Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum to the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, dated December 1961, sends a verbatim translation of a Soviet article from the TOP SECRET version of the journal Military Thought. The article, "The Theory of Military Art Needs Review" by Colonel-General A. Gastilovich, appeared in the first 1960 issue. It argues that nuclear missiles call for short "blitz" wars, smaller ground forces and missile troops as the main arm. It has no UFO content.
11111114SF(2 multi -mi on-sun armies. Advocates of multi-million-ann armies allude to the experience of all twentieth-century wars, which showed that the growth of the destructive force of weapons in armed combat with an enemy of equel strength never brought about a decrease in the armed forces during war, but rather caused their increase. They forget that this experience is based on entirely different means of armed ccmhet ant methods of its conduct. For this reason, analogies cannot be made in this matter. Under current conditions can operations unfold in the old manner? Can they, having begun with a relatively small number at regular combat-ready troops then continually broaden by dint of the arrival of fully mobilised Itege units, and finally cheap into engagements of numerous frosts and at aulti-million-man armies? Under current conditions this is .firstly inpossible, and secondly, wnnecessary. It is imponeible because nothing will arrive *nettle depth of the country in time, and possibly will never arrive. 1% is unnecessary because atter the first nuclear strikes the rensining forces of the enemy in the border sons also cannot be numerous) it is necessary to crush quickly the remains of to forces and to occupy the enemy country and, for this, operaticms of a completely different nature will be required frontline which we are now el:plying. At the present time, of the 61 divisions within the composition of the Allied ground trove of the Buropean militsry bloc, there are 5 Americen divisions / 4 British divisions and. 8 West German divielcus; the remaining divisions' 1/1, French, 10 Turkish division., and other countries - 20 divisions. The first obliterating strike bpr idesile formation or the TCIL can be directed spinet the enemy in such* manner that only a border strip with a depth of several tens of kilcmetere (in the interest of the safety at our troops) will remain Indeetroyed. The taking of this strip will then become the pinery mission of the adxancing divisions of the f.l.rst echelon; it must be sccomplished also by their wide use of uncleer micelles of tactical. sad opezetional designation. After taking the border some, the mission confronting the troops will be chiefly the speedy taking over et souse of s greater or lesser degree of destruction and radiation resulting from the massive strike of strategic missiles. Under these conditions, the =bill- satiansl build-up at the enemy or the approach of his large -7- T S.3.#ET
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 28 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.