Soviets Call Pentagon Booklet ‘Blatantly Slanderous’

The Soviet Union on Wednesday called the Pentagon’s latest annual assessment of Soviet military power a “fabrication-laden booklet” full of “doctored facts and falsehoods.”

The fifth edition of the glossy pamphlet “Soviet Military Power,” released Tuesday in Washington, said, “Soviet doctrine envisions a future world war of wide scope waged over vast territories.”

The official Tass news agency quickly responded, calling it a “blatantly slanderous pamphlet.”

“Employing disinformation, doctored facts and falsehoods about ‘Soviet global ambitions,’ the masterminds of this smear campaign are out to draw world public attention away from their own feverish military preparations,” the news agency said.

A Yearly Event

The release of the pamphlet, illustrated with color photographs and charts showing Soviet strategic forces and directions of attack, has become a yearly event since Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger assumed office in 1981.

Tass called it “the trotting out of the latest fabrication-laden booklet by the Washington hawks.”

“The claims by the pamphlet and by the Pentagon chief that the Soviet Union had only one concern on its mind, and that was to achieve world domination and unleash a nuclear war, are at least ludicrous,” Tass said.

Tass called the timing of the manual’s release “deliberate,” coming after the Soviet declaration extending a moratorium on nuclear explosions beyond March 31 until the first nuclear blast in the United States.

New Class of Missiles

Tass’ general condemnation did not mention any of the manual’s many allegations dealing with mobile intercontinental range nuclear missiles or a new class of Soviet missiles to be launched from railroad cars.

“No matter how much on the Potomac they talk about a mythical ‘Soviet threat’ in defiance of logic and common sense, and no matter how hard they try to convince world opinion of their ‘commitment to peace,’ the world’s nations know that the war threat is emanating from the United States,” Tass said.

The report said the Soviet Union has deployed more than 70 mobile intercontinental nuclear missiles and may field a new model, launched from railroad cars, before the end of the year.