Cooking up the
‘Soviet threat’
-  By.C. MISSION.

The January 1981 issue of Air International, a glossy
British aviation magazine whose major advertisers are.
British: and U.S. manufacturers of military aviation

technology, contains an article on a Soviet figher-
bomber, the Sukhoi 24, code named ‘Fencer’ by NATO.
The article is interesting because it employes several
misleading propaganda techniques commonly used by
bourgeois mass media to persuade the public that there is
a ‘‘Soviet military threat’’ to the West.

- The Sukhoi 24 is designed for an “‘interdiction role’;
that is, it can be used to attack NATO airbases and other
ground targers in western Europe. It is designed to re-

place the Sukhoi 17, Sukhoi 20, and Sukhoi 22. The latter}

are subsonic interdiction types that have a maximum
combat range of approximately 400 miles. The. super-
sonic Sukhoi 24 has a maximum combat range of approx-
imately 500 miles... fore

- Air International, along with various NATO generals,
interpret this to mean that the Soviets have shifted from a
defensive to an ‘‘offensive”’ military posture. A bit of

~ research, however, shows that this claim is ridiculous. If
possessing a supersonic interdiction aircraft with a range
of 500 miles makes an air force offensive, then NATO air
forces in western Europe have been offensive for more

' than a decade. The McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom,
the Republic F-105-Thunderchief, and the General
Dynamics F-111'are all supersonic interdiction aircraft,
with ranges of 500 miles or more, that have served in the
NATO air forces of western Europe since the early
1960s. The Phantom and the F-111 are still NATO
Mainstays.

Many readers will remember that Phantoms were used
to wreak incredible destruction in Vietnam; they are
currently used by the Israeli Air Force to bomb Palesti-
nian refugee camps.

Thus, what Air International seems to be sayings that
when NATO deployes supersonic interdiction aircraft,
this is not ‘‘offensive’’; but when the USSR does the
same thing, it somehow becomes “‘offensive’’. This is

"absurd, especially when_one learns that NATO Phan-
toms and F-111s are based in western Europe while
Sukhoi 24s are currently based only within the borders of
the USSR. NATO generals and successive U.S. and
Canadian governments began describing Soviet military

policy in Europe as ‘‘offensive’’ long before the Sukhoi
24 was even conceived! '

It is ironic that, after commenting on the formidable
qualities of the Sukhoi 24 in a manner clearly intended to
frighten western readers, Air International then implies
that the Sukhoi 24 is a copy of the General Dynamics
F-111 (both are supersonic “‘swing-wing’’ aircraft). This
is typically contradictory. On the one hand, readers are
led to believe that Soviet weaponry is superior to NATO
weaponry, and intended for ‘‘aggression’’. This is pre-
sumably meant to win votes and approval for increased
war spending and hawkish politicians. On the other

hand, we are led to believe that the Soviets must copy _

their weaponry from the U.S. This is presumably meant
to reassure us of the superiority of capitalism over

socialism. Again, the contradictions are transparent and...

absurd. But this is the stuff of which the ‘‘Soviet threat”
is cooked up!-

The Reagan/Haig war budget is a bonanza for arms-
makers. From $171-billion in 1981, the budget will leap to

wn cs

The F-16, one of the F-series of fighter planes which make up the backbone of NATO’s air strength in Europe.

a record-breaking $367.5-billion by 1986. That’s $1.5-
trillion over. the full five years.

The spending will include:

e Boosting the U.S. fleet to 600 ships from today’s 456
and the mustering of 15 naval battle groups, three more
than at present. The naval spending program includes
more nuclear submarines and ‘‘Nimitz’’ class carriers as
well as other ships. ‘‘We must have naval superiority,”’
declared U.S. Defence Secretary Casper Weinberger.

e Production of a new manned bomber — either the
B-1 ora modification of the FB-111. Development of the
new MX missile system.

e More tactical aircraft, new tanks, helicopters and a
wide store of other equipment is planned, as well as pay
increases for the military. ‘

The total increase. (not accounting for tribes eroiee
tions) boosts U.S. military spending between 1981 and
1986 by 158%. To use Reagan’s own graphic example,
the $1.5-trillion to be spent on armaments would be a
stack of $1,000 dollar bills 103.5 miles high.

Subversion in Poland, a dangerous course

Viewers tuned in to CBC Newshour
Thursday evening, March 19 were
_treated to a rare performance of one
newsclip being repeated three times on
one newscast. It was a newsflash report-
ing that riot police broke up a meeting in
the Polish city of Bydgoszcz.
In sharp contrast Newshour totally ig-
Nored a disgraceful event in Hamilton
(Canada) which: also took place on

Alfred Dewhurst

Marxism-Leninism Today

eral and, at this particular moment in
history, to tear Poland away from the
socialist camp. Such an aim endangers
the balance offorces presently existing in
Europe. This is a danger which cannot
be ignored by the socialist countries.

* * * :

To achieve its aims imperialism and its
accomplices do not stop at slander and
vilification of socialism, or other dem-

March 19. On that day 40 Hamilton-

Wentworth Regional police stormed

McMaster University to attack a peace-

_ ful sit-in of 11 students, who were pro-
testing a breach of the university's con-
sitution by the administration. This mas-
sive show of police force was not consi-
dered newsworthy by Newshour.

Two more examples of the CBC’s ad-
diction to socialism bashing: On March
18, Newshour screened a lengthy inter-
view with the head of a sub-committee of

a doctor’s association, which has set it-
self the task of collecting funds to be sent
to Solidarity in Poland, ostensibly to
- purchase medical supplies and drugs for
distribution to Poles in need of them. A
strange task indeed. For Poland can
boast a non-contributory universal and
comprehensive medicare plan that in-
cludes pharmacare and denticare.
- On March 21, CBC News broadcast a
round-up of ‘fund’ raising activities in
Polish communities across Canada,
coordinated through the Polish Canadian
Congress. What came through loud and
clear in that broadcast was the anti-
- socialism, anti-communist. nature of
these activities, as related by those lead-
ers of the Congress interviewed. Of par-

ticular significance was the disclosure
that one Polish language radio program
broadcast every evening a “‘commie
bashing”’ show. :

* oe *

For over nine months the Canadian

public has been assaulted by the news .

media and other propaganda sources
with almost a daily dose of the economic
and.political difficulties socialist Poland

‘is presently going through. Such assault

is part and parcel of a crudely orches-
trated campaign to denigrate existing
socialism. It is a many-faceted campaign
aimed at involving a wide range of social

_and political interest groups in activities

injurious to socialist Poland and world
peace. Some of these groups are well-
meaning. There are others that need no
eae

rging. Pye os : °
_.° One of the latter category recently sur-

faced in Hamilton, Ont. Last February a
dissident from socialism, one Tad

‘Kawecki, circulated a letter calling a

meeting on behalf of Solidarity for the
purpose of setting up a Solidarity support
group. The purpose of the Solidarity
support group, based on the alleged prin-
ciple of ‘unconditional support for
Polish workers’’, was to ‘‘help organize

such support among working people’’. It

would also raise ‘“‘money for printing

supplies and equipment for Solidarity’.
* * ~*

Some 15 people attended the meeting
organized to set in motion an alleged Sol-
idarity support committee. Of this
number most were connected with the
Maoist-oriented Workers Communist
Party, the Trotskyite Revolutionary
Workers League and another ultra-left
group, In Struggle. Fhe meeting set up a

steering committee of eight persons. And .

for all intent afd purpose this gang of
eight will be the support committee,
answerable to no one except their pat-
rons.

This is a classical example of how ac-
complices of the ruling circles in
capitalist societies, acting in the name of
the workers, go about knocking together
an anti-socialist group based on exploit-
ing the difficulties facing the workers of
another country. Such effort is not
confined to Canada. It is capitalist world
wide. It has the aim of bringing under
imperialist influence all those made blind
to reality by the poison of anti-socialism
and anti-ccommunism. The imperialist
objective is to denigrate socialism in gen-

.ocratic regimes. As events in democratic

Chile amply prove, imperialism

_ employes all forms of subversion, such

as truckers’ strikes and food riots to
overthrow regimes not to its liking. Such
subversion is generally initiated through
systematic implementation of social and
economic destabilization tactics in the
intended victim country. :

Imperialist subversion in Poland, tak-
ing full advantage of serious mistakes
and miscalculations in domestic policies
on ‘the part of the ruling party and
government, is aimed at promoting anar-
chy in that country based on internal
forces hostile to socialism. The object of
such strategy is to channel events into a
counter-revolutionary course.

Me % oe

This is a reckless and dangerous

_course to pursue. Those in Canada who

encourage such a course are doing no
favors for Canadians. And they are badly
mistaken if they think that the Polish
working class is going to turn its back on
socialism. Polish communists, the Polish
working class and the working people of
Poland have firm friends and allies who
will not abandon them in their hour of
need.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 3, 1981—Page 5

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