Toshiba Sales Ban in PXs

Re: “House Passes Ban on Toshiba Sales in PXs,” (Part I, July 28):

The story implies that U.S. sanctions were adopted mostly for security reasons. In this connection I would like to direct your attention to two key points.

First, the importance of Toshiba’s technology for the U.S.S.R. is highly exaggerated. Toshiba’s “guilt” in making Soviet submarines less noisy is very debatable if one consults, for example, Jane’s Fighting Ships for 1985-1986 or the U.S. Department of the Navy’s Guide to the Soviet Navy for 1986. Both say that so-called “noiseless” Soviet submarines were put into service between the beginning of 1981 and the middle of 1984, i.e., months earlier than, according to the American and Japanese press, Toshiba’s machine tools began to be installed at Soviet enterprises.

The second point seems to be more important. If the U.S. is so concerned about its security, why doesn’t it use every opportunity to ensure it? I mean specifically the numerous Soviet disarmament proposals.

No doubt, the most effective means to lessen the tensions in the world’s oceans would be the radical reduction of all naval forces.

I wouldn’t say this is a very simple problem, but the few opportunities that have appeared in this area were missed because of the U.S.’s position.

Many years ago the Soviet Union offered to ban the development of the naval Trident missile system in the U.S. and a corresponding system in the U.S.S.R. The proposal was not accepted by Washington. The United States preferred to build the Ohio submarine armed with Trident-1 missiles. As a result the Soviet Union was forced to create an analogous system, the Typhoon, according to Moscow’s official statement of February, 1981. A year ago, speaking in Vladivostok, (Soviet leader) Mikhail Gorbachev proposed starting talks on the reduction of the activity of fleets in the Pacific, above all nuclear-armed ships. But the United States gave no response.

Recently, the Soviet leader, in his interview with the Indonesian newspaper Merdeka, reiterated Moscow’s readiness for such a reduction in the Pacific. It is obvious that the confrontation line there goes through contact areas between the fleets.

Unfortunately, Washington again prefers to keep silence.

No doubt, without the U.S. it is impossible to resolve the problem of security and cooperation in the Pacific Ocean in a way that would satisfy everyone in the region.

MICHAEL V. NAKORYAKOV

Information Officer

Soviet Embassy

Washington, D.C.