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The Soviets were spreading their influence into Aghanistan, and acting as patrons of Iraq, which was reasonably considered to be a threat to Middle Eastern oil. They were also expanding in the Caribbean and Central America. But most importantly, they were making substantial in- roads in Europe, encouraging a huge neutralist movement, and eroding our defensive posture. You must understand that the Warsaw Pact was in an offensive posture in Europe, and NATO conventional forces were pretty minimal, on balance. We beat them on technology and readiness, and we also had the existential threat of "plausible escalation". Thus, if they threatened us with theater nukes, we had theater nukes to retaliate, which was more credible than supposing that we would authorize a full strike. Anyway, it was necessary to counter the strategic erosion in other parts of the world, and specifically to counter neutralism and show that we could maintain the credibility of our defense commitments, for example by placing the SS- 20s. Finally, the overall strategy was to put pressure on the Soviet Union, through the technological threat of the Strategic Defense Initiative, to force real change in the regime, as finally occurred..... |
