ABSTRACT
The Soviets have understood that the ability to successfully defend their nation is basic to political operations anywhere in the world. In the 1950s, any Soviet foreign maneuver could be countered by the tacit threat of a US strategic assault directly on the Soviet homeland. Soviet naval crisis responses are integral elements in the foreign policy-oriented operations of the Soviet Navy, through which considerable influence has been wrested from the West. A strong US Navy has precluded more assertive Soviet naval operations. Soviet naval operations after 1956 increased the USSR's security by contributing to countering the US nuclear strike advantage of the 1950s and fragmenting the North Atlantic Treaty Organization alliance. Submarine construction will continue to play a dominant role in Soviet shipbuilding, first to maintain a strategic balance with the United States and second to disrupt the maritime traffic through the North Atlantic between the United States and Europe in time of war.
