But for us, as for all to whom peace and security of the peoples are dear, there has not been and cannot be any compromise at the expense of the peace and security of the peoples. The longer the German Federal Republic leaders hang on to revanchist doctrines, the stronger will be the rebuff by the Soviet Union and all the European peoples.

Facts show that the military threat which today stems from German imperialism is an indisputable reality. In the past 10 years the German Federal Republic has created one of the largest armies in West Europe, numbering almost half a million troops, and a sufficient quantity of command cadres to enable numerous armed forces to be mobilized in a short period, as was done on the eve of World War II.

The West German imperalists, of course, do not have the power to achieve their revanchist aims. The Soviet Union and other socialist countries have sufficient military might to strike a crushing blow at an aggressor who would dare start a war. But the revanchists could plunge the European countries, and eventually the whole world, into the horrors of another war, and this danger must be clearly recognized. The military presence of the United States in Europe encourages West German militarism and increases the threat to peace in Europe. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops on European soil, U.S. military bases, U.S. aircraft carriers and atomic submarines patrolling the seas around the continent, U.S. bombers flying in European skies with their nuclear loads-all this creates a constant threat to the security of the peoples of Europe.

The basic instrument of U.S. policy in Europe has been and still is the NATO bloc. From the beginning, this pact has been maintained on the artificially fabricated myth of "the danger of communist aggression," of the "threat from the East." The peace-loving policy of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, the entire course of events in Europe and throughout the world, have destroyed this myth. All can now see that "the hand of Moscow," with which imperialist propaganda has slanderously frightened the peoples, has been holding and still firmly holds the banner of peace, peaceful coexistence, and friendship among peoples.

More favorable conditions are now being created for making the situation in Europe healthier and for arranging mutually profitable cooperation between European states. And this means that more favorable conditions have also been created for the activities of communist parties, for the unity of all forces favoring general peace and security in Europe. This is our mutual success, comrades.

In this situation, the peoples of the NATO member countries and their governments face with particular acuteness the question: In whose name does this bloc exist, and what price is being paid for participation in it?

During the period of NATO's existence, the European states belonging to this bloc have spent over 300 billion dollars on military preparations. These expenses strike painfully at the interests of the working people, slow down economic development, and retard the progress of science and culture.

Taking advantage of the situation, the United States has taken many talented scientists out of Europe. In many countries this phenomenon has been aptly termed "the brain drain."

We do not hide the fact that the buildup of military efforts by the NATO countries forces the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries to raise their level of military preparedness and to devote considerable sums to defense needs.

U.S. influence on politics, economic developments and the armed forces of several West European countries, the penetration of “Americanism" into every pore of social, scientific, and cultural life, becomes increasingly intolerable to all who cherish national dignity and the interests of peace.

The West European peoples are not willing to put up forever with using large areas of their territory to quarter U.S. expeditionary forces. Even certain monopolistic circles, making an effort to compete with their rivals across the ocean, find the military, economic, and political presence of the United States in West Europe, now extending into the third decade, a burden. The solution of European problems without the interference of the power across the ocean, by the efforts and commonsense of the Europeans themselves-this demand finds ever more supporters throughout Europe.

In the past few years, plans for the so-called "modernization" of NATO have been urgently proposed, artificial arguments have been raked up to save this "holy alliance" of U.S. and European reaction at any price. This even went as far as to assert that NATO is capable of playing a positive role in developing contacts between West and East. It is difficult to conceive a more absurd argument!

This organization, specially created to battle the socialist countries, which has forced on its members thousands of bans and limitations of every kind on the development of economic and trade relations with the socialist states, is called upon, it now appears, to be the instrument of peaceful relations and cooperation between West and East. Who will believe this?

Experience shows that the process of expanding political, tradeeconomic, and cultural relations between the European socialist and capitalist countries proceeds faster when our Western partners put their national interests first and act directly contrary to the recommendations of the NATO Council, ignoring the discriminatory measures it has introduced in relations with the socialist countries.

In these conditions, comrades, communists consider it their duty to propose to the peoples and governments of Europe such constructive measures as, in our view, can lead to the removal of the threat of war, radically improve the situation on the European continent, and pave the road to the development of broad mutually profitable cooperation between states.

III. THE WAY TO SECURITY IN EUROPE

In the present international situation, there are real possibilities for implementing these measures. We are convinced that a Europe can and must be created in which security for each state and each people would at the same time be security for all. Our conviction in this rests not only on an understanding of the deepest desires of the European people, but also on a realistic evaluation of the forces opposing the policy of military adventures and preparations for aggression.

The community of socialist states is a very important factor in postwar Europe. The strength of their foreign policy rests on the fact that its basic aims coincide with the vital interests of the broad popular masses of all the countries of our continent.

As is known, at their conference in Bucharest the socialist Warsaw Pact countries proposed a program for security and peaceful cooperation in Europe. This program finds more and more supporters in Europe and elsewhere.

In particular, the Warsaw Pact countries put on the agenda the idea of convoking an all-European conference of states to discuss questions of insuring security in Europe and of arranging all-European cooperation. This proposal has found a positive response from many West European states.

The central question of European security is the inviolability of the frontiers of the European countries in the form established as a result of, and after, World War II. Any attempt to break up these frontiers would cause countless suffering for the peoples. This is also true of the German Federal Republic's frontiers in east and west, north and south. A very important prerequisite for security in Europe is recognition of the existence of two German states with different social systems. The shortsighted policy of "nonrecognition" of the GDR, which in effect serves only the interests of the West German revanchists, conflicts irreconcilably with European reality and serves as a serious source of international tension. The GDR has been living and flourishing for almost two decades, and the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries of Europe consider the strengthening of the GDR's international position as an important aim of their policy.

In the age of the atom and rockets, new problems have arisen connected with insuring European security. The people of Europe can well imagine what the appearance of nuclear weapons would mean in the hands of a state advocating the revision of European frontiers. Therefore, the inadmissability of further proliferation of nuclear weapons is not only a general world problem but also one of the key questions of European security.

Negotiations are now in progress to conclude an international treaty on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons. The Soviet Union and the other socialist countries are striving to successfully conclude this work to have a nonproliferation treaty open for signing by all states of the world.

In weighing the possibilities opened up by the development of events in Europe, we cannot ignore the fact that in two years the governments of the NATO countries will have to decide whether NATO is to be extended or not. In our opinion, it is quite correct that communists and all progressive forces should try to use this circumstance to develop still more widely the struggle against the preservation of this aggressive bloc.

Some time ago, the socialist countries of Europe were forced to set up the Warsaw Pact to strengthen their security in response to the creation of NATO. This organization, which is not purely military, being also a political alliance of some of the socialist states, has fulfilled its role successfully for many years now. The aggressive tendencies of West German imperialists and their U.S. sponsors force us to be constantly concerned with the strengthening of the allround cooperation of the Warsaw Pact countries. At the same time,

the socialist countries have never favored the division of Europe into military blocs. We propose an alternative to this policy. At the conference in Bucharest the participants declared once again that, in the event NATO ceased its operations, the Warsaw Pact would no longer have a purpose to serve and that their place should be taken by a system of European security. Noting that the governments of the NATO countries are thus far not prepared for such a radical solution, the participants of the Bucharest conference made a new proposal: Let us agree now to liquidate the military organizations of these groups.

For several countries, including those of northern Europe, neutrality could be an alternative to participation in military-political groupings of powers. The CPSU thinks that much depends on the initiative of the neutral states and on their good services in the cause of strengthening European peace. The Soviet Union would be ready to welcome initiatives serving this end.

Overcoming the division of the world and Europe into military blocs or alliances is part of the general struggle of the peoples to limit and completely end the arms race, to check militarism, and to clean the political atmosphere in Europe and throughout the world. From this point of view, there would be considerable significance in partial measures to reduce military tension in Europe, from the establishment of nuclear-free zones in separate regions of the continent to the liquidation of foreign military bases.

There is no justification whatever for the constant presence of the U.S. fleet in waters washing the shores of southern Europe. One would like to ask: What are the grounds, 20 years after the end of World War II, for the U.S. Sixth Fleet to cruise the Mediterranean and to use military bases, ports, and supply bases in a number of Mediterranean countries? This poses a serious threat to the independence of all coastal countries. The time has come to demand the complete withdrawal of the U.S. Sixth Fleet from the Mediterranean.

In Europe there are not only the U.S. military bases but also bases of a different kind. They are the subversive espionage and sabotage centers, the broadcasting stations, and various organizations which have been created by the Americans in the German Federal Republic and other West European countries and which engage in slanderous propaganda directed against the socialist countries. The time has come to question the activities of all venomous breeding grounds on European soil which poison relations. The development of bilateral relations between European nations could be an important prerequisite for the strengthening of European security. The present trend toward a détente in Europe is very much the result of the improvement of bilateral relations between East and West European countries.

As for the Soviet Union, our policy in the future will aim, as before, at the development of mutually advantageous relations with the capitalist countries of Europe on the basis of the principles of peaceful coexistence, in the interests of a durable peace and the security of peoples. The Soviet Union is ready to exchange opinions on the preparation of bilateral agreements and treaties with the governments of the European countries which, on their part, wish to develop their relations with our country.

There is yet another important and promising trend in the efforts of European peoples and states which has a direct bearing on the solution

of tasks of consolidating European peace. This is cooperation in the field of economy, science and technology, as well as culture, on both a bilateral and an all-European basis.

The foundations for this have already been laid. It is our opinion, however, that this is only the beginning. The developing scientific and technological revolution, the increasing efforts to consolidate national independence and liberation from the dollar diktat, suggest to the European states many ways and projects in a great variety of fields-from the construction of a gas pipeline crossing the continent to the introduction of a unified color television system for all Europe. The field of the peaceful use of atomic energy also arouses interest in many countries. We are willing to agree with other European countries on cooperation in conducting nuclear research and the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes. The realization of this proposal will make it possible for states which relinquished their right to the manufacture and acquisition of nuclear weapons to participate in all the advantages offered mankind by the peaceful energy from the split atom.

Another important field for cooperation on an all-European basis is the joint work on such problems as the purification of European rivers and seas, the unification of efforts of countries in the struggle against such diseases as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and so on.

Each European nation has made its contribution to the treasurehouse of world culture. Each of the European countries has its own history, its own national characteristic features. We communists have been called upon to devote our revolutionary energy to the cause of the struggle for the preservation of the cultural heritage of European peoples, for the further development of Europe-one of the most important centers of world civilization, history, and social progress. IV. THE PEOPLES-DECISIVE FORCE IN THE STRUGGLE FOR EUROPEAN SECURITY

Comrades! In matters of war and peace, as in many other matters, the interests of the peoples of West and East Europe are identical. The "watershed" here does not follow the geographical boundaries and does not even follow the boundary between the social systems; it follows the boundary between the broad masses of the people striving for the security of their continent, a durable peace, on the one hand, and the narrow "war party" seeking support from the forces beyond the ocean which are alien to Europe, on the other. There are no reasonable considerations against all European countries uniting their efforts to strengthen peace and support a united front for their most vital interests. The wider and the stronger this front, the sooner the demons of war will be curbed.

Of course, our friends in the capitalist countries know best which measures in particular should be taken to carry out unified actions by the various peace-loving forces in their countries. For our part, we are willing to further the solution of this important task.

In this connection, I would like to dwell on an important problem, the unity of the working class. Europe is the cradle of the organized workers movement. It was here that its fighting tradition of struggle against militarism, against aggression, and for peaceful relations between peoples was forged in fierce class combat.