ABSTRACT
The Soviet political and military leaders are Marxist-Leninists steeped in the Clausewitzian recognition of the inherent interrelationship of war and policy. Of particular importance is the gearing together of military and political-diplomatic efforts: “It is important to military strategy to assure the neutrality of a number of states or of particular states, and this is an obligation of diplomacy.” There is virtually nothing in the Soviet military literature on the process of conflict termination. Foreign policy and diplomacy are coupled with military preparations and military operations in the entire gamut of conflictual relationships. A general nuclear war would constitute an “end of the line” clash of the two contending social systems, communism and imperialism, in which imperialism and the capitalist system would collapse and expire. A limited nuclear war in Europe is envisaged as a possible Western initiative either at the outset, or more likely during the course, of a war waged with conventional arms.
