International records / Foreign Relations of the United States

260. Paper Prepared in the Central Intelligence Agency

East war have obviously not made the Russians any the less ready to use military aid as an instrument of political influence. To this end, the USSR is evidently fully prepared, where opportunity arises and where geography permits, as in the case of Nigeria and the Yemen, to call on its capacity to provide military aid promptly and in quantity. Despite their reluctance to make extended commitments, the Soviet leaders are almost certainly convinced that, as a great power, the USSR has a legitimate interest in practically all areas of the world and a political need to assert that interest. [Here …