TNAG-0476-FCO40-541-Strength-of-garrison-in-Hong-Kong-1974 — Page 13

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II.

OBJECTIVES OF DEFENCE

Objectives

SECTET

5.

We maintain defence forces:-

(1)

(11)

(111)

(iv)

to preserve the security of the United Kingdom through

NATO's deterrence of external threats, political or

military;

as an ultimate safeguard against internal threat to the

security of the UK;

as a contribution to foreign policy and to help protect

our overseas interests;

to provide some insurance against failures of foreign or

domestic policy to solve problems by wholly peaceful means.

The Soviet Threat

6. The greatest threat to the security of the United Kingdom and

Western Europe is that posed by the Soviet Union. In spite of growing Soviet military strength, the Joint Intelligence Committee (A) (JIC(A)) do not see the Soviet Union launching a deliberate military attack in the West in the next five years (JIC(A) (74)17, at Annex A ).

This is not because the Russians have abandoned their traditional

willingness to support their policy objectives by the use or threat

of force, but because in the period under review United States

strategic nuclear forces are likely to provide credible and

effective deterrence. But in an era of nuclear parity Soviet

conventional superiority is likely to have serious political

implications for Western Europe.

7. The Soviet threat to Western Europe is essentially one of

politico-military pressure. In a period of detente which is

conceived by the Soviet leadership as a low-risk strategy to shift

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SECRET SECRET