On Jan. 1, 1999, The Guardian of London reported on newly declassified British government documents from 1968. Among the documents was one based on an analysis by the Foreign Office joint intelligence committee, which the newspaper summarized as follows:

The Soviet Union had no intention of launching a military attack on the West at the height of the cold war, British military and intelligence chiefs privately believed, in stark contrast to what Western politicians and military leaders were saying in public about the "Soviet threat". "The Soviet Union will not deliberately start general war or even limited war in Europe," a briefing for the British chiefs of staff -- marked  Top Secret, UK Eyes Only, and headed The Threat: Soviet Aims and Intentions -- declared in June 1968.

"Soviet foreign policy had been cautious and realistic", the department argued, and despite the Vietnam war, the Russians and their allies had "continued to make contacts in all fields with the West and to maintain a limited but increasing political dialogue with Nato powers".