European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 22, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Daily Ivi Magazine Mickey mouse welcomes prime minister Karoly Grosz of Hungary to Disneyland during United states visit in july. Hungary buoyed by soviet reforms Nyji Hoagland and Michael Dobbs the Washington Post the decline in cold War tensions engineered by president Reagan and soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev has significantly reduced the risk of renewed soviet intervention in Eastern Europe said hungarian Leader Karoly Grosz. While firmly defending the soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956 and of Czechoslovakia in 1968 As necessary to prevent civil War Grosz maintained in Budapest that the Effort to have More detente rendered questions about new soviet interventions in Eastern Europe moot. What May have been right 20 and 32 years ago is not sure to be right today the hungarian Leader said. People do not think the  Grosz who conferred with both Reagan and Gorbachev in recent visits to Washington and Moscow indicated that the soviet Union no longer needed to fear that America would intervene if some kind of conflict arose in one of its Eastern european satellites. His answer came in response to a question about possible soviet reaction if civil strife were to erupt in neighbouring Romania. In a one-hour-and-45-minute interview conducted in his spacious office in the parliament building in Budapest the new hungarian Leader who took Over As party chief in May also made these Points Gorbachev emerged from a special soviet communist party conference in july in a stronger position to push for economic and political reforms at Home. Grosz portrayed this development As fortifying the cause of Reform throughout the bloc. Nato has missed an Opportunity to reduce weaponry in Europe by not agreeing to a soviet bid to Trade the withdrawal of 72 . F-16 fighter bombers from Western Europe for a withdrawal of soviet planes from Hungary. The gesture by Gorbachev has not met a response. So we will keep the 72 planes of ours in the air the hungarian Leader said. He reiterated that soviet troop withdrawals from Eastern Europe would be made Only in the context of reciprocal reductions negotiated with nato. But he specified that Hungary would like to be at the top of the list of countries from which troops would be withdrawn. We want to be a Pilot country in every respect including this one Grosz said. He cited with approval the View that since Hungary was not on the Central front along which North Atlantic treaty organization and Warsaw pact troops confront each other reductions Here would not seriously affect combat readiness. Hungarian officials said they could offer no explanation for an unusual briefing Given by . Officials in Washington in july predicting that Gorbachev was about to announce a unilateral withdrawal of some or All of the 65,000 soviet troops stationed in Hungary. Diplomatic sources said Washington had been responding to reports from the Field about remarks by soviet and hungarian officials to that effect and had sought to limit the political credit Gorbachev would have achieved if he East Germany 200 Miles user Polando " Prague Czechoslovakia Westerman budapest3 Hungary Vienna Austria Danube River Belgrade Yugoslavia Rousse Bulgaria Chicago Tribune map had made such an announcement. Grosz who displaced Veteran communist Leader Janos Kadar As general Secretary of the ruling hungarian party said military commanders on both sides were resisting significant reductions in conventional arms. I have talked to Many military people but i Haven t seen any who want to disarm said Grosz. All of them want to have at least two cannons More than the other  he said he did not think the Warsaw pact would need to increase its forces to counterbalance the planned redeployment of 72 . F-16s from Spain to Italy. But i think if the redeployment happens there is no possibility to reduce this kind of weaponry As Gorbachev offered Grosz asserted. The hungarian Leader s unyielding defense of the soviet intervention 20 years ago this month in Czechoslovakia and 32 years ago was phrased in language devoid of the nuance used by Gorbachev in responding to the same question. It was to prevent civil War Grosz said of the Prague invasion adding quickly i do not think the presence of soviet troops in Hungary in 1956 was a mistake  he placed blame on the United states for encouraging the 1956 uprising against soviet occupation with radio broadcasts and open debates in Washington about intervening. But he also emphasized the historic change achieved by Gorbachev and Reagan in seeking a real detente and reductions in  he said meetings in the United states with vice president George Bush and Massachusetts gov. Michael Dukakis persuaded him that either presidential candidate would pursue this attempt to improve soviet . Relations if elected in november. Grosz in july became the first hungarian Leader to visit Washington since 1946. He said that Reagan s Welcome had indicated that the big countries Are inviting the others to join in the search for political cooperation Between former foes. He also indicated that a lessening of superpower tensions would give european countries More room to Man Euver and socialist countries More space to Experiment with economic and political Reform. He asserted that Gorbachev succeeded in using the soviet party conference a month ago the Way americans use an electoral Campaign to get support from the grassroots level up to the Peak of the  this was positive for us Grosz said comparing Hungary to a Soldier who had set out alone on a Long March and who found his company after a difficult period of Solitude. In terms of Economy it is the chinese who Are most advanced. In terms of political thinking it is the soviets. In terms of political practice i think we Are More advanced said the hungarian Leader. Grosz said he was determined to press ahead with economic reforms that have Given Hungary the reputation of being the most Liberal of soviet bloc states the Reform movement was launched Here in 1966 under the former Kadar government but became bogged Down in the mid-70s As a result of the generally More conservative political climate following the soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia monday August 22, 1988 the stars and stripes Page 13