European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 9, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Paga 10 the stars and stripes wednesday december 9,1987 Jim Fain America needs Calm Resolute Pursuit of goals to listen to the hubbub you d think the future of humanity rests on whether americans can resist having i hair pockets picked by lie Slick visitor from Moscow. Nonsense. Reagan s hype slurs in vented spin control. Gorbachev is merely a Lalen cd neophyte. The ratings War be tween the two Camps is a glitzy sideshow based on the nutty premise thai Soviel american relations Are a Zero sum game in which one Side must lose if the other gains. The . And .s.r. Will be compel ing for As far As the Eye can see but the Competition can evolve into a peaceful constructive one if properly managed. We be already made Progress from the chilling Days of Berlin blockade cuban missile crisis and Sac Alert when mos cow moved airborne troops Inlo Syria near he end of the yom kippur War. Gorbachev is a dedicated communist. It s foolish to expect him to convert rus Sia into a democracy. But he also seems to be a realist who recognizes thai nuclear War is unwinnable and thai his coun try s welfare depends on tightening its arms Burden. The same holds True for us. We ought to rejoice in his intelligence. Anyone who s been in rough a Tough divorce knows the worst thing thai can happen to you is for your spouse to hire a dumb lawyer. Soviet american relations Are not a Factor of person Lity however. Gorba Chev is enmeshed in the enormous Iner Tia of his government and culture. Nor can we assume his continuance in Power. The is. Course needs to be steady and Resolute not exactly our National Hallmarks and riveted Loen lightened self interest. We need to main Tain adequate defense drawing it Down whenever that can be done reciprocally and verifiably avoiding both the euphoria of unilateral Dinar Mars and the Para Noia of those who resist any dealings with he soviet Union. William Buckley unfortunately the latter have wrap Ped their political hides in mindless anti communism. They know better than to advocate nuclear War but prefer cold War to peace. Cold War is their political capital Reagan is a charter member of this ideology and his political Success has delivered much of the gop into its rank. That s Why the Republican candidates Exi Cpl vice president George Bush and Kansas sen. Bob Dole shun his modest eur missile treaty. It s Why he feels forced to loss hard liners such ridiculous titbits As trumpeting minor radar Jug gling As treaty betrayal. Actually the so Viets have a credible record of compliance. Those who Wail to the contrary Are closet foes of any Accord. Gorbachev seems genuinely to want arms control obviously for his own Pur poses not ours. He has been More Forth coming than we about on site inspection a historic turnabout for his closed society. We ought to Welcome his overtures not fear hem and use them to push for meaningful treaties with and Litho Al i if cation on strategic Arm Ai j conventional forces. None of which will usher in a Milloni . The soviet Empire must gradually be dismantled and thai will be a risky business. Historic forces will make in happen if we Don t reinforce russian paranoia but reversals Are inevitable along the Way. All this Summit is theater. In the real world events Are moving Pur Way. Communism stale and atrophy ing lost its Appeal everywhere. We have a window of Opportunity for ridding Man ind of the curse of War Ilc can steady ourselves Inlo Calm Resol ult of the goals we really care about. Democratic candidates live off mindless cliche the presidential exhibit on last week superbly handled by Tom Brokaw reminds us of the space Tessness of the democratic foreign policy if there can be said to be such a thing As a democratic foreign policy. Consider the program began with sen Albert Gore announcing thai he found it appalling thai five men running for president on the Republican Side were not support ing the proposed inf treaty. Sen. Gore uses the Lan Guage carefully and one wonders How he has reasoned to the position that reservations about that treaty reservations also held by Richard Nixon Henry Kissin Ger Jane Kirkpatrick Bernard Rogers William hybrid respectively a former president a former Secretary of state a former . Ambassador a former commander of nato and the editor in chief of for eign affairs Are reasonably dismissed As Appal now. Sen. Bob Dole is careful to say these Days that he is not opposed to the inf treaty indeed he is Happy that the president has agreed to sign in. And for thai matter Gen. Alexander Haig has said that it ii Loo Date to scuttle the treaty. But this is not to say that either of them rejoices Over its Advent or that we should do less than gravely to consider its implications. Rep. Richard Gephardt also found in appalling that Republican candidates should have reservations about he proposed treaty which gov. Michael Dukakis thinks is terrific but that we should think now quickly in terms of broader cuts a Fine idea especially if such cuts could incorporate the renunciation of Marx ism leninism. U is Fine to talk about cuts in strategic weapons soap Bubble Lime. But those with kindergarten experience in foreign policy know that the Only kind of cuts we Are or should be seriously interested in those that would deprive he soviet Union of an effective first strike threat either by nuclear or by conventional weapons Aren t going to happen. At this Jesse Jackson weighs in with the astonishing intelligence that he is the most practice Man in town in the exercise of foreign policy. He said thai in a Circle that included the vice president who was also head of the Cia ambassador to the . And ambassador to China and another who was commander of nato chief of staff of the White House and Secretary of state Jesse Jackson never fails to re establish his credentials As the greatest con Man in politics whence his singular Charm. When Dukakis was asked if there were Circum stances under which he would Sanction a move against Nicaragua he said yes if Nicaragua were to be armed with offensive weapons. I think or. Dukakis intended us to understand him to say Hal if Nicaragua were apprehended As Cuba once was with nuclear missiles then he would be in favor of an anti sandinista policy. What we Are now doing he declaimed is among other things flatly illegal. Illegal that s what the governor of Massachusetts said. But does t article 52 of the United nations charter permit regional arrangements involving Secu Rity and in t the evolution of a Warsaw pact Power in Central America something that warrants regional Security arrangements and what about the Rio treaty signed in 1947, whose language is that an armed at tack by any stale against an american state shall be considered As an attack against All the american states if Nicaragua s 52 billion of soviet weapons is less than an aggressive Arsenal what is in correctly termed a world s fair sen. Paul Simon said that we were preoccupied with Nicaragua that we were paying no attention to mexi co which is he kindly supplied the figures 30 times w big As Nicaragua. But to say Hal we Are preoccupied with Nicaragua is a Lille like saying thai the British and French in 1941 were preoccupied with Poland or that in i960, Nixon and Kennedy were preoccupied Wilh Quemoy and Matsu. Nicaragua is the Center of Effort of he soviet offensive in the Western Hemi sphere. Why make a fuss Over Gibraltar come 10 think of in Why make a fuss Over sen. Simon when the discussion turned to the Mideast one discovered that the democrats have no strategy in the Mideast unless one Calls an approval of anything is Rael docs a strategy to be likened to a disapproval of anything South Africa does. But in this respect the democrats arc not very different from the republicans and it is True that the democrats Tun jaw for a while Over the ineptness of or. Reagan s initiative toward Iran in 1986 the republicans would have done the same if it had been Carter though ineptitude by Carter is less noticeable for being More of he same than ineptitude by Reagan which is unusual. Hie audience might safely conclude that the democratic candidates live off the kind of cliches thai go into the formation of things like one world Union now the committee for a sane nuclear policy and the democratic party of 1988. The Hitatt cok jmj a Jert Sofii on 0vi it front px3w no Ihbe null and Hill no War 10 w n r in in new of Tim sind so Ripe a me uni Ltd sum o
