Word: options
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Although the Soviets expressed their opposition to this proposal almost immediately, its pronouncement served several useful purposes to the administration's foreign policy, especially as the two countries resume arms control talks this week in Geneva. The most immediate effect of the "zero-option" was to provide German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt with ammunition to use against Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. Brezhnev went to Bonn last week with the unambiguous goal of exploiting policy differences between West Germany--the linchpin of the U.S. NATO alliance--and the U.S. Reagan's proposal gave Schmidt the opportunity to reaffirm the common desire...
Prominent among the agenda items was the proposal to rid Europe of all nuclear missiles--the so-called "zero-option." Under this concept. Washington would forego the planned deployment of 572 Pershing II and cruise missiles in Western Europe in return for Moscow's dismantling of its SS20s, SS5s and SS4s, which are now targeted on Western European cities...
...seemed to have contradicted the European plan by emphasizing rearmament rather than disarmament. Statements by administration officials on the possibility of "limited" nuclear wars in Europe horrified NATO leaders, who questioned the deployment of more American missiles on their soil while the U.S. had ostensibly abandoned detented. The "zero-option" provided welcome relief to these leaders by identifying the Americans as compromising and reasonable after...
Finally the "Zero-option" effectively vitiates the Soviets propagand which had effectively focused world administration's military build up program and loose talk in Washington about tactical nuclear wars in Europe. Reagan's offer for a joint reduction of nuclear weapons threw the Soviets off-balance while the U.S. seized the arms control initiative...
...SOVIET TALKS on theater nuclear forces in Geneva will show whether the usefulness of the "zero-option" ends with a face-lift of the American image or whether it will provide the basis for serious talks on the reduction of mid-range nuclear missiles in Europe. Brezhnev's offer of a freeze on missile production and deployment during negotiations will probably harden U.S. resolve to stick to its guns at the talks. Mindful of the Carter administration's disastrous bargaining attempts, the Reagan administration is steadfastly determined not to follow suit. Last week, administration officials acted quickly to hush...