Documents / FOIA release

Soviet Public Treatment of President Reagan

Central Intelligence Agency · 1984-06-01 · 56 pages · text by GLM-OCR

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.

  • p. 3 …in Soviet expectations regarding U.S.-Soviet cooperation. 18. + Routine media commentary has been the least…
  • p. 5 …one reasonable road--peaceful coexistence, mutually advantageous cooperation. 41. But there are also such statesmen in…
  • p. 7 …on confrontation; not on peaceful mutually beneficial cooperation, but on the use of trade to military…
  • p. 11 …They wish lasting peace and mutually beneficial cooperation. 91. Andropov, speech at CPSU Central Committee plenum…
  • p. 18 …to a policy of peace and international cooperation. 151. Andropov, interview (Pravda, 25 Jan 84) 152…
  • p. 19 …for it a policy of peace and cooperation. 161. Ustinov, article for Armed Forces Day (Pravda…
  • p. 26 …the arms race, and development of international cooperation. . . 209. President Konstantin Chernenko, speech at dinner for…
  • p. 38 …agreements in trade and scientific-technical cooperation, agreements signed by the Government of the United States…
  • p. 41 …Are we not overestimating our own strength? Can international security and international cooperation seriously be expected…
  • p. 42 …The Soviet Union is always ready for honest, equal, and mutually advantageous cooperation with any state…
  • p. 44 …climate of mutual trust, mutual understanding and cooperation in the world. 345. Valentin Zorin, Soviet television…
  • p. 46 …rapid demolition of the structure of international cooperation built by the efforts of many countries on…

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## UNCLASSIFIED FOUO

## Document 1 of 2 AGAL Concatenated Database

Page 9

domination, as did Hitler at a later time. The outcome of their ambitions is well known. An even harsher outcome may await these latter-day claimants.

## 70. Brezhnev, Soviet Trade Union Congress speech (Pravda, 17 Mar 82)

71. The newly fledged devotees of cold war and dangerous balancing on the brink of a real war would like nothing better than to tear up the legal and ethical norms of relations between states that have taken shape over the centuries and to cancel their independence and sovereignty. They are trying to retailor the political map of the world and have declared large regions on all continents as zones of their "vital interests." They have arrogated the "right" to command some countries and to judge and "punish" others. Unembarrassed, they publicly announce, and try to carry out, plans for economic and political "destabilization" of governments and states that are not to their liking. With unexampled cynicism they gloat over difficulties experienced by this or that nation. They are trying to substitute "sanctions" and blockades for normal communications and international trade, and endless threats of armed force, not short of threats to use nuclear weapons, for contacts and negotiations.

72. It is simply astonishing to see it all. And you cannot help asking yourself: What is there more of in this policy--thoughtlessness and lack of experience in international affairs, or irresponsibility and, to say it bluntly, an adventurist approach to problems crucial for the destiny of mankind? Not in our country, but in the columns of respectable organs of the U.S. bourgeois press this policy was described as "a course to political disaster." It is hard to deny the validity of this description.

## 73. Brezhnev, Pravda interview (Pravda, 18 Apr 82)

74. I already spoke on the value of an active dialogue with the United states at all levels, especially emphasizing that the decisive link here is summit-level meetings. Today we also support such meetings. It is understandable that a meeting between the U.S. President and myself must be well prepared and conducted properly, not just in passing in connection with some international forum or other.

75. Yuriy Andropov, Politburo member and chairman of the KGB, Lenin anniversary speech (Pravda, 23 Apr 82)

76. The imperialist bourgeoisie, frightened by the upsurge of the antiwar movements, is making ever-wider use of the weapons of lies and sophisticated deception. What is Washington doing now? One hysterical propaganda campaign replaces the other. People are at one moment being persuaded of a Soviet military threat, then lied to

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About this file

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.