ABSTRACT
The study of Soviet naval port visits occupies a minor place in Western considerations of Soviet strategy. Naval port visits represent an efficiently functioning component of the Soviet Union's struggle against the West in general and the United States in particular. The reaction to the visit was as universally positive and enthusiastic among the leadership and media elites as among the general public. The visitors in turn made a large and well-publicized donation to a public charity and hosted a reception on their flagship. The diplomatic and military representatives of other major powers watched helplessly as the public esteem of their governments plunged while that of the Russians soared. Until the late 1960s, Soviet naval port visits were largely confined to Western Europe and North America, but in 1969, a fundamental shift in program policy focused on the strategic opportunities identified in the Third World. Port visits are a powerful opportunity to alter perceptions of the balance of power.
