European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 11, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes thursday january 11,1990 columns William f. Buckley or. Eastern Europe a casualty of Western diplomacy suppose that at age 21 you were accused of a crime and convicted. The sentence was most unusual. You were not detained in a jail but you were deprived of Freedom of speech of free Dom of movement of Freedom of Assem Bly of the right to private property of the right to emigrate and of the right to a Job other than that specified by the slate. Moreover any infraction of these conditions could result in your being sent into punitive detention and a serious infraction could result in your being executed. The sentence to life under these restraints was for 44 years. All along you pleaded rather you whispered you could not afford to have anyone linked to the stale overhear you not guilty. Suddenly at age 65, it transpired that in fact you weren t guilty at All but the idea of putting in to the state to compensate you for 44 years of misery is simply out of the question. You Sec. It happened to so Many others the state does t have the resources for compensation. Far from it the slate is dead broke and you face at age 65, a remain ing lifetime of hard work just to try to catch up a Little bit with your neighbors in other countries. You Sec. You Are a czech. Or if you prefer a pole or an East German. Or a romanian or a bul Garian or a hungarian. All the Joy that has Efflo rescued Dur  the past few weeks and months is Heartfelt we arc talking about 110 Mil lion people. But what these people ought not to have any appetite for is the Little gurgles of self satisfaction coming up from Western opinion Brewers to the effect of we told you it would All be of if we just waited it out. The big danger was from trigger Happy american Stales men like John Foster Dulles. On the Eastern front time was on our Side and we Only had to sit it  the human tendency is to forget Pas suffering especially if one was somehow responsible for it. The jewish Community quite properly will never let the world for get about the holocaust. By contrast not one in 500 americans could answer the question How Many ukrainians were starved to death by Stalin in 1932-33? and not one in a thousand would know that thai . Rosenthal figure is higher than he figure or Hose killed during he holocaust. One wonders How Many Oliver stones during the next 10 years will de vote their splendid energies to dramatizing the talc of Eastern Europe and in deed of the soviet Union during these years a calamity at least As compelling As Vicinal. We lost 58,000 in Vietnam a tragic War which however if we had won it might have spared the lives of 2 million cambodians several Hundred thousand laotians and vietnamese and might have spared All of Indochina the kind of existence it is condemned to now. Exactly the same kind of existence As East Europe has Only just now Liber ated itself from. Who arc those who should take credit Back in the Early 50s. Dwight Eisenhower was running for president and his Secretary of state Dulles gave a speech in which he spoke hopefully of rolling Back the communists in Europe. That speech terrified the accommodation lists who pictured Dulles As a or. Strange love lust ing for a new world War. Although the democratic party joined in a bipartisan Effort to mount and maintain sufficient defensive forces to diminish the soviet appetite for expansion after Vietnam and after the death of sen. Henry Jack son the appetite was laggard. The Nois Iest democrats cheered every move to disparage the Pentagon and in effect to forget about East Europe. It was above All Ronald Reagan who turned the tide so that the sentence of he East europeans came to an end after 44 years. He did this by building up the military by conceiving of Star wars by introducing into Europe against the howls and screams of the left cruise and Pershing missiles and by giving the afghans the material necessary to Stop an invading russian army. We can sleep better knowing that our cousins have regained their Freedom. But there is no Way in which we can laugh away what actually happened to these 110 million people for 44 years. They were the casualties of Western diplomacy. In that sense we were partners with the soviet Union in ruining their lives. A Umof Sal press Syndicate like to a reek a few m0re cases of that imps0rtep swf1 or Banks too ready to Aid Money hungry wolves when i was a correspondent for the new York times in Asia and Eastern Europe travelling americans often found heir Way to my office to read the paper. In those Days at the Dawn of time it was the Only copy in town. At first 1 got All choked up thinking of the trouble these faithful readers were taking not to miss any stories we reporters were filing while they were away from Home. But pretty soon through keen observation i discovered that most of them came in not to catch up on the news but for the advertisements. The ads they looked for most were from department stores Saks Macy a Burgdorf Goodman. Bonwit Teller Bloomingdale s. I began to Admire the Wisdom of the pilgrims com ing to the times office. The ads gave a sense of what was going on Back Home in an important part of life Commerce slyly design change All part of the Bounce of a City and a country. Most stores had Many branches and the visitors came from All Over the . Years later travelling around this country As a editor and then columnist i have done what i did As a foreign correspondent when i wanted to gel a Quick feel of a City. I would wander the streets without plan talk to a few people who had Power a few who had nothing visit a court a Hospital a school a Garden and head for the Bazaar. A couple of Days ago i visited one of the most famous bazaars in the world Bloomingdale s in new York City. This time i went because this store one of the most richly stuffed creatively run stores anywhere a profitable business that is an International synonym for imagination and zest is suddenly threatened with bankruptcy. So arc the 16 others in the Bloomingdale s Chain in new York state. New Jersey Connecticut Pennsyl Vania Maryland. Florida Illinois Virginia and Texas. They will not go out of business. But every Day the Chain s 14,000 employees around the country pick up newspapers saying they Are in trouble that suppliers arc worrying about sending goods. Buyers and assist ant buyers who helped make the Chain famous with their taste and adventurous Ness have been lopped off the payroll. Salespeople arc scared and say so. B now that is an old Story in the . A hot eyed entrepreneur sees a Good business thinks he can make a killing borrowing Money to take it Over and makes a bid Way Over the Market. Banks insurance companies and pension funds round up the billions. They figure if the investor can not meet the huge interest payments out of the Busi Ness they will gel their Money Back by Selling off the assets the business and the lives invested in it. Leveraged buyouts Are not All work of the Devil. Some save companies from going out of business by providing better management and fresh Money. Stock holders of the original business make Money which Isth reason for buying Stock. But too often the takeover becomes an engine of destruction. Robert Campeau the Canadian business Man bought the Federated Chain which includes the Bloomingdale s stores and other retail subsidiaries for $6.7 billion almost All pm other people s Money. He thought he could pay the High interest by milking the stores through Cost cutting. He also figured depart ment store sales would go up. He figured wrong. 1 met Campeau once on a boat touring new York Harbor. He told me he was going to build up Queens and then asked me to Point it , it is just Plain ridiculous to shovel billions of pm to somebody who can figure so wrong that a year later he is dragging Federated into bankruptcy and who probably Stul docs not know where Queens is. One of the Bankers in the Campeau Federated Deal told me his Job was just to make sure that if it All went Down the Bank could get its Money Back by Selling off the assets. He said if he had said no to Campeau. The Bank next door would have said yes. I asked him if he was proud of the Deal and the philosophy. He said he was not. So maybe the Best thing to do is for stockholders of Banks and insurance companies to stand up at meet Ings and Tell management they insist on having their Money go to productive entrepreneurs not wolves whatever the Bank next door might do. Sometimes managements listen  am going Back to Bloomingdale s monday but not for anything As shameful As sentiment. They have a Good Sale on shirts 25 percent off if you buy four. C n w Yolk to not