European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 20, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 columns the stars and stripes Anthony Lewis China Mission betrays american Western values in sending a High level Mission to the unrepentant rulers of China presi Dent Bush acted on the premise of a particular View of the world. That is the one that Henry Kissinger brought to Washington As foreign policy impresario for presidents Nixon and Ford. Kissinger instructed us that american policy should be concerned More with our strategic interests than our values. We must be realistic he said. We have to care not about people but about those who hold Power in the world governments. We must play the game of geopolitics mane vering this state against that. We cannot be squeamish about things like abuses of human rights. Those themes were there when Bush defended his China Mission. China is a billion plus people he said. They have a strategic position in the world that is important to us. I do not want to isolate the chinese he spoke of the but he meant the state As Kissinger always did. Bush was concerned with the strategic position of the chinese government. Redid not want to isolate those old men in Beijing. To understand that is to understand Why the Mission was a fundamental mistake. For it was based on a logic that recent events have dramatically disproved. Kissinger s realism is now a Hope Lessly outdated concept. Think of Kissinger s comment on the massacre in Tiana men Square. No government in the world rewrote last summer would have Toler ated having the main Square of its capital occupied for eight weeks by tens of thou Sands of demonstrators who blocked the authorities from approaching the area i front of the main government so if the czechoslovak authorities had sent tanks against the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in Prague s Winceslas Square last month the United states should have been understanding. After All governments must be Able to govern. But the lesson of Eastern Europe is the opposite. Tyrannical governments do not have to go on governing. The people though seemingly powerless can bring about change. The ideals of democracy and he William Safire Manity have a Power of their own. So Western values Are among the most important assets the United Stales has i dealing with the world. They must be at the Center of our diplomacy not grudgingly tolerated. In that Light that new understand ing of the realities of Power the China Mission was a disastrous mistake. For i betrayed american and Western values. And it betrayed the chinese who risked their lives for those values. Bush said he did not want to isolate the chinese but that is precisely what he has done. Millions in China including most of the educated people in a society with a tradition of intellectual leadership want a modern country free of tyranny. They look to us for help. Instead resend a Mission to Toast their oppressors. We have contacts with countries that have egregious records on human rights the president said in his defense. Of course we do and we should. Mor Alisa must not stand in the Way of Diplo Matic relations. But we do not have to Send signals of support for murderous governments. And we do not have to meet their terms for improving relations making the first move As they demanded acting in secret. Defenders of the Bush move argue that it will push the chinese government to ease its repression to end martial Law release prisoners Stop the Hunt for More and More 1 Hope so but i doubt it. The old men in Beijing have Only one interest and that is to hold onto Power. They Are not Likely to risk it by such liberating Steps. This is not the 1970s, when it was Clever for the . To play the China card in a three cornered geopolitical Gam with the soviet Union. The chinese government has no place else to go if we refuse to kowtow. Is it going to make common cause with the dreaded reformers in Moscow it is not Only the events in Eastern Europe that mock the outdated realpolitik underlying the Bush Mission to China. In South Africa where Kissinger thought the White minority would hold Power indefinitely the government i wisely moving toward negotiations with the majority. In Chile the Pinochet dictatorship is giving Way to democracy. But the Kissinger View of Power is most tellingly denied this weekend by voice not stilled by death. Andrei Sakharov showed us that one Brave Man could stand against the most powerful state and Advance the values of humanity. Those values Are winning in the world but George Bush retreats from them in China. C n1w Yov rim4i hypocrisy Marks soviets Salute to Sakharov profound thoughts arise Only in debate with a possibility of counterargument the great dissident wrote clandestinely in 1968, when there is a possibility of expressing not Only Correct ideas but also dubious Sakharov no honorific or first name needed now he ranks with Gandhi and Einstein whose roles he uniquely combined Drew Confidence from the conviction that truth emerged from the clash of open minds. Mikhail Gorbachev whose need for Sakharov s untainted record and world prestige brought the scientist Back from the torture of isolation was not As confident. This was the debate Between them at the party Congress last year about reducing the size of the red army Gorbachev anyway finish up Andrei Dpi Ariyevich. You be used up two time allotments already. Sakharov i m finishing. I m leaving out arguments. I have left out a great Deal. Gorbachev that s it. That s All. Take away your speech please. I ask you to sit Down. Turn on the other microphone. Just before Sakharov died he was attempting to debate the idea so dubious to the Man in control of ending the corrupt party s monopoly of Power. But Gorbachev s imperious that s All Cut him off again. Debate was dangerous. Later with the Best Man in Russia safely dead apparently an adverb that cannot be left out of a heart attack the soviet Leader raced to Hail an honest Man who suffered great injustice his funeral will be a Field Day for such hypocrisy As his longtime silencers hurriedly get right with history in Eulogi zing the Man. They Long tormented an lately tolerated. The Kremlin denied Natan Sharansky an emigrated dissident Sakharov helped set free a visa to attend Gorbachev will handle the official mourn ing. The Bush administration is sending a Low level delegation claiming that is what the Sakharov family wants. I wonder about that a downplaying of our con Cern for human rights is what Gorbachev wants a deeper question arises what kind of Justice blesses tyrants like pol pot Castro and Ceausescu with longevity while a crusader for Freedom is snatched away at the crucial moment that Issue of the suffering of the sinless was raised by the near heretical poet who wrote the Book of Job and answered with a refutation of the pious notion of divine retribution. Don t look to god for Justice life is unfair. Cherish instead the god Given right to Chal Lenge unjust authority. Perhaps that reflects the mixture of dismay Puzzle ment and anger of millions of Freedom lovers at the sudden destruction of this generation s Job. Freedom is the most personal of matters that makes the loss of the person who exemplified the Gutsy insistence on Freedom a personal blow to All of us. I met him in Washington last year before a dinner Given by the National Academy of sciences. When i identified myself As an anti communist columnist he gazed half lidded through thick glasses and replied kindly there is no More important commentary than that about the relationship Between the . And the .s.r." my notes on the Back of the menu record i response when asked if american economic cooperation would Aid the cause of Freedom in the soviet Union. Extend assistance to perestroika with open eyes he advised. Ensure that your Money Doe not disappear into the he had the humility that Rolls Over arrogance and the i the infuriating self Oon fid few in the soviet Union s Era of glasnost dared to deliver his message about the accretion of authority in the name of democratization that democracy could never come from the supreme empowerment of one Man. Prime movers die but movements go on. Look a that picture of the supreme soviet in its moment of silence the huge statue of Lenin looming Over the me Morial bouquet in Sakharov s empty chair. Those Are the symbols of the soviet debate. The obscene statue will crumble the Cut Flowers will Bloom. C new Roix Tom a
