TOWARDS GLOBAL PEACE

If the policy of headlong confrontation has become such a costly procedure that even the superpowers can no longer afford it, it should be obvious that the smaller nations are even less well-equipped to pursue so ultimately destructive a course. Towards Realism While Nikita Khrushchev was First Secretary of the Central Communist Party of the USSR (1958-1964), he made known his, and his countrymen’s feelings towards the capitalist world when he uttered his now wellknown threat: “We will bury you.” (Hindustan Times, June 28, 1988) In the same vein, American President Ronald Reagan dubbed the Soviet Union an ‘evil empire’ and American officials boasted that they would push the Soviet Union into the sea. However, in spite of these periodic, aggressive face-offs, and after 70 years of socialist revolution, the countries of both blocs at last saw a change of outlook as an overwhelming imperative, and American leaders began visiting Moscow for negotiations. Ronald Reagan himself visited Moscow from June 28 to July 2, 1988, despite his previous view that such a visit was out of the question. Before his visit, he went on record as saying that US relations with Moscow “must be guided by realism”. (Hindustan Times, May 26, 1988) The arms race had been going on between the two countries for decades. While both countries had been going all out to make the deadliest weapons in history with the avowed intention of destroying one another, today they are themselves placing curbs upon their own manufacture and acquisition of weapons, and are even destroying certain categories of weapons which are already major items in their respective stockpiles. The Times of India of August 3, 1988 reported that the Soviet Union destroyed four shorter range missiles, OTR-22, at the test range in Saryozek, 200 km north-west of Alma Ata. The dismantling was carried out in accordance with the INF treaty signed between Mr Mikhail Gorbachev and President Reagan. The missiles were destroyed in the presence of a US inspection team. Representatives from various countries, including India, and other international nongovernment organization were also present. The Soviets planned to dismantle 1752 deployed and stored missiles, having a range of 500 km to 5500 km, in three years. The US planned to eliminate 859 such missiles.