ABSTRACT
The Soviet leadership gravely misjudged the reactions and deep-seated fears that the deployment of the SS-20 would cause in western Europe. A treaty establishing nuclear weapon-free zones in Europe would obviously be a monumental achievement. Consequently, considerable attention should be given to its preamble. One may easily conceive of countries in Europe that could not at the outset declare the entirety of their territories as a nuclear weapon-free zone, such as, possibly, the Federal Republic of Germany. Turkey and Greenland may also have certain difficulties in the initial phase of negotiations concerning a European nuclear weapon-free zone. In case of the establishment of a nuclear weapon-free zone, the rules regarding permission for nuclear-armed vessels to visit the ports of the zone should be considerably stricter, although an occasional courtesy visit of naval vessels that were nuclear armed should not be entirely excluded.
