These are excerpts from the speech of Boris Ponomaty: Communist Party of the Soviet Union at the recent Meeting e a : h? SS oes and Workers’ Parties, called by the French Communist Pa SS 3k Lee ee RS ws eee. core. | Workers’ Party. The speech, delivered on April 28, conta > Stine a . eet policies regarding the struggle to prevent war and to fu mament. Ponomaryov is secretary of the Central Committe Alternate Member of the Politbureau, its leading body. T with a view to the importance of judging Soviet policy as stale Fes Sel s In this past year alone saboteurs burned down over 1,100 schools or one A hani stan quarter of the country’s total. Photo shows a school burned this April in the outskirts of Jelablbad on the Pakistani border. announces Soviet troop of events made it essential for our parties modern industry a ~ _ By GENNADY GERASIMOV to get together quickly (for a) discussion latest scientifi wit rawal On November 9 last year and June 3 and 6 this year a computer about the present political situation and, advances. at the U.S. Air Defence Command headquarters signalled a above all, about the steps that can be But this is § MOSCOW — Repeating its Soviet nuclear attack on the United States and triggered a taken against the threat of war that hangs perialism. The guarantees that all Soviet troops | Counter-strike aimed at the Soviet Union. In November it took over Europe and over the whole world. started impleme presently in Afghanistan at the six minutes to recall the planes set in motion by the false alarm The present worsening situation is not grams. Work 1s request of the Afghan Govermn- and in June it took three, but for those six and three minutes the accidental. In the past few years the developing 20! ment would be removed ‘‘once war was on. : a : USA and NATO have taken many mea- appearance of the reasons for the Afghan leader- What would happen if the original technical error had led to a sures to strengthen their armaments and the further q ship’s request for them disap- second or if by some fluke of fate the man in charge lacked intensify military preparations in gener- tary power ane pear’’, the Soviet Union last week responsibility or worse sanity? The result would have gone far al. ward turn in the began the process of withdrawing | beyond the boundaries of Soviet-American relations. A nuclear All those decisions and actions have The whole histo it’s troops from that country. disaster would have taken place. : come together to form a whole confirms on the The announcement of an initial No machine made by man can be perfect, just as no man can be “doctrine” and practice of anti-détente that our (USS. withdrawal of an undisclosed perfect. Aware of the importance of the problem, the Soviet that is clear for all to see. It is a policy our defence number of Soviet troops stressed that the decision to remove cer- tain troops was based upon com- mon agreement with the govern- ment of Afghanistan. In a commentary on the troop withdrawal, Soviet corre- spondent Karen Khachaturov, rebuffed the contention of the western media that the with- drawal indicated a weakness on the part of the Soviet Union. ‘‘It is for the umpteenth time” Kachaturov wrote, ‘that the West has tried to appraise Soviet The war was on... Union and the United States signed in Washington on September 30, 1971, an agreement to reduce the risk of an accidental nuclear war. Article 1 of the agreement pledges each side ‘‘to maintain and improve organizational and technical arrangements to guard against the accidental or unauthorized use of nuclear weapons under its control’’. In this context, obsession with hypersensitive computers looks like technical cretinism. Sprictly speaking, all the errors of the American computer are secondary. They resulted from a gross political mistake — the belief that a surprise Soviet attack was highly probable. There may be two explanations for this mistake. The first results from the old game called ‘‘the Russians are coming’’. So many lies have been told about an alleged Soviet threat that the inventors of these lies are coming to believe them themselves. rather than as “interpreted” by NATO and the U.S. Pent A very alarming situation is develop- ing in the world and in Europe. The trend aimed at confrontation with the socialist countries. It is a policy of undisguised interference, including military inter- vention, in the affairs of other countries and peoples in the interests of the monopolies and for the purpose of estab- lishing the domination of American imperialism over many countries and re- gions of the world. . At the end of the 60s and the beginning of the 70s it looked as if the ruling circles of the United States had realized that there was no reasonable alternative to ful co-existence between states with different social systems. But the tions for war ing on the basis only in respo year. actions by its own, imperialistic - At the same time, many Western leaders claim that there is no concepts of “‘limited nuclear war’’ and of of détente. yardstick — and it has again mis- chests ea pee ES igs > TE Walle “admissibility” a te use bi Bact Europe wit . tary- , weapons are now becoming fashionable “The decision on reducing West Germany whether the Soviet Union intends to attack the aan / : toate wee Soviet military presence in Af- oa a no.