ABSTRACT
Western leaders and their analysts have often tended to discount Soviet ideology as ‘mere rhetoric’ and as having little or no bearing on Soviet official behaviour in the decision-making process governing their internal and external policies. This tendency has often been increased when the strong assertions made by the Politburo have contradicted preconceived sets of assumptions by Western leaders, as for example United States assumptions of détente. 1 The argumentation discounting the importance of ideological pronouncements would state either that this ideology was directed only to foreign communists or that it was strictly inconsequential.
