In Search of Victory part-14

 22nd February 1978,

Dear Diary,

                     I, Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union am extremely hopeful for the upcoming years. I remember my days in prison for conspiring against Khrushchev and later after I was released, how I seized power after his death in 1976. In fact, Khrushchev's death had created a leadership void in the Communist party leaving only me and Yuri Andropov as likely candidates. I conspired against Yuri and this time my conspiracy was successful.

    My tenure has been marked by a string of foreign policy successes. I have promoted the policy of détente with the US and signed arms control agreements with them which has made us reach nuclear parity with the US while simultaneously I have increased military spending and have extended my support to Communist regimes and have extended my support to Communist regimes and guerilla outfits worldwide. I have strengthened the Warsaw pact in Eastern Europe by pulling off a coup in Poland and installing nuclear weapons in Bulgaria. While our hold of Latin America has increased with the arrival of the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. The weak President Jimmy Carter because of his quest for human rights has failed to support the military juntas in Chile, Bolivia and Paraguay because of which I have supported the invasion of Bolivia by Communist Brazil.

    In Asia, I have strengthened my alliance with India by helping in its nuclear weapons programme and making that country one of the dominant countries in South Asia. In fact, strengthening relations with India is a foreign policy priority for me as it forms an important chain in the supply line to the guerillas in South East Asia. India also because of its strategic location serves as our main pivot to Asia and is in a position to control the waterway of the Indian Ocean. We also need India to cooperate in our upcoming intervention in Afghanistan and therefore our partnership with the country is extremely important in the upcoming decade.

    In South East Asia, I also believe we have made major gains. We have successfully supported Vietnam when it was invaded by China and have been able to thwart the invasion. Vietnam and Cambodia have also successfully collaborated with the newly communist Malayasia to create an anti-US nexus in the South China Sea which is a major foreign policy success for us. Therefore I can say that although the proponent of the policy of détente was the US, it is the Soviet Union which has been successful through it. Long live the Soviet Union!