European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 9, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 columns the stars and stripes Jim Fain Nixon s new Book says a lot about Richard say this of Richard Nixon he s inc most indestructible perennial in inc political Garden a human Kudzu Vine. He to swarm every Spring usually with speeches to Trade gatherings of newspaper editors who Art overwhelmed by i Wisdom. I fed i was present at the creation of this factitious overachiever. 1 watched the checker telecast break the sound Barrier of groveling. I be followed him since with the won Der a cat s i oth through 18th incarnations might inspire. A dogged survivor. Niton fulfils every Promise of the youth who sat on the Bench four Yean As football scrub and chauffeured Pat on dates with other men until she discovered that marriage was the Only Way to rid herself of his attentions. He was asking aides within a month of his unprecedented disgrace As president How lie might recover approval. He campaigns to throw off the stigma of a pardoned Felon As doggedly As he pursued office. He takes no not As an answer but As an invitation to Waltz. Nixon manipulated his Public Ity Sun Hunt this year to dog a new Book "1999 Victory without War which he claims encapsulates what he s Learned in this Vale of tears. I believe "1999" parrots the entire conventional Wisdom about the cold War and debates its banalities using inc tested Nixon technique of Selling up a Straw Man of absurd alternatives and solemnly Balling it Down i ally because he has been blessed with inept successors and mainly be cause americans assume a world class survivor must know something he is com ing to he viewed As elder statesman. Cub Manga incs and to talk shows assure a he is Back whatever that May mean. William f. Buckley Well of sort of. The Book is no More harmful than most. It s a defense of real Pollik which a what Nixon and Kissinger thought they were playing. It relies on Reader naivete it promises Utopia but neglects to say How to gel there. Nixon favors Star wars while admitting it cannot protect human life As Reagan vows. He sees it As a shield for offensive missile Fields a realistic though costly goal and wants to fit exotic new missiles under ils umbrella. He likes them Al my Midge Man d-5, you name it. He urges beefed up conventional forces and wants exponential increases in foreign Aid. How to pay he does t say. He do the expletive taxation but is eager to get on with compassion Reagan abhors. Re admonishes us to solve the problems of the Urban underclass the homeless the poor the a Strong Economy is essential he airily Points out while neglecting to include in recipe. His prescription is not unlike will Rogers suggestion for ending inc submarine menace in world War i. Just raise the temperature of the Ocean 0 degrees will recommended asked How he replied i gave you the concept you work out inc enough carping. We d be poorer without the irony of Nixon lecturing us on the role of Faith and spirit in the american dream. A Nobel laureate of tenacity his example says More about redemption of sin than a platoon of prodigal sons. He and we will be kicking each other around Well into the Neil m in minium. I can hear him on judgment Day wings of Flung. Halo Askew twang ing his Harp with Pri Crish lessons on the geography of Paradise and Little Hom Ilies on How to deter negotiate Wilh and finally outlast those sinners Down below. Co howl sol Vic president s conciliatory overture belies reality although a White House representative was Quick to Tell the press that Ronald Reagan s Posy to Mikhail Gorbachev was unrelated to the forthcoming Summit conference the headlines were unambiguous Reagan credits Gorbachev on human an unidentified spokesman of the Reagan administration quickly supplanted the interpretation of the first spokesman to say that indeed the speech had been a conscious attempt to strike a Concilia Tor note in Advance of the Summit and Ilean t reasonably be supposed that the president had any other purpose in mind. Just two weeks ago Reagan accused the soviets of trying to prop up their discredited doomed puppet regime in Kabul despite soviet agreement to with draw its troops from Afghanistan. That speech had brought Forth from Gorbachev thunderous denunciations of inc usual son. The diplomatic world Ziniti when oct Jvon Aily re minded of Reagan s rhetoric on the subject of soviet Domestic practices in the held of human rights. Two weeks ago in a Public forum at Texas am a former British prime minister was asked How he could account for the poll published six months ago revealing that the majority of britons deemed Reagan a greater threat to the peace of the world than Gorbachev. He replied that of course it was untrue that Reagan threatened the peace of the world but that Many europeans were still traumatized by the president s reference to the soviet Union s evil Empire a Tew years ago ten minutes after tendering his explanation for British resentment of Reagan s rhetorical excess in answer to another question asking what should be the goal of the West in its Inai ment of inc soviet government lord James Callaghan ventured that the Primacy of Western concern should be not Only with peace bul with human rights. We have got to Tell the soviet government that we cannot consider it to be civilized until it Grants human rights to ils a participant in the forum observed that Callaghan was evidently attempting to formulate some thing Between an evil Empire and an uncivilized Empire. The audience was left to weigh the difference Between evil and uncivilized. An african tribe Given say to random genocide and wholesale Slaugh Ter like Idi Amin s would be Check one but not both i evil or 2. Uncivilized. Hard concentration on the difference Between the two propels us to Ristic verbal invention. One might say that the indians who in the i bin Century insisted on burning the live widow in the course of inferring the dead husband were uncivilized i.e., they did not now better. But the soviet government is not readily likened to Hose who Are uncivilized As a result of cultural ignorance. The soviet government is the heir of a body of humane literature merely suggested by the names of Gogol Dostoevski and Tolstoy the soviet government signed the Helsinki accords which promised to enforce those rights the soviet government ratified in 97 when in ratified the United nations declaration on human rights which re ratified rights guaranteed under the soviet Constitution of 1936. It cannot be said of the soviet Union that it is merely uncivilized lacking in any knowledge of How civilized governments behave in respect of Freedom of religion of speech of Assembly and of due process the gentlemen who preside Over the soviet govern ment Are not ignorant of the ten commandments or of the work of the biblical prophets of Locke Blackstone and Mill. The soviet government is Barba Rous because it chooses o be barbarous. All of which is intensely relevant to the conduct of International relations in pan because we desire free Dom for soviet citizens in part because inc energizing animus of american foreign policy requires thai we focus on soviet practices rather than on soviet con Ceils. The soviet government b a credible threat to the american Way of life Only for so Long As we understand the searing differences Between life there and life Over Here. None of this disputes Reagan j cautious com mend Arioni of the slight improvements in soviet lire under Gorbachev but to encourage he illusion hat a year or two of glasnost and pure Seraika alter the Basic recognition of the soviet onion As a totalitarian society is to pour Sand in o the
