Date: 1981-03-19
Speaker: ROBERT C. BYRD (democrat)
Chamber: S

Mr. President. in response to the Soviet Unions alarming buildup of strategic and conventional weaponry. the Reagan administration rightly has committed the United States to significant increases in defense spending over the coming years. I hasten to add. however. that I will reserve judgment on the administrations defense proposals until I have had the opportunity to ascertain whether or not they actually meet legitimate security needs. -.In any event. I share the deep concern of this administration over the present -Soviet strategic and conventional military capability. I support this Governments major policy decision to upgrade our own strategic and conventional military posture. However. I am somewhat unsettled by other aspects of the administrations national security policy. particularly the dubious claim that the Soviet Union has successfully expanded its sphere of intuence in the Third World. The facts just do not support this perception. I refer to two recent articles. one written by Joseph C. Harsch for the March 12. 1981. Christian Science Monitor and the other by John Kenneth Galbraith for the March 17. 1981. edition of the Washington Post. Mr. Harsch. in his article. noted: Since World War II. 15 countries have for a time been part of the Soviet power system and then broken away from it. The high point for Soviet World influence was in 1958 when both China and Indonesia were part of that system. There was a second high point around 1970 when Egypt. India. and Iraq were in the Soviet orbit. Since Egypt pulled out in 1972. India in 1977. and Iraq in 1978. the world range of Soviet influence has been at a minimum. At present that influence is less than at any time since the end of World War II. Moscow has not enjoyed any real "winning streak" since it lost China in 1900. Professor Galbraith further expands upon the Soviet decline by pointing out: One has only to recanture the past to see how great has been the fallone made greater by statesmen who ascribed more unity than ever. in fact existed. Russia and China have solit bitterly apart. one of the most formidable develorments of our time. Romania has developed an independent line that. on occasion. has involved overtures to Peking. Hungary has designed its own relatively liberal economic system. The case of Poland calls for no current comment. Albania has returned from an association with China to total ambiguity. Various of the Western Communist parties. and most notably that of Italy. have proclaimed their independence.... Today. out of an estimated 115 countries. those Third World nations which could be classified as legitimate client states of the Soviet Un!on include Libya. Afghanistan. Cuba. and South Yemen. Vietnam is using the Soviet Union to balance its traditional emnity toward China and to promote its own expansionist policies in Laos and Kampuchea. Syria has entered into a friendship treaty with the Soviet Union more as a means of obtaining modern military equipment than for any reason of -ideological compatibility. Ethiopia relies upon Soviet and Cuban advisers. and military equipment. to deal with rebellions in the Ogaden and Eritrean Provinces. Angola relies upon Cuban advisers. as well as Gulf Oil revenues. to maintain the MPLA in power. The Soviet Union has yet to convince the socalled Marxist government In Mozambique to accord it vital naval bases. My concern is that this administration has articulated an "us against them" policy as it applies to the Third World. In other words. if the countries of the developing world do not march to our tune. then obviously they are against us and "for them." Obviously. this policy is not based upon any historical perspective. Historically. In the postWorld War II era. the developing countries have. for the most part. marched to their own tune. Within the context of the balance of military power between the worlds two superpowers. I am concerned that the United States not be in a position of inferiority. By the same token. I think i is incumbent upon the administration to view the real world as it is and not through ideological blinders which could afford the Soviets opportunities presently denied them. I ask unanimous consent that the twc articles be printed in the RECORD. There being no objective. the articles were ordered to be printed in the RECORD. as follows: [From the Washington Post. Mar. 17. 19811