ABSTRACT
From the military point of view, war between East and West is madness. Calculations show that after 20 days of conventional warfare Europe could become another Hiroshima. Therefore we must work out forms of long-term cooperation. Conventional arms reduction will proceed not only by way of arrangements reached at future talks but also through unilateral steps on both sides. There is nothing to prevent the United States and NATO from responding with some equally constructive steps. The author's expectation is that our unilateral initiative will provoke a positive reaction from the NATO countries and that they will come forward with initiatives of their own. They could reduce those of their conventional weapons in Europe in which there is an imbalance in their favor. As a result of such joint efforts, the military confrontation in Europe would be substantially lowered even before arrangements were reached on the mutual reduction of armed forces and conventional armaments from the Atlantic to the Urals.
