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Document No. 115: Minutes of the Political Consultative Committee Party Secretaries’ Meeting in Budapest, June 11, 1986 ——————————————————————————————————————————— This East German document records a revealing discussion among Warsaw Pact party secretaries on the question of disarmament. Taking place within weeks of the April 26 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, it shows how that accident influenced Soviet and East European perceptions of what a nuclear war in Europe might look like. As Polish leader Wojciech Jaruzelski put it, “No one should have the idea that in a nuclear war one could enjoy a cup of coffee in Paris five or six days later.” The document also shows that the Soviet Union was pursuing across-the-board nuclear and conventional force reductions although the Warsaw Pact would remain better off than NATO. During this period, Gorbachev is still arguing for maintaining an advantage over the capitalist enemy with whom he sees no common interests other than in preventing war. ____________________ Comrade János Kádár opened the meeting. He welcomed the participants and expressed his satisfaction over the successful completion of the meeting of the PCC. The leading comrades of the fraternal parties had gathered to continue a practice already started in Sofia, namely to meet for comradely and casual discussion among leaders of delegations of the fraternal countries of the Warsaw Treaty. […] These meetings proved to be a very useful form of collaboration. They will become an extremely important part of future concrete cooperation. Meetings in this circle are rather recent, although they had occurred previously. […] As had already been agreed in Sofia, each comrade can contribute the issues he is concerned about. […] Comrade Mikhail Gorbachev expressed his deep satisfaction over the results of the meeting concerning the speech by Comrade Ceaușescu at the meeting of the PCC. […] Comrade Gorbachev agreed with Comrades Ceaușescu and Kádár at the meeting of the PCC and highly valued the atmosphere at the meeting in the name of the Soviet delegation. […] He also agreed that cooperation is going well. […] Comrade Gorbachev stressed that the Soviet Union is currently witnessing serious problems. […] Comrade Gorbachev informed extensively about the accident at the power plant in Chernobyl. […] One should not pretend that nothing happened, that everything would be under control. Very serious problems are still to be faced, the majority of which are new to the Soviet Union. 531 […] It was like war. People were evacuated, families were separated and only slowly found their way back to each other. All this was extraordinarily serious. The situation and its impact must not be played down in any way. The tragedy of Chernobyl is closely related to the issue of disarmament. Medical experts all over the world clearly state that there would be no medical help in case of a nuclear war. Soviet and American physicians agree on this. […] Comrade Gorbachev provided information on the recent meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union. Such a consultative meeting took place for the first time in the history of Soviet diplomacy. It was realized that stronger control by the party would be needed in this field. Above all, a more specific orientation was necessary and a stronger party spirit needed to be infused. He himself has given a two-and-a-half hour presentation. A thorough discussion took place in an open atmosphere . Many issues had been raised concerning all areas of Soviet foreign policy. The main problem was the existence of a lot of laziness and old thinking [and] that Soviet diplomacy did not sufficiently respond to the challenge of current dynamic developments . The work of the foreign policy apparatus was not up to date with regard to its approach, analysis, and reaction to many events. However, the comrades also criticized many aspects of the work being done at headquarters, which is also contributing to the situation. In short, it was decided to modernize this area as well, and to fully adjust to the challenge of internal and international developments. Comrade Gorbachev also stressed the issue of perfecting cooperation within the socialist community with respect to the realities of today’s world. The focus of this segment was on concretely shaping the increasingly close cooperation of the socialist countries. According to him, there was a major need for common action, for more active contributions by the socialist countries towards the general line and tactics of foreign policy. Based on a coordinated policy this includes a certain division of labor. He...

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