ABSTRACT
Accordingly, many observers view the economic implications of East-West trade in national security and strategic terms. Some of these observers see East-West trade making an inequitable contribution to Soviet economic strength and military capabilities. It is clear that the economic health of a country or an alliance is fundamental to its national security. One of the major obstacles in the way of a unified Western policy is varying Western assessments of the value of trade with the East. Some scholars have used the case-study approach to examine the impact of Western technology at the micro-level. In the early 1980s the credit financing aspect of East-West trade began to give much concern to US policymakers and Western banking officials. The Reagan administration expressed particular displeasure with the Western European policy of extending preferential credit terms for East-West projects and sought to do away with such credit subsidies.
