European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 29, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                John Roche january 1973 the stars and stripes Page 15 Flashback seems like Marx Brothers movie dozing through Jimmy Carters state of the Union i found myself in a Flashback to the 1960s for better or there was Seldom a quiet the death of Hubert Humphrey opened the memory Box and All sorts of strange episodes popped most were backroom stuff Gene Mccarthy on the subject of the for but i cant refrain from reliving briefly the preparation of a Lyndon Johnson state of the Union life imitated Art it was a Marx Brothers there were several operative Prin the first of which in lbs Pithy if you dont blow your Horn somebody will steal thus the accomplishments of the Johnson administration were to go and both it is a bit hard today to conceive of a presi Dent accomplishing but John sons track record was just so we would All recall a famous Blue card was issued listing some 30 or the press had a Fiel Day with this aide accusing the president of ego mania and related and i got a chuckle out of i chuckled not because Johnson had racked up that and i saw no reason he  claim i wish he had been More deft about it because items like the Blue card set him up for the slings and arrows of his Bilous sometime in october half a dozen of us would be summoned to a meeting to plan the january the division of labor but the first item on the Agenda was to ask All departments for proposed the response was predictable word documents came in by every with a few tossed Over the the latter unofficial responses from officials who suspected their contributions to the great society might be Walt Rostos staff would cull the mate rial dealing with foreign the and National Security Joe Califano and his Crew would work through the ton of paper on Domestic Harry me Pherson and i mad dreamers would try to devise a Central a Philosoph ical that would provide coherence to the we received Strong presidential support dont you hand me a Sears but the closer we came to the appointed the More the James Reston president thought a few More triumphs merited in any two drafts would emerge from Rostow and on their respective and the great work of synthesis would this had to be done in total secrecy and was comparable to working in a snare every Cabinet member and his Cousin was lobbying for at least a Para and we could Tell them nothing except the president has read your sub Mission with in he never looked at them once when a beautifully bound Black notebook accidentally came to his he genially heaved it at me Indi Cating the author was the biggest liar in in november appalled at the monstrosity that was Virtu ally from a i jumped ship and went off to write my own Mark ii which was relatively Brief and almost to tally devoid of seed catalogue Johnson liked it it was in fact a not a computer printout but Back to Mark by length was the critical i suspect Lyndon envied Khrushchev ability to make four hour addresses to the supreme but he could hardly Post armed guards at the congressional lbs operated at roughly 100 words per minute which meant allowing for applause an outside limit of about 500 but sitting in front of us was a word draft which had to be this was not merely a stylistic but intensely the press had taken to word counts and the 1967 state of the Union speech had been hammered because so few lines referred to civil latin America had to get its just desserts up grading the assistant Secretary to under Secretary was a favorite and so it with ferocious arguments on almost every background music was provided by the Telephone As old buddies called to get a feel or the by d Day minus 7 a draft was in lbs hands and the phone would then transmit indignant queries from him about great programs not inevitably he would read a Section to some Friend and then denounce us when the teak hit the our big game was to guess the Surprise of the the Radical proposal he would sneak in at the last one As the secretaries sat listening in stunned he combined the com Merce and labor All in an exhausting Drill but at least the presi Dent had something to cd King f soviet callers repeat same old propaganda ten influential members of the supreme which is not really supreme in Moscow but still have been in Washington these last few Days expressing their regrets about the de Dine in and asking for this has been an interesting and maybe even significant the soviet Dele a headed by Boris has talked with the leaders of the House and and with reporters on the they have been unfailingly courteous and even but somehow they were not Able to agree with officials or congressmen Here or even to discuss Why Washington and Moscow were misunderstanding one one i is that there is a widening age Gap Between the leaders of the soviet Union and the United when these visits of the supreme soviet started Here in Washington in Moscow sent almost precisely the same headed by the same Ponoma when the Congress sent a Dele a Uon Back in 197s to it was headed by Hubert Hugh Scott of Penn the Republican minority Leader of the and speaker Carl Albert of the House All of them now so a soviet delegation of old men has been talk ing to a wholly different generation of american this years delegation from Moscow has to Deal not with Nixon but with Carter who incidentally is not seeing them not with Henry Kissinger but with by Vance and also with a whole new set of leaders in the House and the russians seem to regard All these changes As being not Only awkward but a Little there is a More troublesome dilemma Between these two the soviet officials have come Here with a primary question they All raise it wherever they go what is the primary question of world affairs int it the control of nuclear weapons and the avoidance of a nuclear world War they is the presid ing question in the interests of the and the and in the Security of world so Why dont we concentrate on that Why Divide Moscow and Washington Over human they Why not agree on the basics and separate this cataclysmic question of nuclear War from All these other subsidiary questions in the Middle Africa and Cuba there have been some really Tough arguments with the soviet delegation Here on these and they have the Opportunity to argue it out with the Secretary of with Zbigniew the head of the National Security and even to philosophize about All this in the Homes of american no such of could be imag ined in Moscow by the soviet Secretary of foreign Andrei or even by the soviet ambassador to Anatoly but somehow this Dia Logue does not seem to be the representatives from Moscow obviously want to have it both ways they want an agreement on strategic missiles with the United particularly on the cruise they also want the right to build their own missiles and move their own developing Navy into the Indian Ocean and establish their Power in Ethiopia along the Horn of Africa and in Angola along the Oil sealants from the Middle East to Indus trial when the members of the supreme soviet raised what they called the main question the control of nuclear weapons Brzezinski told them quite frankly that they had to they could not get selective agreements with the United either they would work with us for a new world limit strategic Wear and arms or continue the arms race and the strategic which was in nobody no Progress was really made in these talks Between the members of the supreme soviet and american officials or the for they Are All arguing from two different philosophies and two quite different views of the soviets Are really inviting a big Power Deal with the United Ever since their revolution in they have been arguing against the status for the destruction of the old Imperial pm and for the liberation of new but now their tune has the soviets Are now arguing for the status particularly in Eastern it is the United states that is now insisting that Liberty is the that is arguing for human rights in the last of the Imperial domains of communist Eastern and challenging Moscow to Stop sending arms into and the other strategic Points of officials Here have been saying to visit ing members of the supreme soviet that there is a larger objective for the United states and the soviet looking to the end of the 20th to work not Only for the control of nuclear and the Sale of conventional but for peace in the Middle East and in but the conversation Here made Little Progress toward this