USSR PEACE COMMITTEE OFFICIAL VIEWS MX VOTE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP09-00997R000100300002-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 16, 2013
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: March 22, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/07/16: CIA-RDP09-00997R000100300002-4
ail 22 Mar 85
AA 5 USSR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
DISARMAMENT/START/MBFR
USSR PEACE COMMITTEE OFFICIAL VIEWS MX VOTE
LD212240 Moscow Television Service in Russian 1800 GMT 21 Mar 85
[From the "Vremya" newscast: Genrikh Borovik commentary]
[Text] As has already been reported, the U.S. Senate has decided to satisfy the
administration's requests to make $1.5 billion available in the 1985 budget for
construction of 21 MX missiles. Over to the writer Genrikh Borovik, deputy chairman of
the Soviet Committee for the Defense of Peace:
[Borovik to camera] Hello comrades. The voting you have heard about was very tense.
Right up until the last day, it was difficult to forecast the outcome. The
administration's representatives spent all their time on Capitol Hill, buttonholing
and accosting the senators, shepherding them into corners and accompanying them every-
where. The vice president of the United States, the secretary of state, the secretary
of defense, rank-and-file employees of the White House and the Pentagon, all of them
alike, were doing this. However, it was left to the President to deal the final blow.
We remember how several months prior to the November elections last year, the U.S.
President began, all of a sudden, to deliver peacemaking speeches. The press took it
upon itself to prove that, at long last, he had become an experienced and wise
politician, had taken the peace idea to heart, and was ready to put right relations
with the USSR. He even accepted our country's proposal to hold talks in Geneva.
However, the Geneva talks commenced on 12 March, and already on 19 March the Senate was
adopting a decision to finance a new batch of the first-strike MX missiles. And it was
here, at this juncture, that those who had lent credibility to the President's
sincerity began to have their doubts: It was as if something was not quite right.
It was at that time that they heard a battle cry. While visiting Canada on the eve of
the voting, the President delivered an anti-Soviet speech in his best old tradition:
both about the struggle against the darkness of communism, and that the time has come
to halt the Soviet Union; about the warm rays of the sun of bourgeois democracy; and,
naturally, about our violations of treaties and so forth.
On his return from Canada, he graced the Senate with his presence in order to persuade,
convince, and threaten. If you do not give us the $1.5 billion, the many billions
already spent on MX will be lost, he said. If you do not stock up with them, the
Program of new, offensive arms technologically bound up with MX will go out the window.
He even said the following: A vote for the MX is a vote for universal peace, hinting
that a vote against can be regarded as betrayal of national security interests.
The main argument was left until the end: The new MX missiles will strengthen the
t)osition of the U.S. delegation in Geneva. He was contradicted: How will the position
of the U.S. delegation in Geneva be strengthened indeed? After all, the talks underway
there are not about arms increases, but about arms limitations. Well, in this way: The
American delegation in Geneva shows flexibility and earnestly and sincerely strives for
deep reductions in nuclear arms--; said the President. The MX and disarmament go hand in
hand. I am not parodying; the President of the United States used these very words:
"earnestly and sincerely" and "hand in hand."
An illogical and amoral position? Undoubtedly. Dangerous to peace? And how. But,
sometimes I think that it is not often that one can expect logic, morality, and
conscience from the rulers of a society in which there exist groups of people making
money on manufacturing means of destruction and on blood. After all, the very system
Which is capable of enriching itself on war is illogical and amoral.
_AL Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/07/16: CIA-RDP09-00997R000100300002-4
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/07/16: CIA-RDP09-00997R000100300002-4
III. 22 Mar 85
AA 6 USSR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
DISARMAMENT/START/MBFR
Of course, apart from the sweet thought of huge billions, there is alsb here an even
more honeylike hope. Suppose that, having heard of the MX, the Russians will, never-
theless, take fright, renounce and retreat from everything, from socialism, from the
communist idea, and, with them, the whole world will take fright and retreat? And every
thing would again be like it was in the olden days, like it was before, at the beginning
of the century and, better still maybe, in the last century? Oh, what delightful
dreams! They are dressed up in nice words about the warm rays of democracy, but they
are underpinned by an idea which, incidentally, is a very old and banal one: to lay
one's hands on everything and be master of everything.
In this context, one would like to remind the White House of history. I will be so bold
as to voice my suspicion that they are not too well versed in this subject over there.
I have in mind here events of 40 years ago. At that time, there also were talks, in
Potsdam, and at that time attempts were also made to intimidate us a bit, with the
atom bomb. Well, nothing came of it. One should do a bit of reading about this, and
there are very good books around. And if they are partial to films in the White House,
one can also recommend several films -- not bad, not bad at all ?-- documentary and
feature films alike, made in our country quite recently. Everything is simple and easy
to understand in them; the characters are to be seen there.
There is another piece of advice that one can give: A session of the World Peace Council
opens in Moscow tomorrow. Let those in Washington listen to what people of the world
are talking about and what they are thinking. It may prove very useful indeed.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/07/16: CIA-RDP09-00997R000100300002-4