To hide the fact that the United States lagged behind the USSR, today's liberal "historians" write that the Americans allegedly had more strategic charges, that is, nuclear warheads, than the USSR and cite data with a sixfold superiority of the United States, but they immediately make a reservation and point to the sources, claiming the equality of warheads.
But there was no equality. The USA lagged behind the USSR, and lagged significantly behind. The Vietnam War, which demanded a huge amount of money and human casualties from the United States, also contributed to this lag. And the Strategic Missile Forces of the USSR, founded in December 1959, developed rapidly and by 1972 represented a force superior to that of the United States.
In fact, these troops existed in our country until 1959, but under a different name. In my opinion, it is likely that in 1972, with the help of missile forces, strategic aviation, submarine and surface fleets, the USSR could destroy the United States without receiving a retaliatory strike, since the United States did not have antimissile defense (ABM). The Americans had no idea how to make a missile capable of shooting down our strategic missile.
In 1972, we already had a deployed missile defense system. US submarines would be destroyed at the same time as a nuclear attack, since every submarine, surface vessel, nuclear installation on land in America and at military bases in other countries was at gunpoint by the Soviet armed forces. Every American submarine was not overlooked, no matter what the circumstances.
Only individual planes could break into the territory of the USSR, and then, most likely, they would have been shot down over the territory of the countries of Eastern Europe and before approaching the territory of the USSR from other directions. This is only later, thanks to the signing of the SALT treaty, the Americans will increase the number of their missiles and nuclear warheads to a number at which full protection of the USSR's territory cannot be guaranteed.
The fact is that when thousands of missiles are flying on a country, then in the presence of any, the most advanced missile defense system, there is no guarantee that all the missiles will be shot down. And we didn’t have to sign SALT treaties and destroy wonderful missiles in which the labor and genius of the Russian, Soviet man was invested. By signing the SALT-1 treaty, Leonid I. Brezhnev made it possible for the United States to almost catch up with the USSR in the amount of strategic weapons.
An even greater mistake on the part of the USSR was the signing at the same time, in 1972, of an agreement limiting the parties in the deployment of missile defense. At that time, there were no objective reasons whatsoever that would push the USSR to sign it. On the part of the USSR, the signing of the ABM Treaty is sheer madness. The fact is that at the time of signing the treaty, as mentioned above, the USSR had an excellent missile defense system and continued to build it around industrial centers, large cities, and especially important facilities.
The United States had no effective anti-missile defense at all, and the level of science did not allow them to create such a defense. Even the most pro-Western liberal circles admit this. For example, they write that the United States has abandoned the installation of missile defense in Montana. Why refused? Obviously, they had nothing to install. Therefore, they refused. M. Kalashnikov writes: “The Americans shot down the first ballistic intercontinental missile with another missile in 1984. And we did the same twenty-three years earlier - in 1961. Academician E. A. Fedosov also points to this fact. And someone is talking about our backwardness.
When the Americans, with the coming to power of M. S. Gorbachev, gained access to our design and technological documentation on missile defense systems, twenty years later they managed to establish a serial production of missile defense systems and immediately announced to today's Russian Federation its unilateral withdrawal from the ABM Treaty. This is how dear Brezhnev's faith in peaceful coexistence and friendship with the West cost us. And this is not just Brezhnev's mistake. These are the first signs of the emerging new thinking of our government.
It, perhaps subconsciously, has already taken the first steps towards agreeing to submit to the will of the United States and live under the leadership of the United States of America. It did not understand that the Russian people would not be able to live under these conditions, the West would not allow them to live. The West will do everything to make the Russian people disappear from the face of the earth. Gorbachev's perestroika and subsequent events showed that under the patronage of the United States and the West, the Russian people are beginning to die out.
Having limited the number of missiles in the strategic forces by the SALT-1 treaty, Leonid I. Brezhnev did not reduce, but increased the USSR's expenses for the production of this type of weapon. First, after the signing of the treaty, America could calmly make missiles and catch up with us without fear that we would go far ahead. Secondly, in order to keep up with the United States in terms of the number of warheads, we had to remove from combat duty and destroy our missiles, replacing them with new MIRVed missiles, since the treaty limited the number of missiles, not the number of warheads. In the absence of a treaty, we did not have to destroy the old missiles, nor to hastily manufacture new missiles.
Having preserved ordinary missiles, we would slowly install missiles of a new design - with multiple warheads, and America would tremble just at the thought that a swarm of our huge intercontinental ballistic missiles with a colossal charge power is in capsules, stands in mines and travels on the railways, both underground and on the surface of the earth.
We, the great continental power, created great intercontinental missiles, and it was unwise to destroy them at the behest of the United States. But the treaty forced us to do this, despite the fact that the resource of the missiles made it possible to keep them on alert for another dozen years.
According to liberal sources, by the end of the 1980s, when Gorbachev opened all our nuclear storerooms to the West, the number of Soviet nuclear warheads was 6,600 at the expense of MIRVed missiles. Destruction of the USA was guaranteed and the USSR had no reason to surrender to the mercy of the "winner".
In 1971-1975, the trade turnover between the USSR and the USA increased sharply. Some of the officials negotiating with Western firms were turned into agents of Western influence. Our officials of the highest ranks were corrupted by the money given by Western firms, as well as blackmail, threats and other methods of recruiting representatives of other countries, applied and worked out to perfection by Western intelligence services for hundreds of years.
And again, I recall the actions of N. S. Khrushchev, who removed the control of the state security agencies over officials who conclude agreements with large Western countries. JV Stalin made thousands of correct state decisions, which were later canceled by N. S. Khrushchev and thereby caused irreparable damage to the state. By the way, Western officials are still under the control of their special services.
Unilateral concessions on the part of the USSR were viewed in the West not as our good will, but as our weakness. They tried to humiliate the Soviet Union by banning the export of certain types of products. They knew that, if necessary, we would get the right products through orders from other countries, but they passed discriminatory laws in order to humiliate us.
In general, trade was associated with certain conditions. For example, with the so-called Jackson-Vanik amendment, the financial and economic side of our relations with the United States was associated with the abolition of restrictions on the emigration of Soviet citizens, primarily of Jewish nationality. And the point is not that practically their departure from the USSR was not limited. The main thing is that this amendment indicated that there were restrictions on the departure of Jews in the USSR.
On July 18, 1979, Leonid I. Brezhnev, during a meeting with President D. Carter in Vienna, signed the SALT-2 Treaty, which at that time was not needed by the United States, and therefore was not ratified by the American Congress, that is, did not enter into force.
At this time, in 1979, our great scientists, designers, engineers and technicians and workers created a powerful and reliable strategic missile or, more correctly, the third-generation strategic missile system R-36M UTTH. In the west, the complex was designated SS-18 Satan. It ensures the defeat of up to 10 targets with one missile in the face of anti-missile defense. It affects both small-sized high-strength targets and especially large targets located on terrain with an area of up to 300 thousand square kilometers, which indicates a high hitting accuracy and enormous power of warheads designed to destroy especially large targets.
Since 1975, the giant RSD-20 missiles have been installed in the mines of the Soviet Union. There were no larger missiles in the world. Each of the 10 targets was hit by a 10 megaton warhead.
In the second half of the 1970s, the Soviet Union began deploying new medium-range missiles in Eastern Europe. More precisely, we did not deploy new missiles, but installed them instead of the old ones, that is, the old missiles were removed and replaced with new missiles.
The Americans were on a rampage. Not only was the territory of the United States virtually unprotected from the giant Soviet missiles being installed in the mines, but then there were new missiles in Europe that would reach and surely hit any NATO base and hold at gunpoint all the countries of Western Europe.
Despite the fact that the USSR did not increase the total number of missiles in Eastern Europe, NATO in 1979 decided to deploy 572 American missiles in 5 Western European countries. Of course, the replacement of our missiles was only a pretext for the deployment of US missiles in Europe. In this situation, only Gorbachev could withdraw the troops of the Soviet Army from Eastern Europe, eliminate the Warsaw Pact and significantly reduce the level of security of Soviet citizens.
Now our border was guarded by powerful mobile missiles RSD-10 "Pioneer", located on the platform of a six-axle wheeled tractor. Since 1977, the release of these solid-fuel composite missiles has steadily increased, and in 1987 there were 650 missiles in arsenals and on alert. Looking ahead, I will say that in 1991, under the agreement, these unique missiles were also eliminated. The complete disarmament of the Soviet Union began.
Perhaps peacetime for the Soviet Army, which more than one enemy did not dare to attack, would have lasted a very long time. But US intervention in the 1979 Iranian revolution led to the deployment of a limited Soviet contingent of troops to Afghanistan.
Russia's ill-wishers all the time condemned the USSR, pointed to the allegedly huge expenses that it had due to participation in military conflicts and support of its influence in the countries of Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa. And none of them will say that the United States spent several orders of magnitude more money for these purposes than the USSR.
The war in Vietnam alone cost the United States $ 146 billion, we - $ 1579 million, that is, the United States spent more than 90 times more money on the Vietnam War than the USSR. So, in all conflicts where we have to some extent opposed America.
The amounts of assistance rendered by the USA and the USSR to the third world countries are also incommensurable. Our expenses were comparatively small and, ultimately, were aimed at ensuring the safety of our people.
Passivity and inactivity lead to large and meaningless losses. And if the USSR with its mighty army sat and watched the United States crush the whole world under itself, then it would wait for an attack on our country not by a separate power, but by many countries of the world armed by America and brought up in the spirit of hatred of the Soviet Union.
With our inaction, dozens of countries would have fallen on the USSR and the victims of the Russian people would have been measured in the millions. And it is absolutely clear and understandable to everyone who did not succumb to Western propaganda that the Soviet Union helped and even fought, first of all, for the preservation of our Russian, Soviet civilization, for the future of our children and grandchildren. For saving their lives. And it is rightly said: "Only he is worthy of life and freedom, who every day goes to fight for them." When we stopped fighting for our lives and freedom and surrendered to America, we immediately found ourselves divided and dying out. And they died out for twenty years. But even the beginning of a small struggle for the interests of his country immediately stopped the extinction of the nation.
Therefore, it can be argued that the SALT and ABM treaties with the United States, which Leonid Brezhnev signed in the 1970s, caused damage to the USSR. At the same time, it should be noted that those who consider the active foreign policy pursued under Leonid Brezhnev, when we helped other countries in their fight against the aggressive actions of Western countries, are deeply mistaken. These were active actions in the name of the security of our Motherland.
