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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 26, 1982)
emerald special report national security Oregon Dally Emerald Friday, February 26,1982 Getting colder Soviet visions of power and persecution By Henry Crum me Ot thm Em*raU As the striking Polish miners wake up, a man’s voice an nounces over the intercom system that troops are massed outside the mine "We will never break down." the voice proclaims, "until the govern ment meets our demands " In another part of the world, a small group of ragged tribesmen in the rocky hills of Afghanistan aim their weapons at a group of Soviet trucks and begin firing Does the Soviet Union's crushing of democratic reform movements in Czechoslovakia and Hungary and its recent role in Poland and Afghanistan reveal a Russian paranoia about the security of its borders, or a concern for maintaining hard-line Marxist Leninist doctrine? That question is not easily answered After World War II, the Soviet Union gave both Fin land and Austria their in dependence, under the condi tion that they remain neutral. The Soviet invasion of neigh boring Afghanistan was also prompted by national security concerns, says Leslie Brown. Brown is the deputy director of the state department's Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs and a participant in the Northwest National Security Conference’. But self-preservation is not the only aim of Soviet foreign policy The Soviets have also given assistance to Angola, Cuba and Libya — countries that have nothing to do with Soviet national security, ac cording to Brown Other experts agree “There is little doubt in my mind that since Lenin's time the Soviet Union has openly declared its sympathy with what it calls wars of national liberation,” says Frank Trager, a director of studies for the private Na tional Strategy Information Center and a conference speaker. Another conference par ticipant, British journalist Peter Jones, says the Russian approach to foreign policy is like that of the United States — purely pragmatic. He says Russia will ally itself with na tions of differing political philosophies in order to ex pand its power The Soviets support or have supported countries where the Communist Party is banned, Jones says, citing Egypt, Sy ria, Libya and Iraq as exam ples However, Brown says while the Soviets may accept these nations' ban on communism, they maintain clandestine operations to encourage com munist organizations Jones says Ethiopia offers another example of the ruth less. Machiavellian nature of Soviet foreign policy. During the Ethiopian war against Eri trean rebels, Jones says “the Russians turned on the Eri treans For nearly twenty years, the Cubans had trained the Eritreans, then the Soviet Union did an about face and supported the Ethiopians." 1 ■» " Trager supports Jones’ remarks, saying that the Soviets have displayed a flexi ble approach to foreign policy. “The Soviet Union has always given a high place to ideological considerations, but not at the expense of Rus sian policy,” he says. For example, Russian revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky differed with Joseph Stalin about whether to export Bolshevism. Trotsky favored a vigorous policy of exporting revolution to the rest of the world, while Stalin had been in favor of the Soviet Union tak ing care of itself The Soviet population is ex tremely sensitive to any threat to its homeland. The Soviet Union is bordered on the east by hostile Communist China, with the largest army in the world, and by Japan, an American ally. On the west, the Soviets face NATO alliance countries, and in the south America has military bases in the Indian Ocean. Increased military expendi tures abroad may have very serious consequences in Rus sia. If the Soviets make a greater effort to defend exist ing Marxist regimes they would assure greater opposi tion to their foreign policy from both the West and the Third World, according to Mark Katz of the Brookings Institution. Katz says Russia would also risk the possibility of domestic opposition against the econ omic and military burden such a policy would create. But there is no guarantee that such a policy would be any more successful than it has been in Afghanistan, he adds. The Soviets ha've shown firmness and resolution in accomplishing their goals, says Edwin Firmage, Universi ty of Utah law professor and conference speaker. Firmage says the Russians "have demonstrated their willingness to sacrifice for foreign policy objectives in the past. If we think we can arms-race them to the negotiating table, we are terribly mistaken.” Getting darker Clouds of chemical warfare loom on the horizon By Katherine Merritt im The U S government has stepped up plans to prepare Itself for chemical warfare, responding to reports that the Soviet Union is using a new kind of biological weapon on insurgent troops in Laos, Cambodia and possibly Af ghanistan Secretary of State Alexander Haig and other American officials have charged that the Soviet Union is using biological toxins — produced from live fungus — in combat If the Soviets are using such a weapon, they are violating both a 1925 Geneva Convention prohibiting chemical warfare and a brlateral pact with the United States banning production, storage and transfer of biological weapons But state department evidence hasn't remained intact under scrutiny. U S. laboratory studies on plant samples from Cambodia and Laos have found up to 20 times more toxin produced by live fungus as would oc cur naturally But some scientists say the contamination could have been the work of political groups or have even occurred naturally. The State Department also uses vic tim symptoms to support its accusa tions Stories about bleeding from the mouth and other orifices suggest fun gal (mycotoxin) poisoning. But only a small number of refugees had such symptoms One State Department official presented evidence of these symptoms In refugees from Afghanis tan, but his evidence showed little that related specifically to mycotoxins. Another claim the U S. government makes is that the climate and high technology needed to produce these biotoxins is found only in the Soviet Union. Mycotoxin expert Alex Ciegler dis putes this. "All you need is the fungus (fusarium), a few flasks, and some rice or com grits. You could produce it in an ordinary kitchen," he says. A United Nations team was unable to confirm the United States' charges, mainly because it couldn’t conduct on-site inspections where the alleged attacks occurred on mycotoxins nerve pro tests by citizens and Oregon legisla tors, Isenberg says. There is nothing going on there now. and ' if there is. they're certainly not letting it be known "If they're working they're not admitting it
