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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Document 1 of 2 AGAL Concatenated Database 289. If we are to speak about American policy, then of course we can say that the most extremist views have prevailed in the question of military spending, and generally in American behavior in the international arena. Well, of course, many say that maybe these people bark more than they bite. It is still difficult and too early to judge. But they do in fact bark a lot, and a lot of militaristic talk can be heard coming from Washington every day. This is not just talk. There are military appropriation decisions on military programs, certain U.S. positions and actions on various continents, and interference into the affairs of a number of countries--all of this has become a reality. Therefore, we are undoubtedly seeing a period which gives cause to remember the cold war and to suspect that quite a lot has been done to sweep aside all the positive things that were accumulated at the expense of great labor in international relations and thus a big step has been taken toward a cold war. . . 290. So things in the economy are not turning out quite the way the President figured, and to a certain extent this can be a limiting factor for many far-reaching American plans. . . . 291. All of these realities are just beginning to appear--after all this government has not been in power very long--and these political and social mechanisms, which demand some kind of accommodation on the part of the Administration, have just been set in motion. 292. Of course, there are people there who . . . it is difficult to imagine that they can reform. But overall--and we have seen this in history more than once--even the most conservative politicians have been sufficiently pragmatic in understanding what can be done and what cannot be done. . . . 294. Bovin (Soviet domestic radio, 29 Nov 81) 293. Even in America, they are beginning to somehow understand that the question is becoming extremely acute, that some kind of reaction to it is necessary, that in Europe and the world as a whole--and even in the United States, as a matter of fact--some sentiments are appearing. 295. In fact, what did this Reagan speech of 18 November mean? Does it, to some degree . . . signify a reassessment of the U.S. position, or . . . is it an attempt to gain a political alibi with respect to the pressures being exerted by America's allies in Europe? As for which of these elements was more evident in the speech, this is an open question both for us and for Europe. We will find out when the talks begin. 296. Nikolay Shishlin, CPSU Central Committee official (Soviet
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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.