European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 25, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes . Rosenthal Waldheim and Austria deserve each other millions of air Stikans wanted Kurt Wald Helm for president. They knew what he was and they elected him. Austrian who voted for him knowing should stick with him. In ills presidential Palace in Vienna Kurt Waldheim is a Fine reminder to his supporters of inc ?.i Era which Austria supported with such Picc and profit. True he is also a reminder to the rest of the world and thai is malting him an itchy cig he around their necks now. 11 might be a Relief to fling it away scratch and once More proclaim Austria the victim or nazism All who voted for him could Pui it Down As an tin Fortu Nate episode blown up by the jews but they got what they wanted in Waldheim. It would surpass even the viennese record of hypocrisy Tor his supporters to turn against him now. For the rest of us it docs no great harm to witness the reminder of austrian loyalty to he Days when garbage was thrown on Vienna s streets so thai the jews could scrub them on hands and Knees. Of course not All austrians voted for Waldheim and they too arc paling a Price for him. They Are sensitive to Western contempt for him. And economic conditions Are bad. Austrian businessmen complain that a president who lied for More Hian 40 years about his role Small but very efficient in the nazi murder machine is not much help to tourism and other industries. Austrians who voted against him do have the right to try to push him out. But whether he slays or goes docs not matter much now. Kurt Waldheim will be Long to Aumeria for a Long Lime until it is forgotten that the country thai was Hitler s eager partner elected him knowing what he is. Hut already it is being forgotten thai the Garcal pow ers of the world including the soviet Union and the United slates gave this Man the most prestigious and important Job in International diplomacy the Posl of Secretary general of inc United nations. He was i aptly what they were looking for. One Secretary general. Dag Hammarskjold of Sweden had turned out to be a Man of intellect who tried id do some thinking for himself. The Greal Powers that have the final word about the Job were stunned. They resolved it would never Hap pen again. When the Job was open in 1970 they searched until they found in Waldheim inc right combination of mediocrity and malleability the Secretary general s office is no place for a free Wheeling crusader. But he must have enough sell re sport to build some esteem for himself and his Post in the Halls . Tom Wicker it is Clear now that Waldheim could never have done that. He was living a lie. He kept repealing in he had been wounded out of the German army in im1 and then studied Law. The truth was that in 1941 he was assigned to the Balkans and for three Yean served As an officer in the intelligence operation Deal ing with the deportation and Slaughter of hundreds of thousands of greeks serbs italians and jews. He was indicted by the yugoslavs As a War criminal and listed in inc . S locked War crimes file As a Man who should be put on trial. Possibly he did not order War crimes himself. But an International panel of historians found he mail have known of the atrocities did nothing to Stop hem and worked thereafter 10 conceal his participation. He knew enough to hide. The troubling mystery is How Waldheim whose re Cord was known after the War to intelligence specialists in Yugoslavia the soviet Union the United slates Britain France Germany and Austria got away with it for so Many years. Or did he somebody knew. In All those countries somebody knew All those years he was climbing up in the austrian foreign office. Somebody knew when he was named Secretary general and during the decade he sat on the . I 38th floor. And of course he knew All the time that somebody knew. Is it really possible that for four decides not one Agency from one country tapped Waldheim on the shoulder a and reminded him of what they both knew now faced with mounting evidence of his involve ment he still refuses to admit inc truth he warts in language aus Rinns can understand about outside interference those others. He has dropped the Bland mask he carried for so Long at the , and at new York parties. Kurt Waldheim is no longer Boring. While he sits in his Palace each person each nation can decide what to do about him. Only two or three world figures including the Pope have received i m. Most of the world keeps its Back turned. Austria and Kun Waldheim wanted each other. Per haps it is just As Well that they keep each other. American pessimism should t Surprise anyone no one should be surprised it May even be salutary that some americans have confessed to poll lakers that they no longer believe the nation s future will be better than its present or its past. These americans were Only acknowledging what has Long been happen ing but what too Many of us have refused to perceive or believe. The economic Power of the . Has declined relative to its competitors so has its military might and the world s wealthiest nation has sunk deeply into debt. In la  grind of living crises of drug abuse education aging health and the Environ ment nag the National consciousness. Aids the new plague already has diminished Lac individual Freedom some thought had been enhanced in the 60s. Facial and religious backlash seems on the Rise threatening Many but disclosing aha the angry or anguished discontent of others Ronald Reagan came along in i960, with his genial optimism and his promises of Power redeemed to paper Over the traces of decline and disarray. He could still do in in 1984. Aided by partial eco nomic recover and padded military Bud gets but by now even the pied Piper of morning in America seems jaded and a bit off key a lame Duck of inc spirit As Well As the office. Only 13 percent of respondents to the lbs news new York times poll approved Reagan s handling of the econ omy. Most linked their restrained View of the future to economic problems some citing the oct. 19 Stock Market crash. And though the same respondents expressed More optimism about their own than about the nation s future Many voiced fears for their livelihood. No wonder though unemployment has dropped below 6 percent of the work Force that s still nearly twice what was considered Normal 20 years ago and does t include the millions of unemployed who have stopped looking for work. For Blacks and some other groups moreover unemployment remains Well above 6 percent. The Specter of foreign Competition and Plant closings hangs Over much of � Orf cing class America. Most jobs being created in iln.1 ., moreover Are now in the service sector some of them Good jobs but too Many demanding less skill and pay ing less than the Industrial sector jobs that once made american workers Well off. Millions of those workers have been downscale Laid off from challenged or vanished industries to lower paying lower status service jobs. For Young people and not a few of Inci r eld ers upward mobility is less a certainty than a Hope buying a House is not so much an american As a Distant dream. Even the affluent have plenty to worry them the decline of smokestack Industry Competition abroad in higher Lech Fields the stagnation of american productivity the Trade and Federal Bud. A. A banking system threatened -r., the invasion of foreign investors not to mention oct. 19 and a Market teetering since then. A nation accustomed to thinking of itself As no. I in the world s Economy has had a rude Awakening. Almost As shaking has been the realization that Nei ther arc we any longer no. I militarily. There can be no such thing Between nuclear armed superpowers which also arc prone to stumble into quagmires like Vietnam and Afghanistan where their kind of Power does t work Well. Rea Gan s swollen budgets notwithstanding. . Military pre Eminence exists today Only in the spurious dreams of those at the drawing boards of a strategic do sense initiative thai May never Fly. Every Day moreover the More specific crises of the times Buist from the headlines. . Businessmen following the shuttle failures turn to the soviet Union for ventures into space. California Passis a Law to Force companies to Post warnings about Lac logic effect of 29 common Industrial and commercial substances with 149 others later to be added to the lilt of Public dangers. Not just Colombia but Panama and perhaps Honduras Are Laker Over by an illicit drug Empire that relies primarily on eager american Consumers Many of them school age. So it s neither surprising nor dismay ing if americans for these and other Rea sons no longer look to Lac future with boundless sometimes mindless optimism. The new realism if sustained is badly needed. It s better to we things As they arc than through the eyes of Boom in and promoters from whose Lund pitch so much a slag and deception Al ready has resulted. Besides if americans Stop tooling so eagerly 10 Lac future maybe they can begin to look with More interest and undemanding to the past Flora whence after All they came