The World - News from July 12, 1988

Marshal Sergei F. Akhromeyev, chief of the Soviet General Staff, promised “changes” in Soviet military doctrine to make Moscow’s strategy for non-nuclear war in Europe “purely defensive.” On the final day of a six-day U.S. tour to several key U.S. military bases, Akhromeyev told reporters at the Pentagon that the “restructuring” campaign that Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev has launched will force changes in Soviet military units and in exercises, making them less threatening to Western sensibilities. In response, Akhromeyev’s host, Adm. William J. Crowe Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said: “The marshal told me to keep watching and to watch very closely” for the promised changes, “and I intend to do that.”