Soviet military power, 1985, fourth edition.

• Author: Hirschfeld, Thomas

Every year the Reagan Pentagon issues a widely distributed, glossy volume called Soviet Military Power, which suggests where Soviet forces are in relation to ours, and, by inference, why we need more hardware to match them.

Although we could use a good East-West force comparison, this book misses the mark. Soviet Military Power fails because of distortions and irrelevancies and because it does not explain the significance of the facts and trends presented. Charts and graphs are often exaggerated and inconsistent with the text. Paradoxically, these distortions take the form of three favorite Soviet techniques--Gigantomania (bigger/more is better), socialist realism (treating the future as if it were already here), and selective comparison.

In the Gigantomania category, charts showing strategic missiles, space launch vehicles, and submarines are calibrated by height or length, characteristics that bear little relationship to system performance. Nevertheless, one is repeatedly left with the freudian impression that somehow their systems are always bigger than ours. This presumably leads to missile envy and to MX acquisition.

Most foolish is the book's treatment of the new typhoon class Soviet ballistic missile submarine, which is described as the world's largest, and one-third larger than our latest, the Ohio class Trident boat. You must look carefully at the text to discover that the Ohio is actually the far more capable craft, with solid-fueled missiles rather than liquid, four more missile tubes, and at least ten MIRVs per boat. In the Typhoon case, size is a...