DOWNING OF SOUTH KOREAN PLANE BY USSR - II

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91B00135R000200320017-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 20
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 11, 2008
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: September 3, 1983
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2008/01/11 :CIA-R DP91 B00135R000200320017-8
jet emphasized President:..Reagan's statement that'.the Kremlin. was lying
et claim the
lane was i
v
h
S
i
p
e--
o
about the facts of_ the case .in. response to t
=I1L L11CL.,. IJL.IC 1f-rua. ...j ....-.. ~.. ~ -
"that.they can_immediately.grasp:the hand .of those..friendly Soviets. who, are,;.,
The Soviet claim was received wryly by many media. observers.' Paris'.-
. - _ _. ~ ~__..------~_ ..,.4~a tti,~~ .uthia nlane~fi7:1.PA witYt
o
A num er g
"If so, we have'a.frightening situation."
Some speculated.as`to whab level thA order to down the airliner was.given.
u ht it was "a local decision.".. Tokyo's .moderate Yomiuri said,
b th
The independent Times~..of-London `judged-the President'.s.statehrent as his
"toughest anti-Soviet .remarks since comixig to office." Papers im many.'
countries,. ran :interviews with key government officials expressing shock.
'like mechanical robots.. _
Many writers worried.about-the state of East-West relations in the wake
the tragedy. Dublin's liberal.IrishLPre~s said that "relations between
 -`passenger.plana:_was::"a;.terrorist act'.;., :and that the. SOViet:charge?ahat.'the; .:
_.:
.President Reagan'.=s S#atement and Soviet Spy Plan Charge
."Kremlin`Has:Twisted Facts".
London :headlines.,.today.'aaid:_U.S. Accuses-,Russia of:,Terrorism and Lies--A
SoV?Plane:.5ays. Mo?cow,":.:'"Angry'Reagan.=:Sends_AWACS.and F-15s to .Search ;
"President Reagan's Toughest Remarks-Since Taking Office"
..:'yesterday accused the Soviet Union of .telling flagrant ties about the
'.Korean "airline. disaster. and cast' doubts. about Moscow's ;credibility in
."Arms control 'talks.musE continue'since an
rinvolbed:.." .,.
 f .,.......j
afternoon issued the closest it may come to an apology for -'the leading.:
circles in the Soviet Union' for the loss of human life which had occurred
.. ...
.Another reportin~:tha`paper':said that..:"the British Government yesterday,;
r=threw its weight-behind American-led demands-for full:explanations,..:r.:r
-..:reparations?and.punishment. for the destruction_of-plane
In ;an editorial 'the paper said, "The TASS,statement was neither adequate
nor':convincing.:'." .
"President Reagan Bristling With Anaer" '~_
5?'~ ` '
"Americans'Believe Have to Share Planet However Russians Behave"
TASS'Statement "As Sickening as It Is Absurd"
:.most poisoned terms of the Soviet, propagandists, claiming that the jumbo "
jet was a i4estern spy plane: .This empty bluster is almost as sickening as
Kremlin on the incident was "as sickening as it is absurd=.couched in the
 "Outrage Is Not Enough:"
The sensationa~,ist Sun declared, "Outrage is not enough_ Why should we in.
the West"go on dealing with the. Reds as if they were civilized human beings
and not barbarians?" -
n
,Spg-Plane".(Libe~on)~ ?^co DTad (Aboard?". (Parisian Po up lar)-
Eztent?.Of- Mutual; a,egiciu~u~= .,-~_____-- ,--.-^.
Suclr;Attrocities?"-`and:"Reagan Accuses:" (Le Matin). "Regan Denounces
'Terrorist.Act'---Soviets'~Regret' and Accuse" and "Moscow::-_ Korean Jet Was-
k) and Killers~Are Free" -
d '
Conservative 4uotidien said today, "Killing was not enough for them.-: Now
"Now~They Have to Cynically Lie"
' Pro-Socialist'Le [satin =e,~a~~=~-. --?---?-- --
horrible to the end, because Moscow, far from apologizieo~lecwasesaccording
spies are everywhere. This glane, filled with sleepy p P
to TASS, conducting intelligence operations. Nobody is being fooled._."
.-Leftist Liberation said "The Soviets are pleading shared blame: they
~.
" '-regret and they accuse.: .1'ney reverse the trust ~f the proof... .
Communist Pa er: "American Government Has Furnished No Prodf" -
Communist gumanite ran headlines such as "Profound Emotion Throughout'
P7orld:' and "Bring Everything-to Light--Establish the Truth" over a
'front-page comment that held,_"This affair is one more reason to intensify
"Thus .far; the American vovcxi~+u=?=~.?~?--~ -------
attack) than the recording of what is presented .as an exchange of messages
between the fighter pilot and his command post..."
"Charq~s Pit Two Superpowers Face to Face"
Mass appeal Parisian Popular today said, "This occupation of spying appears
because it is virtually
as
y
at once easy and extremely serious: e
unverifiable, serious because it pits the two super powers against one
;: Approved For Release 2008/01/11 :CIA-R DP91 B00135R000200320017-8
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Headlines today were_"Worldwide Indignation" (West Deutsche Allgemeine),
"Attack Condemned as Crime--U.S. Leaders Call for Sanctions Against USSR"-
"
(Koelner Stadt-Anzei er),
Reagan Accuses Moscow of Committing Act of
Terror" General-Anzeig_er) -and "i?Iashington: Barbarism of Soviet .
Government--Bonn: Act of Utmost Brutality" (Frankfurter Allgemeine).
"Chancellor Kohl: 'Notorious Act of Extreme Barbarism'"~
. Bonn's .independent General=Anzeiger today reported that Chancellor Kohl-
condemned the Soviet action as a'"notorious act of extreme barbarism" that
Karl Carstens, in a telegram to South Korea's president,_,characterized the
incident as an "inhuman assault on civil aviation." The paper said that
Social Democratic. leader Hans-Jochen Vogel called the.,.attaclc_,'.'depressing----
"This.Mean Crime Is So Donstrous,.."
Pro-Christian Democratic Bonner Rundschau today had an interview with'
Minister of State Juergen Moellemann citing him as saying, "This mean crime-
is so monstrous that it- is hard to comment on it adequately...
-'`The countries of the Western community must agree in...political _ ..
consultation on a common course and refrain from presentings Eheir
individual national conclasion's to the public..."
Bonn's conservative Die f7elt observed that now "a Reagan-Andropov meeting
seems to be impossible for a long time to come....It may turn out that
Andropov does not have his military apparatus under control..."
"Crime Reflects Fatal. Automatism of the Mechanism of Reaction"
Conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine held that "the incident is like an
ironical exclamation mark after almost a decade of Soviet hubris, a decade
of Soviet arms buildup and expansion." .
Left-of-center Frankfurter Rundschau said today, "What the killing of 269
people reflects is not only the evil character of the Soviets, but the
fatal automatism of the mechanism of reaction. The persons responsible
~.. 4..A 131. _i _? ___ ~___ u -
 "Since Superpower Did It, It's All the Fiore Shocking"
An editorial.;in leading Helsingen Sanomat today said, "In the absence of.
accurate information one has to assume that the United States is right:..."
The paper declared .the attack was."to be condemned as much. as earlier'
'_'American Right Has.Eound Martyr in Larry McDonald"