ABSTRACT
In 1978, Raymond Garthoff, then US Ambassador to Bulgaria, published an article in the journal International Security, in which he described his views on fundamental Soviet attitudes toward strategic deterrence, nuclear warfighting, and arms control. The Soviet Union has a nuclear war-fighting or war-winning strategy. Perhaps the first of the true evaluative works appears in a 1983 research memorandum produced by Stephen M. Walt entitled Interpreting Soviet Military Statements: A Methodological Analysis from the Center for Naval Analyses. Douglas Hart, in the spring 1984 issue of Washington Quarterly, published “The Hermeneutics of Soviet Military Doctrine.” Dale Herspring sees the debate as encompassing four areas of key importance. These include: Soviet views toward mutual deterrence; Soviet attitudes toward winning a nuclear war, Soviet perceptions of strategic parity; and the role of arms control in Soviet strategic policy. John Erickson agrees with Garthoff in holding that any nuclear war-fighting capability the Soviet Union may possess is fully compatible with a deterrence strategy.
