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Originally Posted by Kazuaki Shimazaki II
Man, what a piece of spineless wishwash. We know there are conflicting views on this subject. At least side with one side and explain why you did so.
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With all the redaction's in the released document you cannot be certain that the original classified version did omit solid conclusions.
That said, the target audience for this briefing were apparently external agencies with their own intelligence requirements and agendas. Given the divisions within the US defence establishment and the general nature of the briefing, a lack of focus should not be a surprise. Intelligence is a commodity and without knowing who the briefing was intended for (NCA?, NSA?, DOD?, DOE?, NRO?, some defense committee?), drawing specific conclusions may well have been beyond the mandate of the report's authors.
Still, the uncensored text contains little that could not have been found in open sources like Breyer's
Guide to the Soviet Navy, Brassey's or published works then available from the USNI bookstore of the day. One has to wonder what was cut out of the original top-secret version.