European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 7, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 columns the stars and stripes monday september 1987 George f. Will taking another look at Cuba missile crisis Clio the Muse of history is in bed with a splitting headache prostrated by the Laik of trying to Correct the still multiplying misunderstandings of the cuban missile crisis. Most americans believe in was a famous Victory won by a Resolute president prepared 10 fake the world to the Brink of nuclear War. Actu ally there was Dot much of a Brink and no Triumph Worth celebrating. In a recce new York times mag Azine j. Anthony Lukas reported on a reunion of former Kennedy administration participants in the crisis. The meet ing was held last april at Hawk s Cay a Florida resort. Because the crisis began when the so Viet Union began putting missiles in Cuba and ended when the missiles were removed it was considered an unambiguous Triumph achieved by a hawkish president. Now much is being made of a letter from former Secretary of slate Dean Rusk which was read at inc reunion. The letter is said to show that president Ken Nedy was a Dove. In the crisis Robert Kennedy notified soviet ambassador Dobrynin thai . Missiles in Turkey would be withdrawn within months of withdrawal of soviet missiles from Cuba but it was imperative obviously for Domestic american political reasons that the linkage of the withdrawals not be announced. Rusk s letter reveals that if the soviet Union had insisted on Public linkage Kennedy would have complied. That historical morsel is Only redundant evidence of what should by now be Patent Kennedy succeeded be cause his military advantage was huge and his goal was Liny the stunning revelation in Lukas re port is not Rusk s letter it is something said at the reunion by Ted Sorensen the aide closest to Kennedy. On Aci. Al 1962, five weeks before the administration discovered the mis Tiki new York s Republican sen Ken William f. Buckley Neth Keating trusting information received from intelligence and refugee sources said offensive missiles were going into Cuba. Republicans were Mak ing an election Issue out of soviet ship ments to Cuba. In september Kennedy warned inc soviets with interesting pro disc Ness not to put in Cuba offensive ground to ground now Soren sen says thai the president Drew a line where he soon in october wished he had not drawn it i believe the president Drew the line precisely where he thought inc soviets were not and would not be. That is to say if we had known the soviets were putting 40 missiles in Cuba we might under this hypothesis have drawn the line at 100, and said with great fanfare thai we would absolutely not tolerate the presence of More than 100 missiles so Rensen says. Sorn san is a member of the Mcgove Ernic Wing of the virtually one Wing democratic party. Bui he also is an assiduous keeper othe Camelot flame. This is amusing in Light of Arthur Schlesinger or s rhapsody zing about Kennedy s handling of the crisis that Kennedy according to Sorenson wanted to define away he coolly and exactly measured. He moved with mathematical precision. This combination of Tough Ness and restraint of will nerve and wis Dom so brilliantly controlled so match Lessly calibrated even assuming sore Seit is wrong Schlesinger s romanticizing is not right. In 1978, Mig-23s nuclear delivery vehicles far More menacing than the 1962 missiles were introduced into Cuba. Kennedy s non invasion pledge Given As pan of the crisis ending Deal guaranteed the survival of this hemisphere s first communist regime and makes attempts to remove or Reform the second seem disproportionate. A few More such triumphs and we shall be undone. The romanticizing of the missile crisis makes such triumphs More Likely. I inf treaty is not a guarantee of a safer world a week ago we celebrated the seventh anniversary of Solidarity who is we that s the rub. We Are a diminishing number of people including poles who sup port the workers Union. One asks oneself the question How Long has Ronald Reagan been in office one asks because what some people Are saying is that there is a causal relation be tween the two events and this is a serious charge a charge weighted with Paradox Given that Reagan in the Roost energetically anti communist president we have Ever had. Speaking recently in California Reagan proposed that Mikhail Gorbachev Lead his country into a civilized relationship with the world that the soviet Union become a Good neighbor. In april of 1987," the president said we asked that a Date be set this year for rapid and Complete withdrawal from Afghanistan in june that the soviets join us in alleviating the divisions of Berlin and begin with the dismantling of he Berlin Wall that the soviets move toward self determination in East Europe and rescind the Brezhnev but the speech in which these words occurred coincided with two developments on the International front. The first was the announcement by West German Chan cellar Helmut Kohl that in deference to . Leadership he would abandon his insistence on retaining control Over the 72 penning missiles in his country. The second was the announcement that the United slate would be prepared to Retreat from the rigorous Standard of verification on which we had originally insisted Standard thai were no longer realistic Given blah blah and blah. William Safyre closed his commentary on these events with some withering and accurate words that s Why a solid speech vanished into California s evanescent now we hear from Eugene Rostow who was our principal disarmament adviser in the Early Days of the Reagan administration and he Flat out warns us that the intermediate nuclear forces treaty by no Means guarantees a safer world. The soviet Union is counting on the West to relax in the glow of an inf agreement he writes. It expects the West to Cut military budgets abandon the strategic de sense initiative and forget the Reagan doctrine. Five or 10 years hence the soviet Union thinks in would have consolidated an untouchable Lead in space and other High technology what does the eminent Osiow recommend begin with the easy ones. He believes that testimony before the Senate will persuade objective observers that we Are bet Ter off with reduced intermediate missiles than with no intermediate missiles it is easier to verify mimics in place than missiles underground which is where the so Viet Union could keep them in the event Gnu nose does nol mean an end to soviet cheating. But then he makes the kind of proposal one associates with Reagan. Indeed it is inc kind of thing Reagan has been saying to the soviet Leader for years and most race nifty in California live up 10 he Yalta Aguirr Mcnol. Giving Eastern Europe the right la determine its own political future. Stalin s breach of that Promise was the key turning Point in the cold War Wales Roslow. A commitment by or. Gorbachev to carry out Stalin s Promise could be the key turning Point in a Retreat from what or. Reagan called the lid on lop of the nuclear Volcano people used to laugh at the whole idea of a Rollback one needs to reach Back to John Foster Dulles in 1912 to remember the words but we keep hearing that we face a new situation. The president keeps imploring Gorbachev to prove that this is so. We revive the relevant rhetoric even As the one postwar movement with True Promise More convincing than the Prague Spring of i bless volatile than the hungarian student fighting of 1956 gets weaker and weaker the Fate of Solidarity on its seventh birthday. And we accept in lieu of genuine Progress merely a shift in nuclear strategy by the soviet Union. No second lieu tenant would Tell us that any inhabitant of the West will be safer the Day after inf is consummated than he is today. So Why not the same kind of chorus that energized the United suits 15 year ago behind other causes remember Stop inc bombing Why nol bring Down the Boriin Wall russians Oul of of free elections in Eastern Europe we need a mobilisation of that kind of pressure responding to the High idealism of Reagan s speeches which gets lost in inc workaday world of conferences Negola Lions treaties and
