European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 28, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 12 the stars and stripes . Sulzberger tuesday june 28, 1977 russian nato blocs have goal difficulties the principal current difference be tween the soviet bloc and the nato bloc is that the former knows where it wants to gout is having unexpected difficulty getting there and the latter in t quite sure what its real goals Are. Eastern Europe s communist nations Are somewhat torn internally by thedr Umpire of the Helsinki plus Carter human rights Issue even though Moscow continues its schizophrenic policy of slam Ming the barn door after dissident horses have gone or warning horses that remain that if they continue to be dissidents the departure door will never the West democracy is flourishing As never before since world War ii. Sadly this appears to mean that As country after country becomes Freer and Freer Greece Portugal and Spain a nato associate being recent examples their executive efficiency is increasingly placed in doubt. That is with the exception of Greece which at the moment has one of the world s few freely chosen governing latest Trio of Mediterranean elections Are examples of what i mean. Israel which is not in nato but which depend son the . As much As the North Allan columns comments tic Alliance docs has produced a govern ment that has just managed to eke out majority support. Yet this is based on a fragile Structure meanwhile Israel s gov Lemance depends upon a Good Deal of Dou Bluetalk confusing the new regime s former objectives and present More or less followed suit by choosing a minority Cabinet which Al though endorsed by the president of the re Public is Likely to run into serious difficulty in deciding policies that involve major National issues Greece the United states and Spain hopefully waiting in nato s aisle has selected a minority government in its first free election since1936. It is even More minority than anyone bargained for considering that the proportionate representation system applying was somewhat cooked up indeed even More than in France and people of the democratic nations have an instinctive idea of where they belong in the great ideological Jungle. But they Are far from certain about the Best Way to maintain their Freedom effectively. The problem is virtually reversed in East Europe which wishes to avoid the Pitfalls of free Choice but feels the need to pretend otherwise to the outside world. Majority governments Are rarer and rarer in the West. The United states is blessed with one uniting both houses of Congress and the executive but there is no such Clear Cut decision in England France West Ger Many Italy. Portugal or the three Mediterranean lands where balloting so recently Stopgap device employed in eng land and West Germany is executive Reli Ance on help from a Small third party fellow traveler a role reserved to relics of old fashioned Liberal organizations. In Portugal. Turkey and Spain the present Hope is that a Strong uni party minority government can ram its policies through has taken the unusual Road of tacit Alliance Between the Catholic Christia democrats and the euro marxist communists to keep the ship of state afloat despite economic and social Pitfalls looming ahead. West Germany s government seems stronger in efficiency than in National sup port. It May survive longer than anyone foresaw because the opposition is now having an internal fallout. Such is by no Means True in England although prime minister Callaghan prays it will become France the ruling bloc is split but the probable majority left Wing opposition is also having dissensions. When soviet president Brezhnev came to Parisas president Giscard s guest and did t see the French communist Boss Georges mar Chais leftist problems were underscored. Nevertheless de Gaulle and Pompidou regularly entertained soviet chiefs who disdained their local communist pee seven before the term eur communist had been invented. However Marchais added insult to injury. He publicly stated Anent possibly seeing Brezhnev there is no Point in having such a meeting when the conditions for a useful meeting Don t the inferences Are two i that Brezhnev did t want to give Moscow s accolade to euro communism s most recent convert or 2 that Marchais did t want to jeopardize his climb to the respectability of an Independent result of this curious coincidence of developments is that nobody can predict whether Freedom will insinuate itself fur ther among soviet satellites despite Brezhnev St St efforts to hold them in line or whether anarchic inefficiency will paralyse the West. Either is possible. Nei ther is inevitable. Us new Rork times William f. Buckley r Vic
