Word: warsaw
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...East European state reject reform and still thrive? Yes, says the doctrinaire regime of East Germany's party boss Erich Honecker. The leadership in Berlin has stuck faithfully to the eternal Communist verities and pulled off a hat trick. Under one of the most authoritarian systems in the Warsaw Pact and with a rigid, centrally planned economy to match, East Germany boasts the most powerful industrial base, the highest standard of living and the most per capita exports to the West of any nation in the East bloc. Declared Honecker, 76, in a speech to party leaders that implicitly rejected...
Unseasonably warm weather in Warsaw, 340 miles to the north, brought more political change into bloom. Two weeks ago, the Jaruzelski government and the Solidarity-led opposition agreed to hold elections for a second chamber of parliament, a revived senate that would include non-Communist candidates. Party leader Wojciech Jaruzelski, who presided over the crackdown outlawing Solidarity in 1981, was uncharacteristically exuberant: "Significant progress is being made to construct parliamentary democracy in Poland." In a church basement across the city, Solidarity leader Lech Walesa told his supporters that Poland was entering a decisive stage "we hope will lead to democracy...
...even in these nations, cowed populations are beginning to waken to the possibility of change. Just over a year ago, the worst riots in the history of the regime broke out in Brasov, Rumania. And beginning last August, Czechs have taken to the streets to protest the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion and the continuing Soviet military presence in their country...
...armored troop / carriers, 68,000 artillery pieces and 12,000 combat aircraft. The overriding goals of the talks will be to reduce the possibility of surprise attacks and large-scale offensive operations and to diminish the oppressive levels of firepower and military manpower. Optimally, both NATO and the Warsaw Pact will be restructured along defensive lines, with no country or alliance having the power to attack others. Acknowledges a Soviet expert on conventional arms: "This is the most complicated diplomatic task since the end of World...
While the opening atmospherics were promising, the devil, as arms controllers say, is in the details. The Soviets scored early with ambitious unilateral initiatives that went a long way toward meeting the basic Western criterion of trimming the Warsaw Pact's alarming and unmatched capacity to overrun Europe. Beyond that, the East bloc is prepared for a fundamental restructuring of the Continent's military balance that could sharply diminish the dangerous confrontation across Europe's political fault line...