European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 12, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes wednesday March 12, 1986 columns James Reston in retirement Dobrynin May continue to serve Anatoly Dobrynin the soviet ambassador in Washington is going Home having spent 24 of his 66 years in the big soviet embassy on 16th Street in Back of the Washington Post building. That s quite a spell. It covers five of his chiefs in the Kremlin from Khrushchev to Gorbachev six . Presidents from Ken Nedy to Reagan seven . Secretaries of state from Dean Rusk to George Shultz and seven . Ambassadors in Moscow. Now he will be an adviser to Gorbachev on .-soviet relations and that May not be a bad idea for he s been around Long enough to know the cards in the deck and the difference Between propaganda and the truth and the longing of the american people for a peaceful world. No ambassador in the Washington Dipo Matic corps not even the nato ambassadors has had such easy Access to secretaries of state on the seventh floor of the state department or to the National Secu Rity advisers outside the Oval office in the while House than has Dobrynin. The question now is what he will say to Gorba Chev at this critical Point in .-sovietrelations. Anthony Lewis nobody in Washington has the vaguest idea but in a funny Way they have some Hope. Dobrynin has a sense of humor and a sense of history both in Short Supply these Days. After All he s going Home at an interesting time. In the years before he arrived Here the . Congress looked at the world in a different Way. In 1941, it passed the lend lease act to meet the threat of nazi Ger Many. Then when the War ended it invited the russians to join the Marshall plan for the reconstruction of postwar Europe. And just As Dobrynin arrived in the Early 1960s, Congress created the Volunteer peace corps to help the suffering and Hun Gry people of the third world. All this is part of Dobrynin s experience As a Diplomat. He lived in a strange Way in that old House on 16th Street. He was Al ways available but always Remote. He had a Large staff but nobody Ever saw them. He had journalists but they were really propagandists. The russians lived apart. Dobrynin negotiated a new embassy up from 16th Street beyond the British embassy and the vice president s House and the Washington Cathedral to the Wisconsin Avenue Hill a White Cluster of buildings overlooking the state department the Pentagon and the White House to the Potomac. It was t Only an official embassy. Up and Down Wisconsin Avenue there were some of the Best Public schools in America within a few blocks but the soviet person Nel stayed apart. The embassy was almost a prison for their children and even included a theater for Ballet an isolated re treat against the corruption of their neigh Bors in the capitalist world. But even so the Dobrynina Learned something about american life on the Side. As usual it was the women who came Down to common sense. Dobrynin has not Only been an ambassador during these 24 years in Washington. He has been a father and a Grandfather. He has been caring for a child of his Chil Dren without anybody knowing about it. But Dobrynin is going Home. One won Ders where Home might be for him and his wife and their children and what he will say about America when Gorbachev brings him into the Kremlin. The guess Here is that he will say let s take it a Little easy. Anatoly Dobrynin is an old Man with no personal ambitions and really believes that the United states and the soviet Union can get together. But there s no Assurance about any of this. Just when Dobrynin was leaving Washington president Reagan challenged Moscow to get its spies out of the United nations and called on Congress to carry on the War in Central America with another $100 million against the Nicara Gua government and Block what he called the red tide from entering the United states from latin America. Still it s probably a Good idea that do Brynin is going Home. He s a sensible Man and has been around Here Long enough to know that the american people Are not interested in a Conquest of the world or a War with the russians on Earth or in outer space but rather Are for some kind of com Mon sense accommodation. It could be that Dobrynin could be More influential at the Side oif Gorbachev in the Kremlin than he was in Washington. That at least is the Hope in Washington. C new York times news service Confra Aid sates pitch example of Reagan newspeak apr r and Viri i �.,.,u a i George Orwell taught us that politicians corrupt words in order to sell corrupt policies. If Orwell were Here now How savagely he would be dissecting the latest example of newspeak the Reagan administration s sales Campaign for. Aid to the nicaraguan contras. Freedom fighters Reagan Calls the contras. But what about their connections with the Somoza dictatorship that ravaged Nicaragua for 45 years when sen. Rich Ard Lugar r-ind., asked the question he got this answer from assistant Secretary of state Elliott Abrams you asked about the allegation that the Nicaragua resistance consists of or is led by supporters of the late dictator Anasta Sio Somo a. We have reviewed the facts carefully and conclude that this charge is incorrect and but the evidence of Somoza links is overwhelming. And of course Abram knows it. Edgar Chamorro was a Leader of the Princi pal Contra Force the fun until he quit in disgust last year. He said the Contra Mili tary Force is directed and controlled by officers of Somoza s National guard who fought at the dictator s Side until the very end and then fled to Robert s. Leiken of the Carnegie endowment has been highly critical of the sandinista government of Nicaragua. In the March 13 Issue of the new York re View of books he wrote the fun High command with one exception is drawn entirely from the Somoza National guard and Many were senior officers in then there is the question of the contras behaviour toward civilians in Nicaragua. The Reagan administration says that any past tendency toward brutalities has been curbed and that the contras Are models of respect for human rights. The eyewitness accounts of what they do show those claims to be utterly cynical. The contras premeditated policy Edgar Chamorro said was to terror ize civilian during his four years As a Leader he said hundreds of civilian murders mutilations tortures and rapes were committed in Pursuit of this policy of which the Contra leaders and their Cia superiors were Well aware " America s watch a human rights organization has just published an author l the a Perl .nicara8. H condemned both the sandinista and the contras for Gross abuses. And it criticized the Reagan administration for giving false information in an Effort to explain away Contr brutalities. For example american newspapers re ported last summer that a Contra Force had executed 11 civilians in cold blood in the town of culpa. A lawyer for America s watch went to culpa interviewed Resi dents and confirmed the Story in gruesome detail. But the Reagan administration de Nied it. President Reagan discussed the incident in a report to Congress last november. According to those on the Scenie he said what happened at culpa was a military to military engagement and there were no civilian America s watch asked the state department who those on the scene were. It got no answer for months. After its report was printed it was told by the . Embassy in Nicaragua that no one from there had gone to culpa or otherwise investigated the incident. Last week Reagan said that defeat of the contras would put in jeopardy the Small and fragile democracies of Central America. But those very countries Are unhappy about the Reagan War policy. Costa Rica is trying to close its territory to the contras. Honduras is blocking delivery of . Aid to them. Guatemala has called for a regional settlement. Eight other latin countries representing 90 percent of the Region s people and land sent their foreign ministers to Washington last month to urge a halt in . Aid to the contras. Indeed nearly every Friend we have in the hemisphere is opposed to the policy. But in the Reagan View they Are All out of step but us. The world is watching the president said to see if Congress is As committed to democracy in Nicaragua. As it was in the but in the Philippines we helped with diplomacy not arms a movement that arose from the peo ple not one invented funded and directed by the United states. Carlos Fuentes the mexican novelist and Diplomat stands in for Orwell in a column in Newsweek International. He writes the debasement of language by president Reagan when he Calls the con tras Freedom fighters is As insulting to the history of the United states As to the history of latin c new York times news service the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on his Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government
