Kremlin leader makes stinging attack on U.S.

Press, 20 October 1980, Page 8

Kremlin leader makes stinging attack on U.S.

NZPA-Reuter Moscow i The Soviet leader. Presi jdent Leonid Brezhnev, ha: j surprised many Western dip i lomats with a stinging attad (on the United States, inchid I, ing both Democrats and Re ' I publicans, in terms reminis • cent of the pre-detente era. ‘: Speaking at 3 Moscow ! banquet, the 73-year-ol< Kremlin leader said tha ': what be called American im “'periaiism was “clearly set j ting off along the road of : '! new cold war and threaten • i ing the peace and securitj jof all peoples.” i Using language he ha: 1: generally avoided in public IMr Brezhnev said that “fe .iverish military preparations ' and unbridled propaganda i or what could even be callee j eulogising, of nuclear war’ • had reached an unpreceI dented level in the United | State's. He said that many offi- ‘ cials of the Administration, “including the very highest,” and leaders of both main parties as well as the news media had joined a “dirty campaign” in \vhich, “with astounding cynicism, thej' spoke of nuclear war as something- normal and even desirable,” “A srrearn of provocative inventions and vicious calumny against the socialist countries, and particularly t..; Soviet Union, has literally swept the United States and is flooding, out from there in all directions,” Mr Brezhnev said. The phrasing of his remarks, delivered at a dinner for the visiting Afghan- President (Mr Babrak Karmal), represented a sharp increase in antiUnited States polemic compared with other speeches he has made in the past month, While similar charges have been voiced by Soviet press and television commentators, Mr. Brezhnev has preferred to maintain a measured tone. suggesting that he was speaking more in sorrow than in anger.

Last week he told a visiting United States industrialist, Armand Hammer, that the Carter Administration was seeking to achieve military superiority over the Soviet Union by whipping up the arm’s race and

.v- through other actions in ;various regions of the world. i-; At the same time, accordsling to Dr Hammer but. not >-jthe official Soviet account. k;he also .said he had-“warm 1- feelings and a high regard” t-[for President Carter. >•[ Tire latest speech coinicides with talks in Geneva v;between Soviet and Ameriu can delegations on limiting it the deployment of mediumi- range missiles in Europe, i-' the first important negotiaa tions of this type between i-. the two powers for over a y i year. Some Western European s diplomats jn Moscow were ./struck by Mr Brezhnev’s :-! scarcely veiled warning that s| the leaders of the United 1.1 States and allied countries di could themselves quickly fall ’’victim of any East-West j -.conflict. ■ d The warning was linked! with the only reference in -Ithe speech to the coming! I. 1 United States elections ini ’(which Mr Brezhnev's imt ' plied message appeared to s be that Moscow saw little - difference between President !,! Carter and his Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan. J “Whatever the calcula- ’) tions of the moment or subjective intentions of indiviJ dual statesmen of the United "(States and its allies, the - j game they are playing is ex.jtremely dangerous — and I they could become its first J. victims,” the Kremlin leader ’said. .1 ■ American diplomats indi- i ;cated they were not unduly . disturbed by the speech, i /which they said echoed 1 :i remarks made to them in I ! I private discussions of rela- i i! tions between the two super-1 ; Powers over the last few . I months. ' '