ABSTRACT
The reduction of NATO and Warsaw Treaty armed forces and conventional arms in Europe constitutes a key problem of disarmament. An important point in conventional reduction is the organic relationship of that process to the elaboration and introduction of new confidence- and security-building measures in the military area. Agreements to be reached at the negotiations of the 23 and 35 states must be harmoniously interrelated, complement, and enhance each other. Given an extremely close operational, technical, and organizational relationship between armed forces, conventional armaments, and tactical nuclear systems, it is obvious that major cuts in general purpose forces would make it essential to reduce those nuclear weapons. Clearly, large-scale cuts in armed forces and conventional armaments, particularly in more destabilizing types, would significantly reduce the mutual threat of surprise attack or offensive operations employing conventional means of destruction and effectively remove all justification for keeping tactical nuclear weapons in the military arsenals of NATO and Warsaw Treaty countries.
