On the Record

Does the crack-up of Communism mean the end of a superpower? Defense Department’s annual report, Soviet Military Power 1989, illustrates that, despite all the talk of economic collapse in Soviet Union, Moscow has made modest reductions in the size of forces, and the drive to modernize and improve quality overshadows any prospects of reduced threat. Soviets, the report says, still hold superior technology in surface-to-air and anti-satellite missiles and in high-technology defense: lasers, electromagnetic rail guns, high-power microwave weapons, and more. President Mikhail Gorbachev has promised 14 per cent reduction in Soviet military budget, but Pentagon report says USSR has increased spending on defense at annual rate of 3 per cent over last five years. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney stated, “We now find a Soviet Union which retains enormous military power, the only nation still capable of threatening the very survival of the United States . . . the West may face a Soviet leadership disillusioned with new ways and willing to return to the old, familiar policies of repression at home and confrontation abroad.” . . . Jane’s Underwater Warfare Systems 1989-1990 reveals that Moscow launches a nuclear submarine every seven weeks and a conventional submarine every ten weeks. Jane’s says Soviet Union has 350 active submarines and one hundred in reserve, more than double all of NATO nations’ forces combined. Soviets have seven thousand merchant ships and growing, while the U.S. has a declining and ill-outfitted 360. … In Afghanistan, U.S. estimates are that Soviets are pumping in $300 million monthly to boost the Communist regime of President Najibullah. In Ethiopia, Soviets are sending $1 billion annually to dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, who has been funding policies leading to more than a million deaths through manmade famine.

Bob Santamaria, in Australian news magazine News Weekly, reports on likelihood that Japan’s Liberal Party may lose both the Upper and Lower Houses of parliament to the Socialist Party led by Miss Takako Doi, who has long advocated breaking Japan’s commitment to U.S.—Japan Security Treaty. Santamaria writes that the treaty “has provided for 13 Japanese divisions plus significant air and naval power as well as forward bases for U.S. nuclear and naval forces across the Soviets’ eastern coastline, paralleling the role of NATO in Europe.” Miss Doi has said that a condition of her support for the treaty would be for United States to declare if ships are or are not carrying nuclear weapons—an identical stance to the one taken by New Zealand, which led to its withdrawal from the ANZUS treaty.

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Department of Defense

Does the crack-up of Communism mean the end of a superpower? Defense Department’s annual report, Soviet Military Power 1989, illustrates that, despite all the talk of economic collapse in Soviet Union, Moscow has made modest reductions in the size of forces, and the drive to modernize and improve quality overshadows any prospects of reduced threat. Soviets, the report says, still hold superior technology in surface-to-air and anti-satellite missiles and in high-technology defense: lasers, electromagnetic rail guns, high-power microwave weapons, and more. President Mikhail Gorbachev has promised 14 per cent reduction in Soviet military budget, but Pentagon report says USSR has increased spending on defense at annual rate of 3 per cent over last five years. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney stated, “We now find a Soviet Union which retains enormous military power, the only nation still capable of threatening the very survival of the United States . . . the West may face a Soviet leadership disillusioned with new ways and willing to return to the old, familiar policies of repression at home and confrontation abroad.” . . . Jane’s Underwater Warfare Systems 1989-1990 reveals that Moscow launches a nuclear submarine every seven weeks and a conventional submarine every ten weeks. Jane’s says Soviet Union has 350 active submarines and one hundred in reserve, more than double all of NATO nations’ forces combined. Soviets have seven thousand merchant ships and growing, while the U.S. has a declining and ill-outfitted 360. … In Afghanistan, U.S. estimates are that Soviets are pumping in $300 million monthly to boost the Communist regime of President Najibullah. In Ethiopia, Soviets are sending $1 billion annually to dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, who has been funding policies leading to more than a million deaths through manmade famine.

Bob Santamaria, in Australian news magazine News Weekly, reports on likelihood that Japan’s Liberal Party may lose both the Upper and Lower Houses of parliament to the Socialist Party led by Miss Takako Doi, who has long advocated breaking Japan’s commitment to U.S.—Japan Security Treaty. Santamaria writes that the treaty “has provided for 13 Japanese divisions plus significant air and naval power as well as forward bases for U.S. nuclear and naval forces across the Soviets’ eastern coastline, paralleling the role of NATO in Europe.” Miss Doi has said that a condition of her support for the treaty would be for United States to declare if ships are or are not carrying nuclear weapons—an identical stance to the one taken by New Zealand, which led to its withdrawal from the ANZUS treaty.