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To make matters worse, Gromyko and his colleagues now look out over the Kremlin's medieval battlements at an increasingly hostile and threatening world. Rebellious Poland has barely been pacified. China is experimenting with economic reforms that are anathema to true Marxist-Leninists, and has made diplomatic overtures to the U.S. and Japan. No end is in sight to the war in Afghanistan. The Islamic fundamentalist regime of Iran's Ayatullah Khomeini is almost as hostile to the Soviet Union as to the U.S. Cuba, which has advanced Soviet aims in the Caribbean and Africa, was humiliated by the successful U.S. invasion of Grenada, and it now seems possible that Cuban troops may leave Angola as part of a broader peace agreement in southern Africa. "It illustrates that despite a great power's strength there are limits to what you can do with military force," says William Hyland, a former Kissinger aide who is now editor of Foreign Affairs. "This is frustrating to a country that arrived to full superpower status in the '70s."
At home, mounting economic troubles are straining Soviet resources. A younger generation enamored of things Western, from rock music and blue jeans to U.S. Army fatigues, is alienated from an increasingly xenophobic leadership. Says a senior European diplomat: "Frustration and uncertainty seem to dominate the Kremlin mood. The current collective leadership cannot point to a single success in the present, and the future can only make them uneasy."
No setback has rankled the Kremlin more than the failure of the Soviet propaganda campaign against the deployment of NATO missiles in Europe. On the eve of West Germany's 1983 elections, Gromyko tried to strengthen the peace movement and swing the electorate against Chancellor Helmut Kohl, whose conservative party supported the Alliance's plan. In a statement in Pravda, the Soviet Foreign Minister condescendingly told Europeans that rejecting the NATO missiles would be an "indication of political maturity." The strategy misfired badly, and Gromyko's threats may actually have helped Kohl's coalition win a parliamentary majority. The huge peace offensive that was expected to produce violent antimissile demonstrations last fall in Europe never materialized. In a further setback, the missile decision won support from the government of French President Frangois Mitterrand, which includes four Communist ministers. Last November giant U.S. C-141 StarLifter and C-5 Galaxy transports delivered the first new weapons to their bases in Britain and West Germany.
The failure to prevent NATO's deployment came as a major blow to Soviet prestige. With their bullying tactics, moreover, the Soviets have put themselves in a position from which they will have difficulty recovering without serious loss of face. In a system where longevity is a virtue and innovation an ever present danger, substantive changes in policy do not come easily. Thus the present period of tension could last for some time. Says former Secretary of State Vance: "We're in for a long, cool, difficult period that will extend beyond the fall elections."