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Soviet Union [USSR] Threat Reduction
Since the 1950s, the Soviet Union has viewed United States
nuclear weapons deployed in Europe and capable of striking the
Soviet Union as being particularly threatening. The Soviet military
first formulated its preemptive nuclear strategy in the l950s to
neutralize the threat of United States strategic bombers armed with
nuclear weapons and stationed in Europe. In l979 NATO decided to
offset Soviet deployments of the new intermediate-range SS-20
missiles by deploying new United States nuclear systems in Western
Europe. These systems--l08 Pershing II missiles and 464 groundlaunched cruise missiles (GLCMs)--could reach Soviet territory. The
Soviet military regarded both systems as a grave threat because of
their high accuracy and because of the Pershing II's short flying
time (under ten minutes). The Soviet Union asserted that both the
Pershing IIs and the hard-to-detect GLCMs could make a surprise
strike against the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union tried both antinuclear propaganda and
negotiations to forestall the NATO deployments. Formal negotiations
began in November l98l, at which time the United States proposed
the "global zero option," banning or eliminating all United States
and Soviet longer-range intermediate nuclear forces (LRINF),
including Soviet SS-4s, SS-5s, and SS-20s, and the United States
Pershing IIs and GLCMs. The Soviet Union rejected the "global zero
option" and insisted on including the British and French nuclear
components in INF reductions.
In October l986, at the Reykjavik Summit, the Soviet Union
ceased insisting on including British and French weapons in an INF
agreement. Nevertheless, it attempted to link an INF agreement to
strategic arms reductions and to the renunciation of the SDI. Only
after Soviet negotiators abandoned all linkages and agreed to
destroy all Soviet longer-range and shorter-range INF in Europe and
Asia and to permit on-site inspection were they able to achieve
their goal: the eventual removal of the Pershing IIs and GLCMs that
are capable of reaching Soviet territory.
The INF Treaty, signed on December 8, l987, in Washington by
President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev, stipulated that
each party would eliminate all of its intermediate-range missiles
and their launchers. These missiles included Soviet SS-4, SS-5, SS20 longer-range INF (with ranges between 1,000 and 5,500
kilometers), and SS-l2 and SS-23 shorter-range missiles (with
ranges between 500 and 1,000 kilometers). The treaty called for the
destruction of about 2,700 United States and Soviet missiles.
Data as of May 1989
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