SIG ON SOVIET NATIONALITIES POLICY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP97M00248R000401070003-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 7, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: October 21, 1983
• Content Type: MEMO

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/17: CIA-RDP97M00248R000401070003-6
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/17: CIA-RDP97M00248R000401070003-6 ___.
 i Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/17: CIA-RDP97M00248R000401070003-6
~fNODIS
United States Department of State
TO
Washington, D. C. 20520
October 21, 1983
OVP - Mr. Donald P. Gregg
S/S
8332367
NSC~
CIA
Commerce
s.
Helen Robbins
S/S
8332370
Defense - COL
John Stanford
S/S
833237
JCS - LTC
Dennis Stanley
S/S
1
8332372
USIA - Ms.
Theresa Collins
S/S
8332373
SUBJECT:. SIG on Soviet Nationalities Policy
A Senior Interdepartmental Group meeting will be held on
Monday, November 7, 1983 to review a draft National Security
Decision Directive concerning U.S. Policy towards Soviet Ethnic
and National Groups. The draft has been reviewed extensively at
the working level by all agencies over the past year and
approved. The purpose of the SIG meeting will be to endorse the
draft and transmit it to the NSC (drift attached). The meeting
will be chaired by Lawrence S. Eagleburger, Under Secretary for..,
Political Affairs. The meeting will be held in the State
Department in the Deputy Secretary's Conference Room (Room 7219)
-at 11:00 a.m. Due to space limitations, invitees are requested
to limit their participation to principals (or designate). plus
one. Please. call Sheila Lopez (632-5804) with the names of your
agency's participants. by COB Friday, October 28.
clwbaahzP
Attachment:
As stated.
Charles Hill
Executive Secretary
NODIS
EXEC I
REG
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/17: CIA-RDP97M00248R000401070003-6
SECRET/SENSITIVE
Proposed National Security Decision
Directive Number
b
- US POLICY ON SOVIET ETHNIC AND NATIONAL GROUPS
As set forth in NSDD-75, US policy toward the USSR is to aim
at: Containing and over time reversing Soviet expansionism,
encouraging change within the Soviet Union toward a more
pluralistic system, and reaching agreements with the Soviet
Union that protect and enhance US interests and are consistent
with the principles of strict reciprocity and mutual interest.
As part of that policy, the USG shall pursue a rejuvenated
effort to understand and to encourage ethnic and national
freedoms within the Soviet Union.
USG objectives are:
1. To encourage changes within the Soviet Union that foster
diversity, pluralism, decentralization and democracy.
2. To promote a more accurate understanding..bf the nature and
actions of the Soviet Union by drawing attention to its
colonial and expansionist characteristics, and by
Undermining the notion that the expansion of communist rule
is an irreversible phenomenon.
3. To create an institutional structure to strengthen and
sustain our capabilities for understanding and influencing
Soviet ethnic and national developments.
The USG objectives set forth above can be served by
increasing our presence and activities in the USSR. Such an
increase, however, could entail a detrimental increase in Soviet
presence and activities'in the U.S. Consistent with NSDD-75 and
our overall foreign policy, we should work to increasd our
presence and activities in the USSR if it is determined that the
benefits are not exceeded by the drawbacks. To realize the
above objectives, the USG should develop an action program.
This program will be based on the reaffirmation of our
commitment to the rights and legitimate interests of the various
ethnic and national groups under the administration of the
Soviet Union, including their rights to practice their
religions, to provide traditional education to their children,
to emigrate and, as appropriate, to enjoy national independence.
1. Increase its capabilities for understanding and ameliorating
developments within the Soviet Union adversely affecting
ethnic and national groups. As part of this effort, a
permanent Soviet Nationalities Interagency Group chaired by
the State Department shall be established. That group shall
have responsibility for encouraging the allocation.of
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adecuate financial and institutional resources to Soviet
ethnic and national group developments. This shall include
the establishment of an Interagency Career Management
Con/ittee for Soviet Nationality Specialists, whose purpose
shall be to examine ways to overcome the critical shortage of
USG analysts and linguists qualified in Russian and Soviet
nationality languages. The Soviet Nationalities Interagency
Group shall also study ways to increase USG public affairs
funding to enhance international awareness of Soviet ethnic
and national issues, and shall participate as appropriate in
other USG programs and decisionmaking affecting US policy on
Soviet ethnic and national groups. The Soviet Nationalities
Interagency Group shall also continue to study the
advisability of creating a Center for the Study of Soviet
Nationalities which shall be privately run, but funded by the
USG.
2. Increase its ability to broadast radio programs to Soviet
ethnic and national groups. Within the context of the
decision-to-
ecision to modernize and upgrade VOA, RFE and RL facilities,
and in addition to other actions, the USG shall assign high
priority to increasing the number of hours of non-Russian
language broadcasting and the number of'.Soviet languages in
which the radios broadcast. In accordance with the
priorities that from time to time will be established by the
Special Planning Group for Public Diplomacy with the
assistance of the Soviet Nationalities Interagency Group,
efforts shall be made to reduce the shortages in qualified
linguists and other staff. Renewed consideration shall be
given to funding new broadcast sites, strengthening existing
transmitter sites and expanding all technical means.
Budgetary allocations to existing operating agencies shall
ie=lec t their high priority as national security interests.
3. Otherwise increase the open flow of information into the
USSR. The US shall facilitate the open flow of information
into the USSR by employing additional available means such as
networks for the distribution of newspapers, books, and
cassette tapes.
4. Continue to recognize the independence of Estonia, Latvia,
and Lithuania.
5. Increase UN activities. The USG shall take appropriate
steps in the UN, including the UN Human Rights Commission, to
highlight the contradictions between Soviet propaganda and
practices. These steps may include raising the issue of
Soviet nationalities in statements and debate, especially in
the context of Soviet professions of support for
self-determination and decolonization.
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0.
6. Work with the appropriate public bodies, such as the CSCE
Commission, Amnesty International, and other interested
religious and political organizations to ensure that adequate
attention is paid to Soviet ethnic and national groups at the
various human rights meetings that these groups regularly
attend.
7. Review costs and benefits of establishing a larger U.S.
official presence in the USSR. As a means of increasing our
capabilities regarding developments in the non-Russian areas
of the Soviet Union, and consistent with NSDD-75, a Consulate
in Kiev could make an important contribution. The USG will
also give active consideration to the desirability of opening
a Consulate in the Muslim areas of the Soviet Union.
8. Examine new Cultural, Informational, and Educational
Exchanges. As part of our efforts under NSDD-75 to expand
US-Soviet exchanges, the Soviet Nationalities Interagency
Group shall devote particular attention to those exchanges
involving non-Russian areas of the USSR.
9. Increase Public statements on Soviet abuse of ethnic and
national grouts. The Soviet government's mistreatment of
various ethnic and national groups shal-,, as appropriate,
become a more frequent theme of USG public statements. Such
statements dealing with that theme, whether prepared for
international radio broadcasts, official speeches, or written
proclamations, shall be cast in terms of universally accepted
norms, especially those norms incorporated in international
agreements to which the Soviet Union is a party and those
recognized in the Soviet Constitution. Such public statements
may include references to:
- The plight of the many Soviet human rights activists whose
persecution by the Soviet authorities is directly
attributable to the efforts of these persons to assert their
national traditions,
- The colonial aspects of Soviet rule over non-Russian peoples,
- The problems of religion in the Soviet Union.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/17: CIA-RDP97M00248R000401070003-6