European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 16, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Poge 16 the stars and stripes James Reston monday May 16, 1977 in me last episode diet office was Erwis president is courting danger of imprecision in his classic study of diplomacy Harold Nicolson warned of the dangers of of confusion of thought leading to anxious bewilderment of the narcotic Force of ill considered slogans and of the More guile Ful aspects of Are in the Middle Here in Washington of one More chapter of . Diplomacy inthe Middle East in which All these warn Ings Are being ignored. Even allowing forthe mystifying complexity of preserving a secure Israel and at the same time Assur ing essential supplies of Oil from the Arab states it is hard to understand the carte administration s handling of this dilemma. Recently it has been a masterpiece of imprecision conveyed by a series of Tele vision shots president Carter talking vaguely at a town meeting in new England about palestinian Secretary of stale Vance standing with the israeli foreign minister in the lobby of the . Embassy in London promising to ship advanced technology to Israel. Jimmy Carter proclaiming his Amia ble relationship with president Assad of Syria in Geneva and then Back in Washington underscoring at a press conference Washington s special relationship with Israel. At least one thing is Clear about this complicated procedure nobody quite knows what it Means and everybody is vaguely suspicious. When Carter exchanges amiable compliments with the president of Syria or talks about trying to limit the flow of american arms abroad the pro israeli congressmen Call on him at the White mouse for reassurances that Israel s Flo of arms and modern technology and Money will no be affected. At the same Lime when Secretary Vance promises that the israelis will continue to get the military arms and Modem technology they need Syria s president Assad president Sadat of Egypt and the other Arab leaders wonder what s going on. Maybe what s More important in the lung run is that the Congress of the United states also does t know what s going Congress is constantly aware of. However and has been for a very Long time is the Power of the pro israeli lobbying the House and Senate and the influence of the israeli embassy on the politics an policies of Capitol Hill and it is watching very carefully How the new president will react to these pressures. Carter has been very canny about Al this. He talks about a special relation ship with Israel but does t define it. He promises modern technology and new weapons to Israel but in the most Genera terms. Members of Congress who favor Harold Nicolson s principle of precision ask if behave a special relationship with Israel and its Security is a vital interest of the United slates Why we Don t make this Clear and commit the United Stales by treaty to the defense of Israel within its pre-1967 , according to this Clear commit ment. Congress the israelis inc Ara slates and the soviets would know that the political Independence and pre-1967 territorial boundaries of Israel would be guaranteed by Washington and could not be violated without risking War. But. Oddly neither the government i Jerusalem nor in Washington nor con Gress nor the israeli parliament want this sort of clarity and commitment. There is a tendency of All democracies Harold Nicolson wrote to prefer a vague and comforting formula to a precis and binding definition. The effectiveness of any diplomacy is dependent upon the amount of conviction or certainly thai it in Spires. Thus it often occurs that democratic governments by couching their statements of policy in vague or ambiguous language invite the very danger which they wish to this is precisely what the Carter administration and the interim government of a divided Israel now seem to be doing. The Yare inviting imprecision and not by Acci Dent. Carter May be imprecise but he knows precisely what he s doing he s promising Israel advanced technology and Washington s special relationship Bot undefined while supporting a Homeland for the palestinians in return for their Promise to recognize the political Independence and secure 1967 Borders of Short this is the opposite of Nicol son s diplomacy of precision. It is the policy of imprecision of understanding everybody and disagreeing All the Way wit nobody of intervening in the israeli Arab struggle but insisting that Washington studied compromises Are merely suggestions thai both sides might want to con Sider. Carter s Assumption is that Israel an the arabs would never agree to a Middle East settlement by themselves and that he must intervene while pretending that he was just tossing a few vague ideas. He clearly prefers the policy of imprecision to Nicolson s principle of precision and he May be right. But it will be a Long time before the Resolution of this conflict of ideas is Clear. Co now York times John p. Roche on fhe making of a Nixon hater on occasion my father who did not always appreciate my sarcasm would haul off with a backhand then observe Johnnie All i want from you is silence and damned Little of for roughly this reason i refused to watch Richard Nixon s meretricious encounter with David Frost. Mistakenly i assumed that the quid pro quo for president Ford s Pardon was silence. Instead Nixon has now reopened the most miserable period i modern american history and provided commentators the Opportunity to rerun their old columns on Cambodia Kent stat and watergate. I have no intention of following suit but there is one aspect of Nixon s presidency that will go unnoticed one which turned me into a Nixon hater. For 20 Odd years iwas a militant political opponent of Rich Ard Nixon but unlike a number of Liber als i never haled him. He struck me As a classic opportunist who was better at dirt Pool than his opponents. If you Start with the Assumption that politics is a body con tact sport you can t squawk if you land on your Tail. Thus the difference Between Nixon s reference to the democrats As the party of treason and my 1952 observation that Joe Mccarthy was Stalin s secret weapon was that Nixon had a sizeable audience while i was preaching to the . Faithful. Nixon did t invent hard shots indeed by comparison with Frank Lin d. Roosevelt he was a softball Pitcher. As a social Democrat who had been engaged in organizational combat with the stalinist since age is i found the raucous anticommunism of Nixon Mccarthy and their ilk malevolent drivel. Of course the Revere soviet spies but you would hardly look for them at communist meetings or Trust them to reject a loyally oath. Sure the Henry Wallace movement has stalinist cadres but All it accomplished was to lose Harry Truman new York Michigan and Maryland in the 1943 election. Yes Alge Hiss was at Yalta but what was he doing carrying briefcases. So As Nixon flailed away i watched with some contempt convinced he was just an old fashioned opportunist who found Anli communism a useful dub to swing at the democrats. It s hard to Hale an opportunist in resembles accusing a Chameleon of subterfuge. Let me add this is not based on 20-20 Hindsight i said As much in the new York times Book review in 1969 after Nixon became president the conservatives who had a longstanding love affair with St. Richard the commie killer went into mourning As he popped up toasting Mao and Cumming it with Lenni Brezhnev. Similarly some Liberal ideologues were happily surprised by the new Nixon though in retrospect the Nixon Kissinger breakthroughs have an Ether Eal Quality. And anyone who thinks the cold War is Over should take a czech to lunch. Oddly these charades did not inspire the american people to give Nixon the thing he wanted most popularity in 1968 he was elected to Stop the noise and in 1972 the electorate perceived the Choice As one be tween thieves and theoc rals and Ople for thieves. Nol a stupid decision we know How to Cope Wilh thieves but what do you do with the corals convinced a Liberal conspiracy was blocking him from the heartland minds of his countrymen Nixon proceeded in Nick von Hoffman s Nice phrase to run a third rate cover up of third Rale burglary. In essence he led the conspiracy against himself. The Point of this digression is that Nixon s greatest sin in my eyes for which i truly hate him is never listed inthe indictment. When Richard Nixon the phony anti totalitarian went Down in Dis Grace he dragged with him our tradition of authentic anti totalitarianism and set the stage for the glorification of the likes of Lillian Hellman and her absolution of old stalinist. There is in the United states a substantial constituency whose fundamental objection to marxist leninism is it Savage disregard for human dignity. Unlike conservatives we Don t lie awake nights worrying about stale ownership. Our assault on Castro was nol triggered by his nationalization of american interests in Cuba which in Blunt historical terms amounted to hoisting stolen goods. No As told a class a week ago we take a very per Sonal View. The class episode was illuminating if abit unnerving i had just documented in detail the role the German communists played in bringing Hitler to Power and must have done so with intensity. An Intel ugent Young woman looked at me a bit a ,
