BANG! BANG! YOU RE OUT!

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404180002-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: November 3, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06 :CIA-RDP90-005528000404180002-4
GY
ON PM~~ T I biE
3 November 1986
Bang! Bang! You're Out!
Washington and Moscow fight a war ofdiplomatic attrition
nstead of missiles, dirty dishes were in-
volved in the latest escalation of super-
power tensions; in place of nuclear war-
heads, maids and chauffeurs were targets
of a zero option. But last week's rapid-fire
sequence of diplomatic expulsions from
both the U.S. and the Soviet Union, cul-
minating in Soviet withdrawal of all ser-
vice workers who labored for American
diplomats in Moscow and Leningrad, was
more than just a game of squeeze-the-e
bassy~ven though it did conjure up
slapstick picture of striped-pants dipl
mats mopping floors. For. one thing, t
U.S. moves involved the deadly serio
subject of Soviet espionage. Also, t
events indicate that in the wake of the
Daniloff affair and the Reykjavik sum-
mit, the superpowers are still trying to fol-
low akind of two-track policy: keeping
alive negotiations for drastic reductions in
nuclear arms while pounding each other
lustily over secondary issues.
By week's end the latest round of
pummeling concluded when the U.S. in
effect called a truce in the war of diplo-
matic attrition and announced it wanted
to concentrate again on arms talks. At
that point, the box score showed 80 Soviet
diplomats booted out of the Soviet mission
to the United Nations, the embassy in
Washington and the consulate in San
Francisco, vs. only ten Americans kicked
out of the U.S. embassy in Moscow and
the consulate in Leningrad. But the U.S.
was far behind in its ability to keep func-
tioning at its outposts in the Soviet Union.
The escalation began Sunday, Oct. l9,
when Moscow ordered five Americans at
the U.S. embassy and consulate to get out
by Nov. 1. The Kremlin was retaliating
for the just completed U.S. expulsion of 25
Soviets from the U.N. mission in New
York City. It was also a move the Reagan
Administration had explicitly warned the
Kremlin against. The sta6utg level at
U.N. missions, said the U.S., was a sepa-
rate issue from embassy and consulate
staffutg. If Moscow mixed the two, the
U:S. would invoke a principle already
written into Law by Congress: the number
of Soviets with diplomatic credentials in
the U.S. ought to be made equal to the
number of Americans accredited to the
U.S.S.R.
On Monda Ronald Rea an met with
his c osest security a vtsets to t e White
Ouse to p an t e .response. a ses-
ton turne trite a con rontatton between
ttorne Hera wtn eese and Sec-
tary o fate eorge hWtz. eese, sup-
e CIA trector t am ase ar-
ued that it was time to ut u or shut u
e Hum r o diplomats ought to be bal-
ance imme late ( o ess ad set a
t ree-year ead e) by ktckLne out Sovi-
ets rather than by send' more Ameri-
cans tote vtet nton. ease contend-
~e t at t e U.S. should publicly identify
the Sovtet dtplomats sus fed of s trig
an expe t em to achteve "parity." The
names came rem a tst t at had been
drawn up by the FBI, apparently in re-
sponse nape ge eagan ma a a_st o-
vem r [o crac own on viet espio-
nage in the U.S. an et t e c ps Fall
where t ey_may. u tz argue or a ass
dramatic response both to protect U.S.
diplomatic functions in Moscow and to
prevent sta~rtg controversies from sabo-
taging arms-control prospects.
Meese won the argument. On Tuesday
the U.S. ordered 55 named diplo-
mats expelled from the embassy and con-
sulate by Nov. 1. From now on, the State
Department announced, it will enforce a
ceiling: 225 people with diplomatic ac-
creditation allowed in each embassy and
26 in each consulate. At a later briefing,
three National Security Council officials
said al] the alleged diplomats getting the
gate are "connected to Soviet intelli-
gence," many in the roles of spymasters
for the KGB or GRU (military intelligence).
Crowed one counterespionage specialist:
"As of Nov. 1, there will be no leadership
or management left in Soviet intelligence
here." The Soviet spy network, he said,
has "basically been decapitated."
Moscow's reply was delivered by none
other than Mikhail Gorbachev. Appear-
ing on Soviet television Wednesday to
give his second report on the Reykjavik
summit and its aftermath, the Kremlin
leader denounced the 55 expulsions as
"actions which appear simply wild to a
normal human view." He added, "We will
take measures in response, of course.
They are very tough and balance things
out, so to speak."
In fact, Foreign Ministry Spokesman
Gennadi Gerasimov had already an-
nounced an ingenious counterescalation.
It started with the expulsion of yet anoth-
er five American diplomats Iwho may
have had intelligence connections, U.S.
officials indicate). Then came the sur-
prise: all 260 Soviet citizens sent by a
branch of the Foreign Ministry to work at
the embassy or consulate as cooks, driv-
ers, typists and the like would be pulled
off the job. For good measure, another 30
to 40 third-country employees, ranging
from Filipino clerks to Swedish nannies,
may have to be sent home.
Thus, said Gerasimov slyly, the Soviet
Union had established the "frill quantita-
tive balance" in diplomatic personnel that
the U.S. demanded. After all, setvice jobs
in the Soviet embassy and consulate in the
U.S. are performed, at Moscow's choice, by
Soviet citizens sent overseas with diplomat-
ic accreditation. Many perform double du-
ties as diplomats and service workers. If
the Ameticans now want beds made in the
Moscow embassy and snow shoveled out-
side. they must do the same. Of course, un-
der the ceilings proclaimed by the U.S., ev-
ery American servant sent to Moscow or
Leningrad with diplomatic credentials will
have to replace a real diplomat.
"We are hoist with our own petard,"
grumbled a State Department official. But
NSC briefers contend the move was actu-
ally aplus for embassy security. Soviet
employees have long been suspected of
snooping on the American diplomats they
serve. In any case, U.S. o~cials made
plain there would be no further retalia-
Continued
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 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06 :CIA-RDP90-005528000404180002-4
z
lion. Said State Department Spokesman
Charles Redman: "We need now to get on
with the resolution of the larger issues af-
fecting U.S.-Soviet relations."
Gorbachev took care not to torpedo the
largest of those issues, arms reduction, at
the end of what was otherwise an almost
contemptuous TV speech. 'Among other
things, the Soviet leader assailed the Rea-
gan Administration for spreading "half-
truths"about the deal that had almost been
reached at the Iceland summit and at-
tacked Reagan for being unable to control i
an "entourage which literally breathes ha-
tred for the Soviet Union." But Gorbachev
wound up by saying that all his proposals
made at the Iceland summit for drastic cuts
in nuclear arms "still stand."
The White House chose to ignore Gor-
bachev's barbs and focus on the pledge of
continued arms negotiations. "The speech
was long on rhetoric, short on policy,
which was probably positive," said a senior
U.S. official. Reagan even called the
speech "heartening." That is quite a
stretch: Gorbachev still insisted that all
arms reductions are contingent on restric-
tions on the Strategic Defense Initiative
that Reagan will not accept. Said Gorba-
chev: "No package, no concessions."
On the U.S. side, the current push is to
"translate" the sweeping generalities of
the Iceland summit into detailed propos-
als to be presented by American negotia-
tors at arms-control talks in Geneva. The
job is proving to be stow going. Reagan
and Gorbachev cannot even agree on
what they almost agreed on in Reykjavik:
Gorbachev contends that Reagan accept-
ed the elimination of all nuclear weapons
in ten years. Indeed, verbatim notes from
the mating show the President replied,
"Suits me fine." The White House, how-
ever, insists he was talking about an "ulti-
mate goal" and formally proposed only to
get rid of all ballistic missiles. In either
case, both the American military and U.S.
allies have qualms about how they could
then counter the substantial Soviet superi-
ority in conventional arms. But detailed
negotiating instructions must be drafted
before Shultz meets Soviet Foreign Minis-
ter Eduard Shevardnadze in Vienna next
week. With the expulsion war apparently
in a stalemate, the two statesmen may be
able to talk about missiles, warheads and
bombs rather than diplomats, spies and
maids. -Bj. ~o ~ C1~a
RepaTed by Ian?a O. Isdcsar/Mbstow and
/o/~rr~ AlcCeary/ Washtr~ton
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06 :CIA-RDP90-005528000404180002-4