ABSTRACT
Marshal Ogarkov became known to US negotiators during the discussions leading up to the SALT I Agreement. He was appointed chief of the General Staff In 1976, a position that subsequently became the second most important post in the Soviet Armed Forces. Soviet military strategy views a world war, if the imperialists manage to unleash it, as a decisive clash between two opposed world socio-economic systems—socialist and capitalist. It is supposed that in such a war simultaneously or consecutively the majority of the states in the world may become involved. Soviet military strategy recognizes that world war might begin and for a certain length of time be waged with the use of just conventional weapons. However, widening military actions may lead to its escalation into general nuclear war in which nuclear weapons, primarily of strategic designation, will be the main means of waging it.
