ABSTRACT
In many ways Western anticipation of change in the Soviet Armed Forces in the latter part of the 1980s was reminiscent of the expectations for Soviet liberalization in the early to mid-1960s when de-Stalinization was under way. As 1980s were beginning, Soviet leaders sought to reassure the world, alarmed by the invasion of Afghanistan on the eve of the new decade, that their military forces were not a threat. Soviet strategists charge the Soviet Armed Forces with three missions: to give decisive repulse to any aggressor; to reliably protect the socialist gains of the Soviet people; and to protect the socialist gains of peoples of socialist countries. The Soviet Minister of Defense, General Dmitriy T. Yazov, said that "Soviet military doctrine is subordinate to the task of preventing war." In the 1980s, according to N. V. Ogarkov , the United States formulated a new military strategy-a strategy of "direct confrontation" with the Soviet Union on a global and regional basis.
