SOVIET STATEMENTS REGARDING POTENTIAL RESPONSES TO U.S. DEPLOYMENT OF INF MISSILES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85T00176R000900110021-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 1, 2007
• Sequence Number: 21
• Publication Date: April 5, 1982
• Content Type: MEMO

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41 SECRET
ACIS - 23/82
5 April 1982
MEMORANDUM FOR:
FROM:
SUBJECT:
Acting NIO/USSR
Chief, Arms Control Intelligence Staff
Soviet Statements Regarding Potential Responses to U.S.
Deployment of INF Missiles
As you requested, we have prepared a paper on Soviet statements on
potential responses to U.S. deployment of INF, missiles in Europe, in-
cluding allusions to the placement of nuclear weapons in Cuba. A
chronology of Soviet statements is provided in Annex. If you have further
questions or comments, please contact
Attachment
As stated
SECRET
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SECRET
2 April 1982
Soviet Statements Regarding Potential Responses
to U.S. Deployment of INF Missiles
Summary
In his 16 March speech to the Congress of Soviet Trade Unions, President
Brezhnev coupled an offer to halt deployment of medium range nuclear arms in
the European USSR with a warning that if the U.S. carries out its plan to
deploy missiles in Europe, the Soviet Union would be compelled to take
"retaliatory steps that would put the other side, including the U.S. its own
territory, in an analogous position." Soviet commentary on the speech has not
clarified the meaning of this warning. Some Western commentators have inter-
preted it as a threat to place nuclear weapons in Cuba. Three senior Soviet_
officials, however, have denied that Brezhnev was threatening to place nuclear
weapons in u a. -
Since the inception in 1979 of its public campaign to derail the NATO I
missile program, Moscow has interwoven offprc of ,crhirtinnc in itc own missile
f ion if NATn goes ahead with
The Soviets also have made previous al usions to placing weapons in Cuba in
response to U.S. deployment of INF missiles. These statements, by lower level
government officials, were made mainly in the context of substantiating Soviet
objections to the NATO nuclear force modernization program.
Moscow appears to have adopted a strategy of calculated ambiguity in handling
the threat of retaliation. While downplaying the allusion to Cuba, Soviet
spokesmen have sought to keep the threat of retaliation alive by continuing to
assert the USSR's right and intention to take countermeasures if the U.S. deploys
new missiles in Europe. The warning in Brezhnev's latest speech has sharpened
the formulation of earlier Soviet statements by clearly threatening an offensive
response should the U.S. proceed with its deployment plans.
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