Also, he didn't really elaborate a whole lot on that. If the USSR really did use American parts in their missiles, how did they get them in the first place?
I know of one famous case where the Soviets were caught trying to assemble a complete VAX in 1983, presumably for military use (I realize it's post-Khrushchev, but it's one of the few well-documented, public cases):
http://www.au.af.mil/au/afri/aspj/airchronicles/aureview/1984/nov-dec/benson.html
http://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/21/world/moscow-bound-computer-is-seized.html
The computer would have been much more powerful than anything the Soviets had at the time and could do signal analysis, calculate trajectories, coordinate an IADS, and so on in support of missile operations. However, none of the parts would have actually made it into a missile. If it were like previous computers that were obtained, they would have torn it apart and built clones.
IBM sold to international customers, so the KGB found it easier to acquire computer tech than other Science and Technology. Still, in spite of soviet scientists being equal to american scientists, the state bureaucracy was so slow in allowing access to S&T intelligence that the soviets were always a few years behind in building their computers.
Source is the Mitrokhin Archive ("The Sword and the Shield", Vasily Mitrokhin/Chris Andrew) which I'm still in the middle of.
This seems highly unlikely. Colonel Oleg Penkovsky knew all about the Soviet missile program prior to his change of allegiance, and he doesn't mention this. He does mention there being many problems with electronic guidance systems, especially on ICBM's. If they were using American parts, it is doubtful that the Soviets would experience such set backs.
It is more likely that the Soviets obtained plans for or copies of some the parts via their intelligence organizations, and reverse engineered/constructed their own imitations.
Penkovsky would be an authority on this subject because he attended lectures on the missile program when he was still in the rocket artillery, and the Marshal of the Rocket Artillery, Sergei Sergeivich Varentsov, was a patron of his. American made parts is something which does not come up in the debriefing notes.^1. If it were done, it is exactly the kind of information which Penkovsky would have passed on.
(I happen to be writing a paper about a highly similar subject at the moment. Thank you for asking this question, it has renewed my enthusiasm.)
Sources: Penkovsky, Oleg. "Lt. Col. Oleg Penkovsky: Western Spy in Soviet GRU". CIA FOIA Reading Room Archive.
On a related note, and I'm very sorry to hijack the thread if this is against the rules, but how trustworthy is Viktor Suvorov considered to be?
For reference:
Inside the Soviet Army http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/700271.Inside_the_Soviet_Army