76-11-4
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Intelligence[edit]
Transcript[edit]In mid-March the Soviet Union warned us that detente would be endangered if American officials continued to criticize violations of human rights behind the Iron Curtain. I don't know about you, but I didn't exactly tear my hair and go into a panic at the possibility. On February 11, the BOSTON GLOBE carried a news story that should have been front page in every major paper in the land. So far the only publication I'm aware of that saw fit to reprint the item was Bill Buckley's magazine NATIONAL REVIEW. According to the GLOBE article, British Intelligence in early 1973 obtained a speech given by Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev at a secret meeting of East European communist rulers in Prague. In their evaluation, the British rated this speech as comparable in importance to Kruschchev's 1956 denunciation of Stalin. The British informed the United States government of Brezhnev's speech, but apparently it didn't lessen our government's thirst for detente. Mr. Brezhnev told his fellow communist leaders, -- QUOTE -- "We are achieving with detente what our predecessors have been unable to achieve using the mailed fist. We have been able to accomplish more in a short time with detente than was done for years pursuing a confrontation policy with NATO. Trust us Comrades, for by 1985, as a consequence of what we are now achieving with detente, we will have achieved most of our objectives in Western Europe . We will have consolidated our position. We will have improved our economy" . -- UNQUOTE. And then he added the bottom line which certainly should have guided our own policy for these intervening years. He said, -- QUOTE -- "a decisive shift in the correlation of forces will be such that come 1985, we will be able to extend our will wherever~ need to". -- UNQUOTE. There was more to his speech. He was optimistic about the future of Marxism in France and Italy. Now, four years later, we know his optimism was justified. He said Finland was already in the Soviet pocket, trends in Norway were in the right direction and Denmark was no longer a viable part of Western strength. Washington evidently received the British intelligence report with less than a wave of excitement. According to the GLOBE, then Secretary of State Kissinger minimized its importance -- to say the least. The only official reference to it came three years later (1976) in the NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE ESTIMATE. Maybe in 1973 there was some excuse, such as interpreting Brezhnev's remarks as a form of campaign rhetoric for in-house consumption. But now we can look back over the four years since the speech was made and see how consistent with his words Soviet policy has been. Soviet forces on the NATO front have been increased by 54 divisions; a 40 percent increase in tanks to three times NATO's armored strength. They have developed six new strategic nuclear systems and apparently are engaged in a crash program to develop an effective anti-ballistic missile system. You'll remember, we bargained away our right to have such a weapon for the protection of our cities. That was one of our contributions to detente. Question -- Why did we keep this information secret for three years? And why have the news media ignored it now that the secret is out? This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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