WHY IN THE WORLD HAVE THE SOVIETS BEEN ACTING IN THIS WAY?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R000600070011-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 18, 2004
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: July 23, 1978
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2004/05/21 : CIA-RDP81 M00980R00
ON PAGE Pt.IV-3
LOS ANGELES TIMES
23 July 1978
_T _T
Why i n..-. the Worl tiave ', the' ~30vi_ ets
ed := ctm 1
BI PRISCILLA JOHNSON BIc3IILLAN
Why did the Russians in Moscow take- a series of steps
that were bound to ruffle the feelings of the American
people right before U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance
and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko met in Ge
.neva for a new round of arms-limitation talks?
Just last month, for instance.. the Russians arrested on
trumped-up charges F. Jay Crawford. Moscow representa-
tive of International Harvester, a company that has sold
.the Russians 3300 million of much-needed farming equip--
;inent_
And three -weeks ago Craig Whitney and Harold Piper.
Moscow correspondents: of ? the prestigious. New. York
-Times and the Baltimore Sun, were arraiDned:on, unprece-1
dented charges of slander.
'Finally. in the past few days, Anatoly Shcharansky;and
.Alexander Ginzburg, leaders of the Jewish dissident move
ment. were tried and sentenced on charges ranging from
ttea:=on to subversion
The'Russians could not have devised actions more'-clear-
:1?r calculated to outrage key opinion-makers in the.United
States:,, business.: then press,.. the Jewish community - and
:even President -Carter, who had. personally denied the,
:chief charge against Shcharansky-that he was a C.I.A.
spy. Why did they-behave this way? .
The answers to' questions about Soviet benavior can be-,
:.simple-or bafflingly complex This time they appear to be
.porn. t:;
To suggest a simple answer first, consider the sensation-
,al defection to the. United States four months ago of Arka-
dy N. Shevchenko, highest-ranking Soviet employe of th
mte Nations and a man with extensive. knowledge of I
viet spying operations in the West. Silence now enve-
,, os t, is mci eft But in the words of a former U.S. dipl
mat.. the Russians- have lately.become . more and more
,reckless' in: their .use of the U.N. Secretariat as aq
:,espionage outpost: By now. Shevchenko in his. mysterious
2 ng placemust have name ozens.or .N em oyes
wlia-~ dootne, double du as. spies forte oviet nion
,'
,, l;, us the'K ..- the viet secret police. may know what
. -ta resto us o not-that itisin.imminent-need of fake
.'spies and other hoszge3 in Russia whom It. can trade for
its own real spies in the U . . ,
But. the recent Soviet behavior has more,.comples.mo
.fives as well ' a factwell known to the specialists, but not I
to the public-For onething, Russia is already in a leader-
zshipcrisis over who=is'to:succeed;Leonid Brezhnev as:the:
-.Soviet. Cornmun ist?-Party-_ chairmair: Brezhnev . is':clearly
unwell.
Ibis phys'ical' debility has led to his political impotence:
Hi; views iio longer tarry the weight they once'did. As-the ~
?olitburo member' who had supervised the Soviet armed .
forces. Brezhnevis believed to have been especially sense-.b
Live to the dangers of nuclear. war and to have been eager,
to sign an arms agreement before leaving office. Today,
however. control seems to have slipped out of his hands
and into the hands of more conservative Party leaders
backed by the secret poljce. These groups oppose any eas-
ing of relations with the West because they would inevi-
tably lead to an easing of political controls at home. To
them, the SALT agreement is a threat.
Any time of crisis such as the Soviet.Union is in-now
over succession is traditionally a time in which inexplica-
ble. even wild, events occur. It is a time of danger-and of
opportunity-for the West.
. The final key to Soviet behavior maybe the hardest.to
solve. President Carter has been in office only a year and.a
half: but already the Russians hold him in contempt They
have taken this opportunity to show the world how they
feel. by scoffing at Carter's human-rights campaign- Car
ter. at the outset of his Presidency, spoke out.boldly.in be-
half of human rights, above all in. the Soviet Union. The
Russians: by sentencing physicist Yuri Orlov in May. to..12
?.~
years for attempting to monitor Soviet observance.of-the
Helsinki human-rights accords. and. by the sentencing. of
Ginzburg and ' Shcharansky last week to eight . and .13
years, Trespectively, have. shouted out as loudly as they:
could.precisely what they think of Jimmy Carter.
Curious( the last President the Russians -treated with
such scorn was John ennedv. Kennedy. had bare( !
taken office when. in April, 1961. Cuban exiles backed by'
e .-attem tea to land at the of s. -bay The Russians had no difficulty understanding Kennedy's ;
desire to get rid of Castro. What they could not compre
hend was why, having faunched`its.attenipt, the United;
States. -the most powerful nation on earth. failed to shoot"
its way. in and 'clean up. The poor opinion they. formed of
Kennedy was-reinforced a few weeks Ifter when Kennedy
met with Khrushchev in Vienna and impressed the Soviet-
. ,leader .as-a'weak young man-who was nbt ;prepared to be
-President; ,:
The. Russians showed their complete contempt of Ken-
nedy during the summer of 1961..when at last they permit
ted their German puppet. Walter Ulbricht, to erect a wall
'dividing East and West Berlin. Then a' few months after
that they persuaded a reluctant Fidel Castro to, accept So-
viet 'missiles and launching sites in Cuba.-In September of
1962, 'while the Russians were serenely shipping missiles'
to.Cuba. Pravda launched a series of verbal:assaults.on.'.
Kennedy.that echo the Soviet attacks on Carter today.-
But Kennedy had ii-chance to recoup. In,October:l982
before the Russians were ready. American U-2 aircraft
discovered the missile emplacements in Cuba. And, in the j
drisis that ensued. Kennedy outfaced Khrushchev and'at
last.compelled his respect. So doing, he helped to create: a
climate. in iwhich. American Presidents have been able.
ter a. fashion: to do business with Soviet "leaders-until-the
advent of Jimmy_Carter.-.
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When confronted as they are in Carter :with what they'
.perceive to be,weakness, the Russians are apt to be tempt=;r
;ed into foreign adventure.-But this was inor'e;often'the case
under Khrushchev.' a gambler and'.a:compulsive risk-',.I
taker: than it has been under his more cautious successors:
-So it'is not'likely-that Carter will be handed.an opportunity
-to'prove his mettle to;the.Russians'in.a single. spine=tin,
gling moment of truth-,-such as Kennedy faced in 1962.
Yet short of some such dramatic face=down. it is difficult.
to-see. how President Carter is going to wrest the Russians'
respect...
Przscilla Johns h .Me lfiilan, a?i associate at the Russian
Research Center at Harvard and.`autharof the biography,
.Marina and Lee," lived in Russia while a correspondent.
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