment of SDI. At the mini-summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, in October, Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev proposed an initiative calling for massive cuts in ballistic missiles if the United States agreed to confine SDI to laboratory research.
Regan told reporters as he was boarding Air Force One after the conclusion of his meeting with the Soviet leader in Reykjavik that Gorbachev demanded a "10-year delay in the deployment of SDI in exchange for the complete elimination of all ballistic missiles from the respective arsenals of both nations.
"The General Secretary said he would consider our offer only if we restricted all work on SDI to laboratory
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