On Jan. 1, 1981 the Soviet Union's Eleventh Five Year Plan (1981-85) began. An analysis of the new plan provides some insights into Soviet priorities and economic prospects for the next half-decade. The following are the plan's main goals: to allocate sufficient investment funds to ensure adequate growth of output in the industry, agriculture, transportation, energy, and other sectors; to raise consumer income sufficiently to provide needed incentives and increase consumer satisfaction; to meet security needs at home and abroad; and to import technology, grain and other goods needed to meet priority domestic goals.

The United States has charged that the Soviet Union is implicated in the use of chemical weapons in Afghanistan and of chemical and toxin weapons, including the toxin known as "Yellow Rain," in Laos and Kampuchea (Cambodia). These charges raise two significant sets of issues: First, issues surrounding the evidence that has been presented to show: (a) that such weapons have been used and (b) that the Soviet Union is implicated in this use. Second, issues connected with the implications of Soviet involvement, if proven, in chemical and toxin warfare.

A report by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), which "has undertaken a study of the presence of Soviets in space and their Salyut space stations, in order to provide Congress with an informed view of Soviet capabilities and intentions" (p. iii).