THE AMERICAN CHALLENGE 49Moscow. They pointed to the possibility that the USSR might retaliate
by refusing to buy American farm produce.^31 Everyone knew that the
President wanted to keep his electoral support in the agricultural
states of the Midwest.
The USSR was constructing an enormous oil and gas pipeline
from Siberia to Europe, and this had caused tremors in Washington.
Mitterrand shared French intelligence reports about Soviet industrial
espionage. American technology was being stolen by the cartful. The
depth of the KGB’s penetration of America’s research programmes
and illicit purchases of Canadian computer equipment was deeply
disturbing, and the National Security Council decided to make the
Soviet leadership pay a heavy price. Rather than expose the spies, the
de cision was taken to deposit faulty technology on them. The pipeline
in Siberia was chosen as a prime target. As soon as the equipment was
installed in Siberia, the turbines, pumps and valves registered exces-
sive pressures and blew up the tubes. There was an explosion so large
that the North American Aerospace Defense Command initially
thought that Andropov had approved the launching of nuclear mis-
siles from a secret site. Only Reagan and a few of his officials knew
what had caused the disaster.^32 Once the damage was done, the CIA
and FBI rolled in and arrested dozens of agents known to be operating
on missions to steal technological secrets.^33
Reagan was an unashamed enemy of communism, and some-
times his exuberance got the better of him. One incident stuck in the
minds of many people. It occurred on 11 August 1983 as he was about
to deliver his weekly radio broadcast. While doing the microphone
check, he joked: ‘My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you that
today I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin
bombing in five minutes.’ The remark was relayed on the local sound
system. When leaked to American media, it caused controversy. To
Reagan’s detractors it appeared that he had blurted out his administra-
tion’s true purposes. The Politburo was outraged; the TASS news
agency issued angry bulletins. US State Department officials worked
overtime to allay American and foreign concern about what had come
from the lips of the President.
Throughout the year there were clashes in diplomacy and the
media between the USSR and America. None was more vituperative
than about the shooting down of a South Korean passenger airliner
over eastern Siberia. The plane had strayed into Soviet air space, and
the regional defence commanders treated it as an espionage mission