MILITARY THOUGHT (USSR): THE NATURE OF MODERN WARFARE AND THE MISSIONS OF THE MILITARY SERVICES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP10-00105R000100460001-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 24
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 2, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: April 26, 1974
• Content Type: MEMO

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Intelligence Information Special Report
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COUNTRY USSR
DATE26 April 1974
50X1-HUM
MILITARY THOUGHT (USSR): The Possible Nature of Modern
Wars and the Tasks of the Branches of the. Armed Forces
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N
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The Possible Nature of Modern Wars and the
Tasks of the Branches of the Armed Forces
by
Marshal of the Soviet Union M. Zakharov
The theory and practice of military affairs testify
that the principal concepts of military strategy are
constantly changing in regard to the possible nature of a
future war, the preparation of the country for it, the
organization of the armed forces, and the determination of
the methods of conducting war. This is caused, first of
all, by the military-political situation, the economic and
morale potentials of countries, and the equipping of armies
with massive quantities of new means of armed combat. The
decisive influence on the nature of strategy, its goals, and 1
the methods of achieving them is policy.
As the means of armed combat are developed, the scope
of the-problems of strategy increases, and its role and
place in military art change. If in the past total victory
was the result of a multitude of individual successes
achieved successively at the tactical and operational
levels, then now the strategic command has at its disposal
such powerful means of armed combat as strategic nuclear
forces which permit decisive results to be achieved in war.
Strategy based on directives from _ the__.political
leadership of the country develops sound methods of using
military-economic potential in war. It determines the
overall bases for the use of the various branches of the
armed forces in a plan for achieving a single strategic
goal; and these bases are taken into account when developing
the forms and methods of using each branch of the armed
forces.
contains certain considerations on such
important in our view, questions as the ossible types eand
aspects o wars in era; their nat o
and the problems to be resolve by individual branches of
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development.
the armed forces; and the probable directions of their
In the process of social-historical development, one
social-economic structure is superseded by another, more
progressive one, the class structure of society is
reorganized, and relations between classes, nations, and
states change. This causes a basic change in policy and it
acquires a different qualitative substance. In turn,
changes in policy have a very decisive effect on the concept
of each individual war, are responsible for differences
between wars of one era and another, and are the objective
basis for their scientific classification and for
determining their type and nature. Under the influence of
policy, and based on the development of production forces
and on scientific and technical progress, the means,
methods, and forms of combat operations are being improved,
the scopes of wars keep expanding and they are becoming more
and more destructive. Thus, each war in our present era is
examined from two aspects--social-political and military-
technical.
History tells us that the inherent characteristics and
diversity of wars, by virtue of their social-political
nature, are conditioned, first of. all, by the specific
content and peculiarities of antagonistic contradictions
fraught with the possibility'of unleashing wars. The main
and decisive contradiction in our era is the one between
socialism and imperialism. The continuing process of the
deepening crisis of capitalism is the cause of its
increasing aggressiveness. It has become even more greedy,
capable of any kind of venture.
The policy of American imperialism is clearly
aggressive in nature. Its principal goal is the destruction
of the USSR, the elimination of the socialist system, and
the achievement of world supremacy. The imperialists are
preparing for this on all fronts--economic, ideological,
political, diplomatic, and military. In the capitalist
countries, following the US line, the militarization of the
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economy is constantly increasing, the arms race is being
stepped up, and a broad program is being implemented in
preparation for a new world war.
After encountering the ever-growing might and the
solidarity of countries of the socialist alliance around
which all the progressive forces of the world are united,
the American imperialists, along with all-round preparation
for nuclear world war, started looking for other, as they
think, less dangerous methods of achieving their aggressive
aims. By using bribery, blackmail, and reactionary military
;coups, and by unleashing local wars, they are trying to
weaken the socialist alliance and to break off piecemeal
'individual countries from the democratic camp. And this
:means that there still is a danger that the Soviet Union may
) be drawn into local wars.
As a result of the sharp shrinking sphere of capitalist
supremacy and the increasing action of the law of uneven
development of capitalism, the struggle among imperialist
countries themselves for export markets, sources of raw
material, and cheap labor is becoming more and more
intensified. Sharp competition with the United States has
been initiated by the Federal Republic of Germany, Japan,
and France, who until recently found themselves almost
totally dependent on their transoceanic "ally". And
although the imperialist countries are hound to each other
by means of some definite obligations within the system of
various military-political blocs directed against the
countries of socialism, a further aggravation of contra-
dictions between them may conceivably lead to armed
conflicts.
Thus, in the light of the aforementioned contra-
dictions, the basic types of wars in the present era flay be
wars between the two social systems of socialism and
capitalism, revolutionary civil wars, wars of national
liberation, and wars between two imperialist countries.
As regards the military-technical aspect, history
indicates that the more diversified and powerful the arsenal
of weapons at the disposal of the two sides, the more
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complex the nature of the war and the methods and forms of
its preparation, initiation, and conduct. tinder modern
conditions of a complex military-political situation subject
to rapid and sharp changes, and with the availability to
armies of a wide variety of the means of armed combat, in
all likelihood these means will be used in many combinations
and in different sequences. In addition, we must take into
account not only our own forces and means, but also the
capabilities of the enemy and his views regarding the
methods of unleashing and conducting armed combat.
International imperialism, especially the US
imperialists, assuming that their superiority over the
Soviet Union in nuclear weapons and the strategic means of
delivering them is assured, expect to realize their
aggressive plans with the aid of these weapons. Various
theories have appeared which propound that nuclear weapons
are the universal and the only means by which all tasks of
war can be solved and victory achieved. These views are
reflected in official US doctrine adopted in 1953 and called
the strategy of "massive retaliation". It provided for the
use of nuclear power in unleashing conflicts of any size.
In light of this strategy the main attention in military
build-up was given to the development of nuclear means and
working out methods of their application.
However, the reliance by American imperialists on
nuclear weapons alone has collapsed The Soviet Union's
successes in missile development anc the.creation and
stockpiling of new, powerful types of nuclear munitions have
forced the American strategists of nuclear blackmail to stop
and think about the prospects of such a war. When
evaluating the nuclear power of the USSR, McNamara, the
former Secretary of Defense, in an interview with Life
magazine (in 1967), had stated that "The Soviet Union wwill
be capable of destroying all of America after receiving the
initial powerful strike from the US".
When the policy of nuclear blackmail proved to be a
failure, the imperialist circles began to look feverishly
for an escape from the situation in which they found
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themselves. They began to place considerable emphasis on
conventional means of destruction in their aggressive plans.
In 1961, the so-called strategy of "flexible response.".../
was introduced in place of the "massive retaliation"
strategy. By January 1968, this strategic concept of
"flexible and phased responses using conventional and
nuclear weapons depending on the degree of threat" was
adopted by NATO as the official military doctrine. The US
and NATO commands consider it to be the most adaptable to
modern conditions.
Fundamentally new in this concept is the admission of
the possibility that military operations of various
durations can be waged in Europe without using nuclear arms.
This also raises the significance of the Bundeswehr as the
most powerful NATO land force in Europe. A derivative of
this strategy, the concept of "forward defense", permits the
deployment in peacetime of a grouping of forces near the
western borders of the German Democratic Republic and the
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic so that, in case of war, and
if conditions are favorable, a preemptive strike can be
delivered and the combat operations transferred to the
territory of the socialist countries, or at least to prevent
any loss of Federal Republic of Germany territory. 50X1-HUM
However, in this strategy, too, the basic reliance is
QZ1_pep-arationfor nuclear war. The po icy o i a
in regard to the socialist countries is still one of the
NATO weapons. It was clearly evident at the session of the
NATO council in Brussels (November 1968) where threats were
continuously directed at the USSR and the entire socialist
alliance. Particularly pointed remarks were made concerning
the questions of increasing the number of troops of the NATO
grouping in Europe; moving its main forces closer to the
borders of the German Democratic Republic and Czecho-
slovakia; faster equipping of troops with modern arms, and
raising their combat and mobilization readiness; and
reviewing certain conditions of the strategy of "flexible
response" towards more "decisive actions".
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An analysis of the above-mentioned prerequisites of a
military and political nature permits the conclusion to he
made that, with the present arrangement of forces in the
international arena and the status of the means of armed
combat, two ,Y.~s.~a?_ . ax cons de _d__pOssikje.:
nuclear And non-nuclear-.j If, by their social-political
nature, these wars, thrust upon the Soviet Union and other
countries of the socialist commonwealth by the imperialists
are alike, and represent a collision between two op
osite
p
social systems, then they will he different in their
strategic aspect and military-technical content. Nuclear
and non-nuclear wars will fundamentally differ from each
other by the nature of strategic tasks to he solved; the
methods of accomplishing them and the types of strategic
operations; the means used; the duration and spatial scope;
the probable consequences; and other factors. Each of }~^^^
wars has its own specific traits, its own particular 50X1-HUM
division into periods, and its own strategic intensity.
Nuclear war is the kind of war in which both sides make
unlimited use of allth-forces and means at their disposal,
and, first and foremost, strategic nuclear forces as the
main means of destruction. Taking part in this war are
groupings of all the branches of the armed forces, which
were established in the theaters of military operations
before the beginning of the war. The most important feature
of nuclear war is the decisiveness of its military-political
aims and the exceptionally tense, destructive and uncompro-
mising nature of its military actions.
Nuclear war may start by a surprise enemy nuclear
attack; or by his unleashing a conflict using only
conventional weapons but in which, should the outcome he
unfavorable, the use of tactical, at first, and later also
strategic nuclear means is tot excluded.. In other words, in
the latter case the war will not begin at once with an
unlimited use of nuclear arms but proceed in its development
through a number of consecutive and closely interrelated
periods, i.e., it will be conducted by phases.
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Undoubtedly, the most dangerous_is the unleashing of
war by an aggressor's sudden nuclear attack. This is what
eiA,y_g_o_4,2t, only non-nuclear but also limite nuclear
actions. The means of armed struggle will be introduced in
ucces 'on and, as a result, the scale of military 50X1-HUM
4perat ions will-increase gradually or odically
imultaneously with the grow their intensify.- At the
same time, a war that has begun b the use of conventional
means of destruction or tactical nuc ear weapons in a
tea er of military operations may cease a ore a us of
properly determines the strict requirements for maintaining
the high combat readiness of our Armed Forces and their
capability for delivering at any moment a crushing blow upon
the enemy, and for ensuring the timely asceYtA mte-n `of
enemy preparation for attack. As far as a nuclear war
be ' n with the use of conventio rdestr tipn
is concerne