European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 15, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes tuesday Dace bar 15,1987 William Safire Summit Agenda was primarily soviet Agenda Here is the Central fact of the recent Summit meeting Mikhail Gorbachev spent Only 330 minutes in so called working sessions with president Reagan including lunch bul spent 420 minutes in hard Selling the new soviet line to awestruck celebrities gaga politicians an i Ous Mossmen Tongue lied Media executives and a f list rated press corps the russian la p the american president Coaling his heels for an hour As he pressed the flesh of passers by. Gorbachev s fellow campaigner George Bush posed for a dual candidate Victory wave then stood beaming at the Edge of the crowd basking in reflected b by. The vice president Long the chief Mourner at world class funerals was surely the chief Fawner at thl submit. Noi Only did he bring his Iowa and no v harm shirt political operatives to a breakfast love feast Vilh Gorbachev Bush wooed Iowa farm ers by assuring the soviet Leader thai the american taxpayer would continue to subsidize Grain sales i know of n one. Who might head a future administration rho would advocate using Grain a 4 Wear  Gorbachev then helped the Iowa Campaign by ordering so tons. The communist Leader by the Way he chose to spend his time made Clear he considers Reagan Only temporarily relevant. Because sen Sam Nunn has blocked testing of a space shield permitted by a Broad interpretation of the abm treaty Gorbachev was Able to go along with n Summit reference to thai treaty As signed and not As the russians originally wanted a signed and ratified which would have meant As senator Nunn narrowly interprets  despite while House protestations to the contrary the Man from Moscow succeeded in making arms control the Central Issue indeed the Only negotiated Issue at this Summit. Human rights Afghanistan conventional reductions our bugged embassy in mos cow All were raised by us Only to be dismissed by them. In the end the Agenda was the soviet Agenda Reagan signed one arms reduction treaty and agreed to a deadline for a Moscow Summit hat pressures him to make concessions on another. With at this going in Gorbachev s favor dominating conversations going Over the president s head limiting Progress to his Only interest he soviet Leader proceeded to overplay his hand. It happened in his endless news  the entire affair was broadcast by Cable news there by making up for the Way can s Ted Turner made a fawning foot of himself at the Media big shots Audi ence Tike Captain Queen on the witness stand Gorbachev became overconfident his Boorish domineering Side manifested itself and suddenly peace Loving Anthony Lewis or. Jekyll was replaced by dissent crushing or. Hyde. He excoriated the reporters for even thinking of asking about the Skull cracking of dissidents who tested his adherence to the Helsinki treaty. We have not 4,000, not 2,000, nil 500, but Only 22 individuals who Are imprisoned in our country for such activity he said compounding this lie with there Are Only 122 persons who have been refused permission to  Tell that to the thousands of refuseniks persecuted for their religion As glasnost encourages organized anti semitism he worked himself up to hurl Defi Ance at a crowd that had not defied him no matter what you say no matter what you shout at us we shall not let hem  his bullying diatribe triggered by his own bottled up resentments went on and on finally he permitted questions deriding the raised hands As this auction and then contemptuously brushed the questions aside what of his adversary who is supposed to represent human Freedom he has just changed his world View. To a group of favored pundits Reagan revealed a turn about in his lifelong opinion of the soviet Union s expansionist Mission in the past soviet Leaden have openly expressed their acceptance of the marxian theory of the one world communist stale. He is the first and Only Leader that has never affirmed  after hearing what he wanted to hear in what Gorbachev has not said our president radically changed his assessment of the soviet Union s goal. I no longer feel that Way the Moscow or bust Reagan says now. His overnight abandonment of realism his notion that a change online and style Marks a Basic change of purpose suggests that Reagan has slipped his Strate Gic moorings. In the absence of Progress on modifying aggressive soviet behaviour the president should forgo another Summit meeting limited to the subject thai most suits soviet interests. No tort to Laws no  understanding the two faces of soviet society Steij confident and charming. Defensive and truculent the Mikhail Gorba Chev we saw was both those men. Our image of soviet leaders operating behind Walls was shattered by this figure leaping out of his limousine to shake hands on a Washington Street what could show More self Confidence than a russian ready to play politics by american rules pressing the Hesh working the cameras face to face he charmed even conservatives. But when he was asked about human rights he bristled we re not going to let the americans lecture us he told a gather ing of publishers and editors. Why does t he american administration Trust 280 Mil lion soviet people who made their Choice of government ? and again at his final press conference the soviet people made their Choice in 1917." the two Gorbachev arc both realities and we Are going to have to reckon with them. We must iry to understand Why and How the coexist. When Gorbachev says his people made their Choice in 1917." he is not Likely to persuade Mil americans. The russian revolution  earned out by a Small disciplined minority. In our sense of democracy the soviet people never have had a Choice a free election. The United states Constitution was. Written As it happens by a Small elite group of men. But they took extraordinary Steps to test Public acceptance of their work. Each of the 13 states had its own convention to decide whether to ratify uie Constitution and some were closely divided. The Day Gorbachev came to washing Ion dec 7, was the 200th anniversary of the first stale ratification Delaware s. Could it be then that some sub conscious doubt about the soviet system s legitimacy explains Gorbachev s defensive Ness thai is a natural thought for Ameri cans Given our history. But those who know the . Well see no such self doubt in the leadership. Uliey offer another explanation. David k. Shinier was the Moscow correspondent of the new York times for Yean. In his Book Russia broken idols solemn dreams he describes a time he was among passengers waiting to gel on a plane in soviet Central Asia. A stewardess made them Iland in the rain while she checked their tickets. Finally an elderly Man asked whether she could t Check them inside the plane. She began screaming at him anarchy  from czarist limes in Russia Power has looked fragile to those at the top no matter How formidable it looked from the Bottom. There has been a fear of instability of anarchy. That stewardess Shiplor said was genuinely frightened by the idea of changing her routine. And so today the notion of free debate of diversity Mav arouse fears of anarchy in the soviet Union. And not Only among those who exercise Power the fear runs deep in the culture. There is another phenomenon that Bridges czarist and soviet Russia an ambivalence toward the West we re better than you bul we envy you to be treated by foreigners As morally flawed 10 be pressured by them is a matter of extreme sensitivity. In those terms it is possible to under stand How a Man who seems so at ease with himself As a politician and so ingratiating can give angry and unconvincing answers on human rights for example thai All those Kepi from emigrating know sure screw or that the Wisl is trying id organise a born Drain. Gorbachev cannot be seen. At Home As if he were being pushed around on the Issue. It is probably True too that he simply does not understand american feelings about human rights. He really seems to be Lieve that anyone who raises the question journalist or cons Osman or whoever docs so Only to score a political Point. Of course the  the cultural sensitivities do not run Only one Way. Americans find it hard to understand Hal russians and others May be sincerely shocked Al the disparities of wealth and poverty in this country or thai not every .  in latin America or Afri Ca is regarded As Beneficent. All this makes the Success of this Summit meeting the More striking. Two systems and iwo leaders who Are so different Man age nevertheless to find common ground we even saw Sointu Qiying familiar in Gorba Chev a Tough politician with a sure enough sense of  to Deal. But it would be Good if this meeting could begin to Widen our understanding too. At his press conference Gorbachev welcomed the fact Hal in military affairs each Side now knows so much about the other. Know ledge i a Good thing indeed he said. That is not Only inic of weapons