Conference Discussion

Abstract

The sea is less central to Soviet strategic concerns than it is to ours. It may well be that when the war is over and Marshals Ustinov and Orgakov are drinking their victory vodkas in NATO’s headquarters in Brussels, the one will turn to the other and ask, ‘Oh, by the way, what happened at sea?’ Soviet leaders see the justification for naval activities solely in the contribution they make to the successful conduct of a land campaign. They will, therefore, stress the capacity to protect the Soviet Union from seaborne attack of all kinds, protect their forces from strategic strike, and attempt to interdict NATO’s maritime communications. To the extent that an advance into NATO’s northern region is a necessary prerequisite to such activities, we can expect it to be made.