Item COLD WAR 28/74 - Transcript of interview with diplomat Viktor Israelyan, [1997]

Typescript transcript of interview with Viktor Levonovich Israelyan, Soviet Ambassador to the Geneva Conference on Disarmament, Switzerland, 1979-1987, and author of Inside the Kremlin during the Yom Kippur War (Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA, 1995), relating to the policy of détente between the USA and the USSR, 1969-1975 and prevention of a superpower conflict in the Middle East, 1973; Soviet economic, ideological and military aid to Third World countries, [1965-1973]; the competition for influence in Third World countries between the USA, the USSR and the People's Republic of China, [1965-1980]; the Chinese criticism of the Soviet military involvement in Afghanistan, Dec 1979-1989; the strategic importance for the Soviets to maintain influence in the Middle East, [1965-1973]; speculation on the Egyptian desire to become a member of the Warsaw Pact, the Warsaw Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation, and Mutual Assistance, [1957]; the decline in Soviet influence in the Middle East following the Six Day War, 1967; the supply of Soviet arms to Egypt and Syria, 1970-1973; the exchange of messages between US President Richard Milhous Nixon and Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, during the Yom Kippur War, Oct 1973; speculation on the Soviet threat to deploy Red Army units to Egypt during the Six Day War, Jun 1967; the Soviet opposition to Arab involvement in the Yom Kippur War against Israel, Oct 1973; the reaction in the USSR of the expulsion, by Muhammad Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, of all Soviet military advisers from Egypt, 1972; the Soviet belief that Egypt and Syria would not start a war against Israel, Oct 1973; the reaction of Brezhnev, and Andrei Andreevich Gromyko, Soviet Foreign Minister, to the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, 6 Oct 1973; the Soviet attempts to arrange an early ceasefire during the Yom Kippur War, Oct 1973; the Soviet reaction to US arms deliveries to Israel, Oct 1973; the joint aims of the USSR and USA during the Yom Kippur War, to contain the conflict within the Middle East, 1973; the visit by Dr Henry Alfred Kissinger, US Secretary of State, to Moscow, USSR, to discuss the Middle East crisis with Brezhnev, 20-21 Oct 1973; the Middle East ceasefire terms agreed by Kissinger and Gromyko, Moscow, USSR, 22 Oct 1973; the Soviet reaction to the breaking of the ceasefire by Israel, 22-23 Oct 1973; speculation on the creation of a joint US-Soviet peacekeeping force for the Middle East, 1973; the placement of the US armed forces on DefCon 3 (Defense Condition, Level 3), a heightened status of readiness for a possible nuclear conflict, during the Middle East crisis, 1973; the Soviet response to the US DefCon 3 status and the risk of a nuclear confrontation between the superpowers, 1973; Israelyan's belief that the Yom Kippur War ended the policy of détente between the USA and the USSR, 1973. 21pp