The Soviet Union and the Arms Race

244 Pages·1984·31.35 MB·English

by  David Holloway

David Holloway
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BOSTON
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THE SOVIET UNION
AND THE ARMS RACE
THE SOVIET UNION
AND THE ARMS RACE
Second Edition
David Holloway
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW HAVEN AND LONDON
-
TO THE MEMORY OF MY FATHER,
ERNEST HOLLOWAY
©
Copyright 1983 by Yale University. All rights reserved.
Second edition 1984.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that
copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 ofthe U.S. Copyright Law and except by
reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers.
Designed by Caroline Williamson and set in Compugraphic Times by Red Lion
Setters, Holborn, London.
Printed in Great Britain by Butler &Tanner Ltd, Frome, Somerset.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Holloway, David, 1943-
The Soviet Union and the arms race.
Includes index.
1. Soviet Union-Military policy. 2. Soviet Union-Defenses. 3. Soviet Union
Armed Forces. 4. World politics- 1945-. 1. Title.
UA770.H63 1983 355'.033047 84-40205
ISBN 0-300-03280-3 (cloth)
ISBN 0-300-03281-1 (paper)
531
Contents
Acknowledgements
vii
Introduction to thesecondedition ix
Introduction to thefirstedition 1
MILITARY POWER AND THE SOVIET STATE
1. 3
Industrialization and Military Power 4
The Test of War 10
Conclusion
1
ENTERING THE NUCLEAR ARMS RACE
2. 15
Deciding to Build the Bomb 1
Post-War Weapons Programs 20
The Development of Thermonuclear Weapons 23
Nuclear Weapons and Military Policy 27
3. THINKING ABOUT NUCLEAR WAR 29
The Political and Military Aspects ofDoctrine 3
Rethinking Military Doctrine 35
Military Strategy in the Nuclear Age 39
Catching Up 43
Managing Parity 48
Conclusion 55
THE POLITICS OF ARMS CONTROL:
4.
THEATRE NUCLEAR SYSTEMS IN EUROPE 65
The Development ofSoviet Medium-Range Forces 65
Competition in Strategies 70
Arms Control 72
Conclusion 78
75
vi The Soviet Union and the Arms Race
MILITARY POWER AND FOREIGN POLICY
5. 81
Peaceful Coexistence and Missile Diplomacy 84
Detente 86
Expansion and Encirclement 90
Afghanistan and the End ofSoviet-American
Detente 95
The Polish Crisis 99
Conclusion 101
THE DEFENCE ECONOMY
6. 109
The Central Policy-Making Bodies 109
Soviet Military Expenditures
1 1
The Defence Industry
1 1
Defence Production 20
1
Arms Transfers 123
Security and Secrecy 126
Conclusion 127
MILITARY TECHNOLOGY
7. 131
R&D
The Military Effort 32
1
The Level of Technology 134
The Weapons Acquisition Process 140
R&D
The Performance ofMilitary 145
R&D
Patterns ofMilitary 147
ICBM Development 50
1
Conclusion 54
1
8. THE POLITICS OF MILITARY POWER 156
A Military-Industrial Complex? 156
Military-Patriotic Education 160
The Politics ofDoctrine 163
Economic Choices 168
The Politics ofChange 173
CONCLUSION
9. 178
Index 203
Acknowledgements
This book draws on work done in recent years for a number of differ-
ent projects and for that reason my intellectual debts are numerous. I
wouldparticularlyliketoacknowledgethehelpIhavereceivedfromcol-
leagues at several different institutions: in the Department of Politics,
University ofEdinburgh; in the Centre for Russian and East European
Studies at the University of Birmingham, from whom I learned much
while collaborating on a study ofSoviet technological performance; in
the International Security Studies Program at the Woodrow Wilson
International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., where I spent
a year working on a study of early Soviet nuclear policy; and at the
Peace Studies Program of Cornell University, where this book was
completed. My thanks are due also to the Institute ofWorld Economy
and International Relations of the Soviet Academy of Sciences for
invitingme foravisit during which someofthe topics in thisbook were
discussed. I have learned so much from so many people that it would
be invidious to try to name them all. I would like to express my partic-
ular thanks, however, to Ron Amann, Julian Cooper, Bob Davies,
Mary Kaldor, Judith Reppy and Jane Sharp. None of these people or
institutions should be held responsible for the views, arguments and
deficiencies of this book.
In writing this book I have drawn in some chapters on earlier
published work. I am grateful to the copyright holders for permission
to reuse material that has appeared elsewhere. The Macmillan Press
has given me permission to draw at various points on a chapter on
'Foreign and Defense Policy' in Archie Brown and Michael Kaser
(eds.), SovietPolicyforthe 1980s, published in 1982 by the Macmillan
Press in London and the Indiana University Press in the United States.
I am grateful to the Peace Studies Program at Cornell University for
permission to draw in chapter seven on a paper on The Soviet Styleof
Military R & D' in F.A. Long and Judith Reppy (eds.), The Genesisof
viii The Soviet Union and the Arms Race
New Weapons:Decision-MakingforMilitaryR&D, published in 1980
by the Pergamon Press, New York and Oxford.
I would like to acknowledge also the financial support I received
from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, from the
Nuffield and Ford Foundations, and from the Institute for the Study
of World Politics, for my study of early Soviet atomic energy policy,
on which I have drawn for the second chapter of this book.
My thanks are due to the Yale University Press for suggesting this
book to me, and for being so patient while I wrote it.
Finally, my greatest indebtedness is to my wife Arlene, for her sup-
port and encouragement.
NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION
I have not changed the text ofthe first edition, but I have added a new
introduction to bring the analysis up to date.
David Holloway, February 1984