East German boss warns of Soviet arms responses
August 25, 1983
East Berlin
East Germany said Soviet-bloc countermeasures to NATO's planned missile deployment would include placing cruise missiles and longer-range rockets in Warsaw Pact states.
Erich Honecker, East German head of state, told West German Social Democratic arms-control expert Egon Bahr that the NATO plan for new nuclear weapons in West Europe would mean ''inevitable countermeasures'' by the Soviet Union.
The statement appeared to be the first detailed expansion of a warning issued by Moscow in May that in response to the NATO plan new weapons could be stationed in its Eastern Europe allies.