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 16. + Although it authorized media attacks on the President, the leadership itself conspicuously avoided attacking him directly until 1983, thereby observing its traditional posture of standing aloof from the extremes of the polemical fray. Even in his strongest criticisms of U.S. policy, Brezhnev attacked U.S. "ruling circles," "Washington," and "the line of the United States and those who follow it" without naming the President. The Soviet leadership broke this pattern last September in the wake of U.S. charges that the Soviet Union had knowingly shot down a passenger airliner. Andropov's January Pravda interview and statements coming after his death have returned to the more familiar pattern of sharply attacking the Administration but avoiding the extremes witnessed last fall. 17. + Midlevel officials and political commentators (for example, Aleksandr Bovin, Georgiy Arbatov, Vadim Zagladin, and Nikolay Shishlin) have been less restrained than the leaders in blaming the President for the U.S. policies they have so sharply condemned. They have also provided the most sensitive indicator of changing Soviet perceptions about the direction of bilateral relations, registering in their comments apparent fluctuations in Soviet expectations regarding U.S.-Soviet cooperation. 18. + Routine media commentary has been the least sensitive barometer of changes in the atmosphere of U.S.-Soviet relations. When President Reagan was elected, this low-level propaganda was more optimistic than some Soviet political observers. But as Soviet assessments of Administration policy toward the Soviet Union hardened, the propaganda assumed a hostile tone which has continued despite some fluctuations in intensity. 19. * * * * * * * 20. This report presents a compilation of significant Soviet statements about President Reagan from the time of his election in November 1980 through May 1984. It is intended to provide a comparative baseline for use by analysts in judging future Soviet statements about the President. The compilation of statements is FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY. 21. Soviet Statements on President Reagan 22. November 1980 - May 1984 23. This compilation is divided into two parts. The first section presents authoritative statements, including those by top political leaders. The second presents assessments by well-connected midlevel officials and a small sampling of routine Soviet media commentaries.
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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.