European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 4, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 columns Anthony Lewis the stars and stripes some Summit events really were astonishing Valery n. So1fer was a highly placed soviet molecular biologist. In 1978 he applied to emigrate to Israel. He immediately lost his Job and for 10 years he lived the painful life of a ref Ulcnik. He finally got out this past March and he is now a visiting professor at Ohio stale with Hal history. Or. Soifer is nol easy to convince that the soviet state is changing. So his reaction was striking when i asked him what he thought about the scenes in Moscow these last few Days. He was optimistic even enthusiastic about the Summit meeting s portents for soviet society. "1 was surprised he said that one of the students Al Moscow University asked president Reagan openly about his meeting with the dissidents and Rufu Schiks. Always before people who heard about such things from the bbl or the voice of America never asked about them in a Public forum. They were afraid. It s a new step in the development of democracy Moil of us would see nothing special in that student question or other things hat struck Soifer. His re action is a reminder that Only those who really know soviet society citizens or Western residents Are Likely to appreciate How astonishing some of the events in and around this Summit conference were. Andrei Sakharov and pc Luna Bonner coming As honoured guests to the president s dinner for Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev holding a Public press Confer ence his first at Home Boris Yeltsin the former mos cow parly chief calling in a television interview for the removal of conservative Yegor Migachev from the to William Safire lit buro. Small demonstrations in the streets going on without immediate repression by the Kab. Gorbachev resented the emphasis Reagan put on human rights. Even the former . Ambassador Mal Colm Toon who made his Mark As a Lough critic of the .s.r. Said the president had done too much Public hectoring to be effective. Bui the fact is that Gorbachev and his government accepted the legitimacy of human rights As a concern to a remarkable degree. For a soviet Leader and All his principal officials to sit Down at a dinner with Andrei Sakharov is a powerful Symbol and one quite unimaginable before the Gorbachev Era. Richard Schifler assistant Secretary of stale for human rights rightly warned against illusions. The soviet Union is still a one party state he said. The is still in Bui he went on to make the crucial Point that the fact of the two governments regularly discussing human rights is itself a significant change. A few years ago the entire process would have been simply unthinkable he said. We have begun to Dis cuss such issues As involuntary commitment to psychiatric institutions and the role of the courts. I do not believe that discussions of this kind would be productive if there were no real constituency for a change within the soviet government the fourth Reagan Gorbachev Summit Confer ence produced no great breakthrough on the major political issues of arms control and regional conflict. Gorbachev said he was disappointed at the Lack of Progress toward the Start arms reduction agreement. The talks on Angola and Namibia ended with a Wishful statement about the need for agreement by september but Here again the process itself was important. For example an american Secretary of defense came to the soviet Union for the first time. Frank Carlucci negotiated with the soviet defense minister Dimitri Watov that was a notable sign that the two superpowers now accept the necessity the unavoidably of dealing with each other on the hardest questions of War and peace. Silence must never again be permitted to fall be tween us he president said at his dinner for Ronald Reagan to say such things was of course a wonder. When asked to explain what had happened to him or to reality since he denounced the evil Empire he gave rather lame answers. Bui nobody could fail to see that he believed Gorbachev wanted real change and that he wanted to help. There has been he said wednesday a profound change of policy in the soviet Union. The very fact of an american president spending four very Public Days in Moscow May contribute to the opening of soviet society Soifer recalled the disappointment when Dwight Eisenhower s planned visit was cancelled. The Reagan Gorbachev meetings in Moscow he said will help to change stereotypes and open soviet minds to the world democracy in t Bustin out All Over in Moscow the pressure to embrace Mikhail Gorbachev As the apostle of democratization and disarmament proved Loo much for Ronald Reagan this week the Summit Cring president repeatedly attributing he Trucl soviet human rights policy to Mere bureaucratic inertia publicly declared the evil Empire to be a thing of the past "1 was speaking of another Lime another Gorbachev noting this turnabout with Pride hailed his former adversary s new sense of real you really have to be Here in Moscow to feel the urge to conform to the new soviet non conformity criticism of the old regime is not merely permitted on a scale unprecedented in soviet life but it is organized and orchestrated with such gusto that it appears democracy is busting out All Over. It s not. Some of the manipulation of world opinion is of the most cynical variety. To Pitchman Vladimir Posner who was the Kremlin mouthpiece in the shooting Down of the korean Airliner now joins the chorus condemning inc bureaucracy he served. Gennadi Gerasimov the handsome press spokes Man who has been wiping up the floor with his poorly prepared . Counterpart explains that he was writing about the ., nol the soviet Union in the previous the tables in inc Summit press Center groan with booklets in every language peddling the new anti party party Tine. The bankruptcy of the communist system was the fault of the Brezhnev pics and stalinist goes this Alibi for 70 years of failure and now ii is up to the soviet Peoples to banish the party Hacks while the Western world should help out with we Active disarmament and Trade to be fair not All of glasnost is manipulation. When Boris Yeltsin the Moscow party Boss ousted for being Loo reformist told the bbl he thought Yegor Liga Chev inc More conservative ideologue should step Down Hal Public disagreement was evidence that limes arc changing. And Yevgeny Yevtushenko tells me with a poet s passion that inc revelations of Glas Nosi have wiped out ignorance of the past and made it impossible for anyone to be a naive stalinist offi Cial encouragement of exposure of crimes has created a seme of excitement and wonder. But the hard sell is unmistakable. The bad Guys of bureaucracy Are still present we Are warned and May Challenge the new Gorbachev Good Guys at the forthcoming parly conference. With perestroika thus endangered by the party foot daggers Ameri can economic cooperation is needed to help the Gorbachev Mcswin. We arc doomed to cooperate Gorbachev insists. Perestroika the More dependent we arc on each other economically. Inc More predictable we Are docs America really have no Choice turn his remark around to catch the implicit threat if the two super Powers remain economically Independent there s no idling what political turmoil will erupt in the soviet Union. The message help the new regime or else. Now we arc at the nub of the matter is it in America s National interest to support Gorbachev to Campaign openly for him in Moscow As Reagan is doing and to make it possible for him to put consumer goods in his people s impatient hands or will inc lowering of our guard and Extension of our credit give Gorbachev a breathing spell Wilt such help make less necessary the cutback of his troops in Europe and Aid to Cuba will it boost his technology and Patch up his Economy. Idling him slip past his crisis without putting in place a Market Economy that leads to political Freedom our purpose is to help induce systemic change in what surely has been and what a dwindling band of us think still is the Center of tyranny terrorism and aggression in the world. Our strategy cannot be to pro vide the Means to avoid such Basic changes to save a system that offers pluralism when in trouble and stalinism when Back on its feel. It May be that inc soviet Union is on the capitalist Road and the cold War is ending but it also May be that Gorbachev is a Khrushchev Ian Flash in the pan or is a Leader shrewd enough to take advantage of our Hopes As Lenin did with his new economic plan. No body knows docs it not make sense then to wish him Well to negotiate arms reductions without any deadline pres sure of inauguration Day and to do nothing to remove his painful incentive to change let inc Kremlin leaders Stew in the juices of an arms overhead four limes the percentage of ours. Let them feel the heat from a Public resentful of guns before butter. Let them tear Down the Berlin Wall pull their mercenaries out of Angola and Stop persecuting dissidents. Only then should we cooperate Wilh the oort a Chov party line. Fflint Loiti to i
