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