European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 18, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes William Safire soviet leaders eager for a successful Summit Are you looking Forward to the Sura Mil when that question is asked of Georgi Arbatova. He soviet propagandist he Light and substitutes a less enthusiastic verb we re willing for the he strikes thai no big Donl pose Tor a purpose. The impression he wan 11 to leave it thai Hie Reagan Gorbachev meeting in Moscow is of no overriding importance to the Kremlin. What will be will be if no new strategic treaty perhaps an outline of a treaty. Abalov is an accurate purveyor of the party line and the opposite or what he would have us believe is invariably True. On Hal theory of consistent pc varied lion we can deduce that the russians arc eager for even anxious about agreements Al inc Summit con Ference Vhal makes this Summit so special to them first ii is inc overture to the much More important event in Moscow Neit month inc communist party con Ference. The superpower meeting was set for the begin Ning of june not merely because Nancy Reagan s Friend found the stars in favourable alignment but because Raisa Goi Bachch s husband needs a surge of popularity to help him carry the Day at the subsequent Kremlin showdown. Tulk about the world turned upside Down we All know will happen at the democratic and Republican party conventions but we Don t know what will happen at the communist party convention. The rubber stamp is on the other foot or. Gorbachev recognizing inc inability of the communist system to maintain superpower status into the next Century has patched together a coalition of the to disc Trench the party Nomen Latu a these newly correlated anti bureaucracy forces in clude the Andropov Kab the technology minded fac Tion in the army the Imelli Colsia which has Long resented the party Privily Gensia and has been entranced by glasnost the outsiders that Lenin listed to Call the useful idiots of the West and of All peo ple selected representatives of the soviet Peoples Many of whom Are now startled to find their letters being printed in newspapers blasting recalcitrant party members. You wanted us to become More pluralistic smiles Abalov the new Democrat now we Are the party membership is fighting Back which is whal makes june s party conference less predictable than before. My guess is that or. Gorbachev will be allowed to do the dirty work and then some Lime later a party mollify ing replacement will be chosen to carry out much of his per Stroika. The second reason this Reagan visit is so important to the Gorbach Viles the new regime is desperate for West pm help. It seems to he on the Way. West germans arc Andrew j. Glass shelling out billions in financing our Secretary of com Merce blessed inc dispatch of a plan Load of 400 . Businessmen to Moscow to Speed soviet recovery and Excia men Arthur Macy Cox and William Colby wooed Arbatova with a dismaying display of self flagellation and moral equivalency. Far More prudent is the advice from it Gen Wil Liam Odom the Brzezinski an strategist soon to step Down from leadership of the National Security Agency we should applaud Perc Stroika but not finance it Secretary of state Sulu is closing his eyes to the weakness revealed by the new thinking s need to revile past Dogma. He still Speaks of "15 percent to 17 per cent of inc soviet Gnu spent on arms a figure that Many embarrassed Cia analysts Are already jacking upward in Light of soviet admissions of no growth in the 80s. Moscow s arms budget not including the cast of Empire is closer to 25 percent sustainable Only by great consumer hardship which should be Central 10 our Summit negotiating strategy. For americans on the eve of our news free political conventions the Central line of question ing should concern itself with he real topic a soviet economic vulnerability. Is it in America s National interest to bail out inc failing soviet sys tem to help or. Gorbachev succeed in bringing about aul Cratie Rule with a human face would they become like us or regain the strength to resume subversion would Trade and lessened pres sure Dull the desire for a Market system that Breeds individual Freedom like Gorbachev we should negotiate at the sum Mit with one Eye on his party conference. We should let him strut about like a statesman if he will Stop arms shipment 10 Iran and begin to reverse soviet imperialism in Eastern Europe Africa he Caribbean and the far East linkage lives that would be a Summit message to look Forward id. New Toft thu a was Ink revised theories on War Bode Well for peace Moscow geography dictates that eight Lime zones must forever separate Moscow and Washington history asks whether in the eighth decade of this Vio Lent Century these two capitals can unite to scale Back their armed rivalry. That question May not be answered when Ronald Reagan arrives Here Al the end of the month. When it comes to summits presidential Lasics run toward visits with Black Robed monks in White monasteries or glittering ballets at the Bolshoi. There in t Tiuch Media mileage Al least for the cameras in an Amis control dialogue Between Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev what s More it does t appear that an Accord embodying deep cuts in strategic nuclear weapons will be ready Al the Moscow Summit superpower negotiators talk about inc treaty being so percent finished As if they Are putting up an Zoitke building that still needs windows. Yet unless and until that edifice gets a final certificate of approval it can t function. Nevertheless it still May be possible that the up coming Summit will bring More than the usual press hoopla. With a whole generation of soviet generals gelling ready to retire signs abound Hal new think ing a favorite Gorbachev phrase on the nature of the superpower rivalry can Lake Root Here. Even members of the old guard Are planting these new seeds. One of them is Anatoly Dobrynin who had served since the 1962 cuban missile crisis As the Polit buro of agent in Washington and who currently Over sees foreign affairs for the communist parly s Power Ful Central com Millie. Dobrynin says that both sides need to Frame norms of behaviour to limit military action and to regulate regional conflicts that could escalate into world what he Means quite simply is hat the superpowers must prove to one another that they arc willing to forgo 40 years of Monkey business and As a recent joint soviet american task Force Pui it no longer seek to Advance or defend regional objectives through the use of direct or indirect military while the parallels Are inexact the reciprocal Deba cles hat the United states suffered in Vietnam and the soviet Union underwent in Afghanistan May have loosened a deep psychological Barrier one that will permit Mutual revisions of War fighting doctrines. In Vietnam and Afghanistan both the Pentagon and the soviet general Staft came to adopt the View that in wartime All enemy citizens territory and properly must be attacked in every possible Way since War itself is a political act Hal is a continuation of dipl Macy by another Means. That dictum framed by a prussian general Karl Yon Claus Wili who died in 1ij1 has had a great Impact on military strategy and ladies in our limes. Once fierce cold warriors such a Georgi Abalov another of Gorbachev s key americ apologists say clause with no longer works. We or in a very strange situation Arbatova told me. You a n no longer wage even conventional War around Itu Ciu. Power plants and there Are 200 of them in Europe today or around toxic chemical plants because you will end up destroying your own forces As Well. So we have changed our military Doc Trine even though some of our politicians and generals still think in the old Way you could fashion a scenario in Poland or Panama that could sorely test such new thinking on both sides. Still both sides May come to fathom that neither of them can achieve Security through unilateral military programs and that in fact the Security of each directly depends on the restraint and cooperation of the other. Moscow and Washington might Honor that approach even without signing a treaty promising to obey it. Com n4�rt 5 a the opinions expressed in the columns us cd Totoiu or this Page represent those of Ibe authors Mil an in no Tny to be considered u representing the Erlewi of tie Stan and stripes or the United sum government
