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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, SEPTEMBER 21, 1984
countries, in order to cut off local insurgencies, have sued for
peace•...
Having reached the outer limits of their international expansion,
which took place during the relative weakening of the West in the
1970s, they [the Soviets] are increasingly preoccupied with hang
ing on to their gains. It is not that they have lost their appe
tite for conquest, but that they have much to digest.... In the
inner sphere of European satellites, the Soviets have their hands
full just keeping things under control••••
The final, perhaps most important, level of consolidation in the
Soviet bloc is taking place now at headquarters. The Kremlin has
fallen into the habit of choosing leaders who are half-deacf':°
It's not even quite certain who is running the Soviet Union now.
Uncertainty at the top means that bureaucrats move cautiously.
The lack of strong leadership is undoubtedly another reason for
the profound conservativism of current Soviet foreign policy.
So much for the new cold war.... After all, what are relations?
Tod?.y there are not as many scientific exchanges, diplomatic ex
travaganzas, Apollo-Soyuz lovefests...and genuflections to peace
as there were in the mid-'70s. So what? In the middle of all
that hoopla, the United States went to nuclear alert to prevent
Soviet intervention in the (1973) Yorn Kippur War••••
The obsession with atmospherics, with engaging in talks for their
own sake, regardless of what one may hope to gain from them of any
substance, mistakes means for ends. And it may actually damage
the pursuit of those ends, since improved atmospherics often re
quires first the sacrifice of some real asset on the ground. If
the new cold war is the price we pay for Soviets reaching the
outer limits of their expansion and hunkering down for a little
digestion and reflection, then so be it.
The men in the Kremlin, writes Patrick Buchanan in the September 18, 1984
LOS ANGELES HERALD EXAMINER, have a lot on their minds these days. More
over, says Buchanan, history shows that the Russians have made major
changes only when forced to by crises and national reversals. One must keep
this in mind when considering the changes necessary to pry Eastern Europe
out from under Soviet domination. Mr. Buchanan elaborates further in his
article entitled "Gromyko Needs Reagan--Not the Other Way Around."
While the West appears headed for a boom, led by the tremendous
U.S. recovery, the Eastern bloc is in an economic slough•••• And
Soviet society is sick. Alcoholism is rampant� the Great Rus
sians are not reproducing themselves. More die each year than
are born. � Russian woman, on the average, is estimated to have
between five and 10 abortions in her lifetime•.•• Meanwhile, the
Amer1canshave""rega1ned the1r-pre-V1etnam self-confidence� and
Reagan appears headed for a political triumph.
With the empire in crisis and Gromyko en route, two courses will
be pressed upon the president. The first will argue that now is
the ideal time to strike a deal, that Moscow's need for trade,
technology, new credits, a relaxation of tensions, is so great
that the "carrots" of coexistence can be exchanged by the West