MEETING WITH RICHARD KAUFMAN AND RON TAMMEN ON SOVIET DEFENSE BUDGET

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP77M00144R000300060030-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 13, 2004
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: January 30, 1975
• Content Type: MFR

Approved For Rel ase 2005/06/01 : CIA-RDP77M00144 000300060030-3 STAT
907,= ~
January 30, 1975
SUBJECT: Meeting with Richard Kaufman and Ron Tammen
on Soviet Defense Budget
1. Kaufman, an economist on the Joint Economic Com-
mittee Staff, had asked to discuss Agency analysis of Soviet
defense spending. In response to that request, ATIN TL
s T..T I N T L and I accompanied of o R? to a
meeting today. Kaufman was joined by Ron Tammen of Senator
Proxmire's staff.
2. Kaufman began by stating that the Joint Committee
was planning to ask for the Director's testimony on the
Soviet defense budget and that he was interested in doing a
bit of exploratory spadework. No date has been set for
hearings and Kaufman said it would probably be well into
March before they were held.
3. Kaufman said he was not so interested in budget fig-
ures as he was in what the money bought the Soviets in terms
of capability. He felt that.one had to approach-such a quest
by examining the force components--the "building block" theory.
STATIN TL Mr.II pointed out that although there are problems of
evaluating capability by money spent, it is probably a better
way to gain an understanding of the force's than trying to get
detailed data on weapons inventories etc.--especially for the
Joint Economic Committee. He also pointed out the complexi-
ties of measuring military effectiveness.
4. From the outset of the conversation, there was no
doubt that what Kaufman and Tammen really wanted was access
to Agency's classified studies on the various Soviet force
components. Beyond this, they both felt that much of this
classified material could be made public. Incidental to this,
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Kaufman expressed his distrust of Pentagon posture statements,
both public and private. Tammen also added that the Director
had expressed his willingness last year to provide the Joint
Committee with the conclusions to classified studies.
5. We noted that Mr. Colby's policy was to provide
as much information to the Congress as he possibly could;
that he often discussed Soviet force postures in great
detail for Congressional committees. We then more or less
took turns explaining that force figures and costs are
built on a highly refined knowledge of various weapons
systems and that going public in this detail would provide
an excellent indication of just how good our collection
systems were.
6. At the same time, we agreed there might be some
compromise ground and offered to explore this further. I
have no doubt we will be hearing more from Messrs. Kaufman -
STATINTL
Distribution:
- OLC
1 - DDI
1 - 'D/OSR
1 - CSO Chrono
STAT
STAT
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