European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 18, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 Colour inns the stars and stripes thursday september 18,1988 George will it s business As usual despite Daniloff arrest when an administration collapses quickly and completely like a punch red balloon As inc Rea Gan administration has done in the Dan Ilott debacle a reasonable surmise is that the administration Tike n balloon had nothing in ii bul air. The trouble began not in a peripheral Crevice in the bureaucracy hut in the president s presence in Santa Barbara where the first reaction to the hostage taking was in say that inc unpleasantness should not disrupt the big picture. Secretary of state George Shultz soon said in arc can be no question of equating the cases of Nicholas Daniloff and the accused soviet spy. Gen Nady Zakharov. And there could be no Trade. But soon came inc equation in the form of it interim Trade whereby Daniloff and Zakharov were placed in the custody of officials of their respective governments. The United Stales thereby paid inc first probably Only the first instalment of the Ransom Kissinger used that word to characterize the trans action demanded by the Kremlin. Sen. Richard Lugar r-lnd., chairman of the foreign relations committee and candidate for the administration s Good Soldier trophy says delicately a gust is a difficult month apparently for administration  so is september so perhaps he problem is with thinking not coordinating. Total i la nans specialize in making victims collaborate in their victimization la took soviet Leader Mik Hail Gorbachev less than two weeks to turn the . Ambassador in Moscow into the Jacc per of Danil olt who shult7 rightly said remained a hostage Reagan was jubilant when announcing this trans action. Conserve at is constantly Jay Reagan s instincts Are splendid the problem is Only Only susceptibility to bad advice. Well. Leave aside the question of whether policy should be controlled by the instinctual mechanisms of any individual. In the Daniloff affair Reagan s instinct has prevailed and has been wrong it has neck identical to Carter s instinct in the iranian hostage crisis. It has been to make the National interest hostage to the goal of easing the hostage s plight. He wanted Dan loft in More comfortable confinement. Reagan wrote a idler to Gorbachev dignify ing the soviet charges by denying them Gorbachev displaying the com Empl Hal . Behaviour is earning promptly and Puli Salty branded Reagan a liar by Dis regarding the president s assurances. Sen. Pal Moynihan d-n.y., former . Ambassador responding 10 the assertion that this crisis began when Zakharov was arrested replied we began Elliis Chain of events 30 Watt ago when we Sunc a letting the soviets Fil up the  secretarial with spies in direct violation of the  the morning Moynihan said Hal the Lead Story in inc new York times reported administration efforts to reduce cuts con Gross has voted in subsidies for the United nations the cuts arc in landed to express among other things anger thai the United nations where  taxpayers pay one fourth of he Bills. What must they be saying in the Kremlin in merry disbelief next will Reagan want . Taxpayers to subsidize Grain sales to us in 69 years of  relations no . President has been treated with the disdain Gorbachev has shown toward Reagan which is especially rude considering that Reagan does indeed want . Taxpayers to subsidize Grain sales. Gokce Carver a senior fellow a Georgetown University s Center for strategic and International studies says that the United states has in effect agreed to play by soviet rules regarding espionage and has placed a Mantle of Protection Over soviet spies the next Lime the Fri catches a soviet the mattress mice in the state department and inc White House will be out wringing their hands and saying of no we can l armed him we Don t want another Daniloff thing there s Loo much going on " one of inc things the administration is eager to have go on during the Dan loft affair is a " own meeting with . Participants in Riga in the soviet Union. When inc interim Trade was arranged the administration wanted inc americans who had pulled out logo to Riga after All. The administration knew this would imply the respectability of the Ransom payment. Two sundays ago an undersecretary of slate Evi Dently thought he was being Stern when he said the unresolved Danil olt Case will intrude a self into All discussions with the soviet Union. Even today the administration cannot bring itself to say what it should have said immediately even instinctively no talks about anything no sushi died Grain sales no credits no cultural exchanges no support for the United nations no soviet ships in . Port no landings Here by soviet airlines no nothing until Dani Loff is released  today the deflated administration is reduced 10 say ing that if Danil olt is not released his Case will be at the lop of the Agenda for the Shutlz Shevardnadze talks. Wow thai ii Leach pm. Thai will mean thai Sulu will complain and Eduard Shevardnadze will drum his fingers and Roll his eyes Ami then they will proceed with business As usual the soviet Side con firmed in its contempt.  poll w ton Gratis  James Reston Kremlin s Bod judgment worries Washington officials in Washington Are still concerned Aboul inc arrest of american journalist Nicholas Danil olt in Moscow not because of its sneaky trickery bul because of its Clumsy stupidity. Washington feels it can Deal with inc Kremlin s rational opposition and even with its bad intentions but it fears mos cow s bad judgment and miscalculation More than Josl anything else. In terms of the soviet Union s own interests tossing this Veteran . Re Porter in jail was surely the dumbest decision out of Moscow since it shot Down the unarmed korean Airliner in septem Ber 1983 and even harder to under stand for in the destruction of the plane and its 269 passengers and Crew at least some soviet officials were apparently motivated by misplaced fear. They had nothing to fear however from the arrest of Gennady Zakharov a two bit spy at the United nations where they have so Many More bul quite a lot to lose by arresting Daniloff and drama tiling their contempt for Public opinion and a free press. This after some dithering in the White House brought even the Reagan administration to the defense of honest reporting not its favorite pastime and raised some questions about the new crowd in the Kremlin. Where for example was anal oly Dobrynin during these Bonehead plays if he was on he Job if has to be assumed Hal he forgot everything he Learned during his 25 years in washing Ion or has lost whatever influence he was supposed 10 have. Or if both he and Mikhail Gorbachev were on vacation when Danil olt was tossed in the Pokey As we Are told we Are left with two disturbing thoughts either that Gorbachev is not really in charge or that the soviet cops do what Ever they want to when the general Secre tary is out of Lown. Incidentally Washington officials say dam lofts arrest must have been ordered from the top though it s not Clear How anybody in Washington could be so sure especially since the Fri arrested Zakharov in new York before president Rea Gan or Secretary of slate George Schuliz knew anything about it. Either Way the Issue of stupidity an clumsiness remains. For example when Daniloff soviet acquaintance Misha handed him the package of so called maps and documents the Kab grabbed the american reporter before he had a Chance to see what was inside for All Dan loft knew at that moment it might have been a tin of caviar and a copy of the soviet Constitution. The result of Ali this Hanky Panky has been to cast doubt on Gorbachev s care fully calculated Campaign of Reform at Home and reconciliation abroad. For months he has been cruising around Europe calling for the need for an urgent Radical break with Many conventional approaches to foreign  scarcely a week has gone by his summer without some new offer of nuclear arms control by Moscow. Gorba Chev has not Only called for a comprehensive lest ban on nuclear weapons but has maintained a unilateral moratorium on soviet testing while urging president Reagan to do the same in addition he has indicated a willingness to establish Normal diplomatic relations with China opened up a new line of negotiations with Japan talked of encouraging peace in Southeast Asia and even started talking again about casing tensions with Israel. At Home he has waged a Campaign against inefficiency drunkenness and corruption encouraged some newspaper criticism of his own government and moved his own men into key position in the soviet Hierarchy. He has characterized these innovations As a revolution promising � bet Ter economic and political order in the world and in the process has not Only dominated the flow of foreign Newt bul put Reagan on the defensive. Then came the Daniloff affair which has undoubtedly wiped the unified smile off Gorbachev s face. Reagan coming into the last two Yean of his administration and hoping 10 leave behind some verifiable Compromise with Moscow on nuclear weapons now final it More difficult to Trade and Compro Mise with Gorbachev and even the Lorus promised Summit meeting u now in jeopardy. The chances Are thai Daniloff will come Home a More famous Man free to write even More about the soviet Lyile. The russians did t count on Hal either having created precisely the atmosphere they were trying to avoid. He Vortis the no Sovati