Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency report, dated 1 June 1984 and marked unclassified for official use only, reviews how Soviet leaders and media treated President Reagan from November 1980 through May 1984. It finds that Moscow twice moderated its rhetoric to test prospects for better relations, and that attacks became the most abusive in two decades after the South Korean airliner shootdown. The report compiles authoritative Soviet statements and midlevel and routine media commentary as a baseline for analysts.
“Cooper”12 pages
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# UNCLASSIFIED FOUO Document 1 of 2 AGAL Concatenated Database Page 1 Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Language: Report Volume: Dissemination:FOU0 FULL TEXT OF ARTICLE: 1. YYYY/SM84-030 2. Report Date: 01 Jun 84 3. Soviet Public Treatment of President Reagan 4. November 1980 - May 1984 5. Introduction 6. The treatment accorded an American president in Soviet authoritative statements and media commentary can be a sensitive barometer of Soviet expectations for Moscow's relations with Washington. Historically, Soviet efforts to promote improved relations have been accompanied by restraints on public criticism of presidents and their policies. By the same token, harsh public attacks on presidents have been made during periods when the Soviets seemed to believe that no improvement in relations was possible or advantageous. 7. Soviet public treatment of President Reagan has proved to be no exception to this pattern. Twice since November 1980 Moscow has significantly moderated its propaganda line to test the prospects for reduced bilateral tensions. Commentary during the last two months has been harsh, however, and gives no hint that a third Soviet effort of this sort is in the offing. ## 8. Pattern of Statements 9. The first Soviet effort to improve relations with the current Administration came immediately after the November 1980 elections. Soviet media pictured President-elect Reagan in positive terms, asserting that he had moderated anti-Soviet views expressed during the campaign and raising the possibility that he would reverse the deterioration in bilateral relations that had occurred during the period of the Carter Administration. Faced with continued criticism after the Administration took office, Moscow abandoned such professed optimism in low-level media comment, resorting to strident censure of the Administration and to direct, if somewhat less harsh, attacks on the President himself. Soviet political leaders continued to abide by their normal strictures against attacking a U.S. president directly, although by May 1981 they were strongly indicting President Reagan's policies.
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 56 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.