Word: inf
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...weeks after leaving the Geneva talks on Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF), the Soviets had decided in effect to stage a new walkout. The reason remained the same: to bring pressure on the U.S. and its NATO allies to reverse the deployment of new cruise and Pershing II missiles in Western Europe. This time, however, Moscow's methods differed. Rather than breaking START off completely, the Soviets had placed the talks in a more easily reversible state of indefinite suspension. Nor was the stoppage accompanied by polemical gestures from Yuri Andropov as happened after the INF breakdown, when statements...
Having failed to prevent the NATO alliance from deploying new nuclear missiles in Western Europe, Moscow has wasted no time in showing that it will not concede diplomatic defeat. On the heels of the Soviet walkout from the Geneva talks on Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF), Soviet envoys fanned out in West European capitals with letters bearing the signature of Leader Yuri Andropov. The messages were the first salvos in a renewed campaign to persuade the West Europeans to change their minds. Their central theme: "The Soviet Union does not wish to regard the existing situation as irreversible...
Kohl's upbeat attitude echoed the hopes of many West Europeans that the Soviets might eventually return to the bargaining table through a possible merger of the INF talks with the START negotiations. At week's end, the Soviet party daily Pravda labeled that interpretation a 'shameless deception." If the NATO countries wanted the resumption of the INF talks, the newspaper added, they "should restore the old state of things, when there were no American missiles in Europe...
Moscow's rejoinder was unnecessary. After considerable White House debate, the Reagan Administration has decided to oppose the idea of an INF-START merger. Keeping the two sets of talks separate is seen in Washington as a way to pressure the Soviets into modifying their position. West Europeans, however, hope that U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz will attend a Jan. 17 meeting in Stockholm of the 35-nation Conference on Confidence and Security-Building Measures and Disarmament in Europe. If Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko also shows up, the meeting could offer an opportunity to renew the superpower...
When Nitze sought authority to discuss aircraft as well as missiles in INF, the bureaucracy moved to block him. Nitze complained that he was being "treated like a lackey." During one meeting in Washington, he snapped, "I'm not going to work in these conditions." The threat of a resignation was clear. Finally the Administration agreed to allow Nitze to continue discussions with the Soviets on aircraft, although he was tightly constrained from going into details...