European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 21, 1981, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 12 the stars and stripes january 1981 Tom Wicker Haig should have tackled question on Namibia Alexander Hakim appearance before the Senate foreign relations com Mittee turned out o be less a confrontation on watergate than a forum for Haigs hard line views on countering soviet military he described the russian Power As a global offensive Navy and air Force fully capable of supporting an Imperial for eign the Reagan administration shares this impression of the soviet unions tremendous accumulation of armed As Well As Haigs determination to mount a stronger Western on certain aspects of the presumed soviet imperialism Afghanistan and for example the Secretary of state designate avoided specific policy on one trouble spot where some might think soviet imperialism is at work or Southwest Africa Haig said Only that the matter was too sensitive for in it would have been timely and useful for him to support Western efforts to achieve Namibia Independence from the illegal control of South even As he a meeting of All Par tics to the namibian dispute was under Way in to set a firm Date for a ceasefire in the guerrilla War being waged against South Africa by the Southwest Africa Peoples known As so that internationally supervised elections can South Africa Long ago agreed to this Western sponsored procedure for Nam Ibias Independence but has haggled and Eddie and one Nice Little Tutu secret done Little Anthony Lewis ikes defense views still Good today As oni who has witnessed the horror and inc lingering sadness of War As one who knows that another War could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built up Over thousands of years i wish i could say tonight that a lasting peace is in i can say that War has been steady Progress toward our ultimate goal has been but so much remains to be with those just 20 years Dwight Eisenhower said Farewell to the american that last speech of his presidency has a poignant relevance for we live with the ultimate problems of International conflict and human survival thai he and we cannot speak of even limited steady Progress in their Solu the Eisenhower Farewell address is remembered for its warning against Unwar ranted influence by the military Indus trial but its message was touching on what ought to be acute concerns for americans today for the Republican administration that has just taken Eisenhower Point about the military in dust rial Complex was that it was something new in american right through world War ii the United states never had a Large standing army or armaments Indus the cold War gave us both and Eisen Hower said their influence even spiritual was Felt across the How much More True that has become in the last 20 the manufacturers of air Craft and missiles Are now so important to regions and economic interests that con Gress sometimes votes funds for weapons systems not wanted by the there is a growing tendency to look to weapons production and sales As a Way out of nation Al economic although the analysts Tell us that military spending cannot provide the employment and competitive Industrial Edge that we Eisenhower with Mutual Honor and is a continuing together we must learn How to compose not with but with intellect and decent because this need is so Sharp and apparent i confess that i Lay Down my official responsibilities in this Field with a definite sense of Digap that passage has the ring of something Long ago and far anyone using such language today would probably be Dis missed by the ascendant Hawks As soft or Blind to the soviet but it was a career military officer who made the and there is every reason to think he would make it again the need for strategic arms control limiting the armory of weapons that can destroy our civilisation is More urgent not the last 20 years have Given us graphic examples of the futility the danger of a nuclear arms when americans came up with he idea of mires multiple independently tar gated nuclear warheads on a missile we thought they would give us a strategic and so we declined to negotiate with the soviets a freeze on Mir development or the result was the soviets developed their own and giant missiles to carry Large numbers of them so Many that we now fear they could Knock out our land based missiles in a first in pursuing the illusion of Security by More and better strategic we made ourselves less Eisenhower warned that the contest with the soviet Union would go on we must he the recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the Mirac Ulous solution to All current a huge increase in newer elements of our de that is exactly the temptation that seems so attractive to the new administration de spite the Mir experience and others like Ronald Reagan said during the Campaign that we ought to try an arms race As a Way of making the soviets be reasonable about limiting nuclear from those around him come suggestions for enormous additional spending on new nuclear weapons the talk of a buildup in strategic forces is not Only dangerous because it would Proba Bly decrease and not Only unnecessary because the strategic nuclear warheads now deployed by the Are enough for multiple the talk is unwise because it distracts this country from its real defense priority to build up our conventional former Secretary of defense Melvin Laird made the Point in an article written shortly after reagans he warned against a defense spending Binge that will create economic havoc at Home and confusion abroad and that cannot be dealt with wisely by the he suggested a 5 percent annual with most of that going to meet personnel needs and to improve readiness of our combat that kind of Laird would increase our capability and Send a Clear Sig Nal to allies and it is the Type of a he used by our last two term Dwight Mel Laird must have been suggesting to president elect Reagan that the course of Wisdom for him in military matters would be Eisenhower mixture of vision and sep c new York times delayed for nearly three years on putting it into that being continued at suggests that South Africa has no intention of taking part in a process leading to a Swap government on its at the Pretoria intends to delay As Long As while working to strengthen other namibian political parties More congenial to in either the government of prime minister Botha might Well be Lieve that a Hartline Reagan administration will relax pressures for the ceasefire and not Only could Haig have dispelled that if it with a couple of sentences but that he didst do it might strengthen the Botha government in the no Tion that it need Only wait for the Reagan administration to reverse or downplay cur rent american policy on is regarded by South Africa As a communist front its guerrillas columns and comments were armed by the russians and East Ger and a Swap government might Well have a leftist even though Namibia is the last remnant of colonialism in the liberation movement there might be regarded by some As a product of soviet certainly the Reagan administration has led no one to expect thai it will leap to support Black marxist Ter which is How the South africans describe just a year they were describing in the same Way the parties now governing Zimbabwe with International approval and considerable and it would be a sad misapprehension if the Reagan adm Nistra As part of its response to soviet Imperi backed away from the plan for namibian that would align Washington with Preto Ria on a question of great symbolic importance in thus undercutting the Prog Ress the Carter administration made in restoring the United states standing there Ronald reagans own in his message to an african Ameri can conference in Sierra to reassure the namibian guerrilla War would con increasing swaps Reliance on other Black african and on soviet and East German hence increasing the opportunities for soviet just As was the Case in the United states could hardly create a worse Situa Tion for itself than to be Allied with racist South Africa against a United Black Africa backed by on the other namibian Independence achieved through the Western even if it resulted in a Swap govern would mean that the soviet Union had been denied participation in the settlement just As last year it was denied a role in winning Independence for Zim and there is no reason to believe that Namibia under Swap will become a soviet any More than Zimbabwe a further dividend of namibian Independence might even be the departure of cuban troops from neighbouring where they Are prominent evidence of the kind of soviet imperialism Haig fears so the cubans Are believed to remain in Angola Only because the Namibia War keeps the Large South african army in Namibia on the Border with where Swap bases its the cubans first entered at least partly to repel a South african invasion in so the Way to Rebuff soviet imperialism in Southern Africa is but the Reagan administrations intentions c new York times the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of stars and stripes or the United states