Speech at the Committee of Ministers of Defense
Meeting in Moscow, July 7, 1988
Gorbachev's previously unpublished speeches at Warsaw Pact meetings, such as this one before a gathering of defense ministers, offer an enlightening glimpse of the behind- the-scenes context in which events during this period were taking place, and provide new evidence on Soviet leadership thinking. In this address, Gorbachev outlines his vision of a Warsaw Pact with significant differences from what the organization was before. One of the key new features he foresees is that each member-state will be "inde- pendently active." In effect, he is allowing other members to follow their own policies. But, contrary to the belief held by many in the West in later years that he was actively encouraging reform, he was not. As this speech and other documents demonstrate, he was largely indifferent about it. His main interest was to disengage the Soviet Union from excessively burdensome obligations in Eastern Europe.
Cde. Gorbachev "…" emphasized that the work of the committee testifies to the increased activity of the Warsaw Treaty. After the Committee of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, the Committee of the Ministers of Defense is now also proving how the alliance has entered a stage of quite some dynamics. This is good, and it is all right that the alliance has agreed to become more active in all directions. This has proved successful since it guarantees the best option for our decision-making.
"…"
Each party is responsible for its own affairs and fulfills its tasks on its own. There will be no toleration of attempts not to respect each other, or to interfere with the domestic matters of others.
We now have a new situation. During the last three years we faced many problems, which we can only solve by way of exchanging opinions.
Our parties inform each other about their most important projects. Altogether we can testify that a new level of cooperation has been reached.
"…"
I received documents from the United States proving that the United States is not afraid of weapons. They know that we can mutually destroy each other. However, they are afraid that the Soviet Union could achieve a new quality by means of a restructuring "perestroika" of society. Therefore they will do everything to continue the arms race.
In Toronto, Reagan and Kohl have expressed the opinion that the old means of fighting socialism will no longer be appropriate in the future. Cde. Kessler knows this very well since the GDR is following this development very closely.
Now they try to discredit us by discussing environmental problems. The adversary wants to divide our society in order to thwart perestroika.
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