"Since by its actions the United States has torpedoed the possibility of reaching a mutually acceptable accord at the talks on questions of limiting nuclear arms in Europe ... the Soviet Union considers its further participation in these talks impossible."
Somber in tone and menacing in content, that announcement by Soviet Leader Yuri Andropov last week was far from unexpected.
Nonetheless, it marked a watershed of ominous dimensions for both the Soviet Union and the 16-member NATO alliance. Andropov's 1,500-word statement, delivered by the official Soviet news agency TASS, meant that Moscow had finally acknowledged the failure of its extended campaign to prevent the deployment by the U.S. and its allies of new Pershing II and cruise missiles in Western Europe. As a result of NATO's resolve, a long and frustrating interlude in the convoluted drama of the nuclear arms race was over. But by the same token, a door had swung open on new uncertainties for the process of arms control, with attendant risks for all the vitally interested players—and the world at large.
Last Thursday's announcement, made in Andropov's name on the 98th day since his disappearance from public view on Aug. 18, essentially formalized earlier threats. The Soviets were breaking off, at least for a while, the tenuous two-year dialogue between the superpowers aimed at limiting the spread of intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe. The actual walkout from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) talks had occurred the previous day at a 25-minute meeting in Geneva between Chief Soviet Arms Negotiator Yuli Kvitsinsky and his U.S. counterpart, Paul Nitze. Kvitsinsky had put the mildest face possible on the decision, saying only that the Soviets were "discontinuing the present round of talks" and would not be able to agree to a resumption date.
The Soviet walkout in Geneva had been virtually guaranteed 13 hours earlier in the West German capital of Bonn, where two days of tumultuous parliamentary debate had ended with a resounding affirmation of NATO's missile policy. While West German police struggled with antinuclear demonstrators in the streets outside, members of parliament voted 286 to 226 to accept a first shipment of nine Pershing II nuclear ballistic missiles on their soil. Within 24 hours of the decision, U.S. C-5 Galaxy transports had deposited the weapons at the Ramstein Air Base near Mannheim. From there, the Pershings were moved to the security-shrouded Mutlangen Army Base, home of the U.S. 56th Field Artillery Brigade, where the missiles will be ready for use by the end of the year.