XV. Meeting of the PCC, Bucharest, 25-26 November 1976
Editorial Note 

The meeting was the first after the conclusion in August 1975 of the Helsinki Final Act that fulfilled the long-standing Soviet goal of convening the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Although Brezhnev professed gratification, the erosion of détente and uncertainty about where the "Helsinki process" might lead cast a shadow over the accomplishment. He described the situation as being marked by "sharp ideological struggle concerning the substance and perspectives of the process of international détente".

Rather than to celebrate, the participants discussed how best to contain undesirable trends that had been set in motion by the Helsinki agreement, such as the "stir about human contacts," or potentially disruptive repercussions of closer economic relations with the West.

In view of the uncertain effects of the Helsinki agreement, the GDR tried to strengthen its relationship with the Warsaw Pact by proposing to delete the clause in the 1955 Warsaw Treaty that freed East Germany from its obligation to remain a member of the alliance in the event Germany were reunified. The proposal was not acted upon.

Brezhnev expressed concern that the East was falling behind the West in propaganda - a traditional communist forte. In an attempt to block Spain's entry into NATO, the PCC issued an ineffectual statement professing a readiness to disband the Warsaw Pact if NATO disbanded itself as well.

Noting that the European Economic Community and NATO had overcome their recent crises, Brezhnev urged pressing for an agreement against the first use of nuclear weapons- an agreement which, if concluded, would have undermined the foundation on which NATO's concept of deterrence and hence its cohesion were widely believed to be resting.

Amid signs of nervousness about technological advances in NATO's conventional armaments and its organizational improvements, the PCC approved the report by supreme commander Marshal Iakubovskii, read because of his terminal illness by Gen. Gribkov, calling for the equipment of special forces with new kinds of conventional weapons.

For closer foreign policy coordination, the PCC approved the creation of a Warsaw Pact committee of ministers of foreign affairs, planned since the mid-1960s despite strenuous opposition by Romania.

 

Vojtech Mastny