European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 12, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes columns Flora Lewis soft drink deals with soviets Good for both sides Donald m. Kendall chuckles about his gibe at Brent scowcroft. We re disarming the soviet Union fas Ter than you arc the head of Pepsico told  s National Security adviser. Pepsico recently bought from the soviets 17 submarines for a measly $150,000 each Cruiser a frigate and a destroyer. They arc being resold Tor scrap. It has also bought new soviet tankers to carry Oil not beverages in a joint venture with the soviets and a norwegian company that will lease them out or sell them. These Peculiar ventures for a soft drink company Are a necessary Way for it to do business with Moscow. Pepsi has 21 plants in the soviet Union and wants to open 26 More. The problem As in most deals with the soviets is How to get the Money out a cheery White haired extravagantly energetic 68-year-old, Kendall is also a truly imaginative businessman. In 1959 he set up a stand at the american exhibition in Moscow. Nearby was a Kitchen equipment stand where Nikita Khrushchev and vice president Richard Nixon got into a famous debate. It was literally As Well As figuratively heated. When Kendall noticed the soviet Leader wiping his brow he rushed Over with a Nice cold Pepsi and was rewarded with a unique unpaid commercial for his product published round the world. Kendall followed up with a Deal obtaining exclusive rights to the soviet Market in return for exclusive distribution rights for Stolichnaya Vodka in the . But the . Vodka Market has limits. So later Kendall began looking for other soviet products he could sell to remit Pepsi s Ruble earnings. Thus the Tanker and the castoffs Fleet. The Pepsi monopoly in a vast country has Given heartburn to the coca cola people. In what he Calls the cola wars International lawyer Sam Pisar got Spe Cial rights for coca cola to Supply the 1980 Moscow olympics As it had every olympics since 1924. But it refrained because of the . Embargo on the games after the invasion of Afghanistan. Since then. Coca cola has introduced Charles Freund vie must Cut the Khit Cut defense spending  some other lines to the russians such As fanta and minute maid with special deals for repayment. But the real thing can still Only be bought in special hard currency stores for foreigners. Coca cola s resentment May explain a recent Nasty column by William Buckley normally no enemy of business initiative wondering if Kendall has put in for Pepsi concessions in the gulag and noting tartly that As sales of Pepsi mounted so did the creation of nuclear missiles in the soviet Union. It takes a lot of fantasy to make an american soft drink responsible for so Viet forced labor and atomic weapons. On the contrary it would seem that winning russian bullets and maybe hearts and minds with american con Sumer products is All to the Good for both sides. Apart from specific goods with military applications it makes no sense to Brand Trade with the soviets As some kind of greedy treachery. The real Issue illuminated by Kendall s experience is that it is so hard for Western suppliers and investors to get paid. That is Gorbachev s main problem in attracting foreign credits which incidentally remain much lower than the billions announced because businessmen Haven t taken up the credit offers. Ironically Western governments which were leery when their business men were excited about prospects of big deals with the soviets in the Early 1970s, Are now trying to encourage Trade on a much More reluctant private sector. Japanese industrialists Are no longer willing to make the huge investments discussed in the Brezhnev Era in return for future guaranteed supplies of raw materials. Now they know the Only Guaran tee they need for raw materials is ready Money. West germans say much the same applies to them and they Aren t signing up in droves. An american involved said the Sovi ets wanted foreigners to produce goods for Export from their country which in t attractive in Competition with third world offers to investors. So whatever the political military Cli mate it will be a Long time before East West economic Exchange becomes really important. Meanwhile carting off excess arms for Pepsi in t a bad Way to help per Stroika and improve russian Humours. By it Tom Cheney s mistake he said what he thought when defense Secretary Richard b. Cheney predicted on can s Evans and Novak program that soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev would be unsuccessful in his Reform efforts and eventually would be forced from his position he made a rhetorical error that is particularly problematic for a Man in his Deli Cate position he said what he thought speaking in real language rather than using the diplomatic Lan Guage appropriate to the occasion. Cheney in response to a question about Gorbachev said i would guess that he would ultimately fail that is to say that he will not be Able to Reform the soviet Economy to turn it into an efficient modern society. And when that happens he s Likely to be replaced by somebody who will be far More hostile than he s been in terms of his attitude toward the West he had made similar remarks a few Days earlier before the House armed services committee characterizing Gorbachev s failure and eventual removal from Power As a very real  is Cheney right about Gorbachev s Fate he May be but that is beside the rhetorical Point. One of the out standing characteristics of International rhetoric diplomatic language if you prefer is that when it coincides with objectively ascertainable reality it is usually either an Accident or an act of hostility. In Cheney s Case some of the Washington news Media assumed the Candor of his remarks was accidental and attributed that Candor to his congressional experience. At least some of the soviet Media however have seen it the other Way and have characterized Cheney s statements and the administration efforts at containing any damage As classic american propaganda  on the May 7 edition of the weekly English Lan Guage radio Moscow program top priority a West Ern style round table program soviet commentators identified it All As a propaganda ploy familiar to anyone who understands the american political  according to this soviet theory of orchestration a . Official makes a controversial statement which is then publicly disavowed by other officials. The obfuscation notwithstanding it is always the first statement that indicates the . Point of View. The defense department must have very bad intelligence the commentators said claiming that Many reforms were  they concluded that the Bush administration s Atti tude toward the soviet Union was pc Reagan it that caution and prudence were merely Bush code words for inaction. The United states they said would sit Back and wait for the .s.r. To  such Are the problems of using the wrong language at the wrong time. Diplomatic language is uniquely fascinating among rhetorical forms because it is by design meaningless. Of course there is method to this meaningless Ness. The language of diplomats and government Fig ures is shaped by Peculiar pressures. They never say anything that May interfere with a predetermined goal be it the Pursuit of policy negotiations or Day to Day relations. Unlike most people they rarely use language to invite dialogue or impart information. Indeed they nor Mally take great pains to avoid them. In those instances when they do say something substantive they speak anonymously. Dialogue and debate Are enemies whose consequences Are unpredictable and uncontrollable. The executive Branch swamped Cheney s remarks with a wave of statements intended to neutralize the original Candor. White House spokesman Martin Fitz water tried to distance the president from Cheney s remarks by calling them Cheney s personal observations the ultimate diplomatic platitude. President Bush speaking the next Day pointedly noted that whenever in the world there is economic Reform the United slates should be hoping that Reform succeeds and he expressly wished Gorbachev Success with his perestroika. Bush s Effort to substitute his own diplomatic formulation for Cheney s Concrete language did no Good judging by radio Moscow s response. Cheney implicitly invited a discussion about Gorbachev s survival and his potential successor. Bush in the Best diplomatic tradition said he did t want to discuss those questions. But the Only thing he had to offer in their place was the diplomatic language Cheney might have been Wiser to use  Post