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From: renner@uiucdcs.UUCP (renner )
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Re: Do Russians ALWAYS lie? - (nf)
Message-ID: <6580@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 3-Apr-84 22:28:34 EST
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.6580
Posted: Tue Apr  3 22:28:34 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Apr-84 01:34:43 EST
Lines: 26

#R:dciem:-81800:uiucdcs:36200122:000:1115
uiucdcs!renner    Apr  3 11:13:00 1984

>> Has anyone read or heard the official soviet response/opinion of
>> the collision?  Not that it bears any resemblance to reality, I
>> am just curious as to what it was.

>  With this kind of unthinking expectation that the Soviets must always
>  lie, how can we ever expect to achieve the kind of mutual trust needed
>  to avoid the nuclear winter? Wasn't there once something called "the
>  credibility gap"? Didn't it refer to the US government's statements?
>  					-- Martin Taylor

Soviet government statements have no correlation with reality.  It is
not that they *always* lie; they will tell the truth when it suits
them.  But if it serves their purposes to lie, then they will lie.
There is ample evidence for anyone willing to look:  KAL Flight 007 and
Andropov's "cold" are only the most recent examples.

As concerns mutual trust:  if the Soviets want our trust in their
words, they will have to earn it.  Their words are useful only for the
insight they may provide into the workings of the Soviet government; as
information, their words are only noise.

Scott Renner
{ihnp4,pur-ee}!uiucdcs!renner