European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 13, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 a the stars and stripes thursday september 13,1990 columns David Brode superpowers playing new game by old rules television which always is at its Best when it can cover events live gave us two glimpses of the new world on sunday first at the joint news conference of president Bush and soviet president Gorbachev then at the . Open Tennis tournament in the menus final Between Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. The comparison May seem frivolous but it is actually quite instructive. Sampras the 19-year-old Winner is or. Cool and Agassi the 20-year-old loser is or. Punk with his Gaudy clothes and earring. But both Are indelibly men of the nineties. No one could have imagined them doing what they did a contesting for supremacy on the Tennis court after eliminating the likes of Boris Becker Ivan Lendl and John Mcenroe a one minute earlier than they did. Bush and Gorbachev on the other hand Are clearly men of another time struggling to adapt to the ambiguities and paradoxes of a new world order. Both have helped to fashion this new world but neither can be certain How to command it. As a result what was natural and uninhibited and powerful and Graceful in the new York Tennis stadium came across As strained and somehow unsatisfying on the stage in Helsinki Finland. But the differences go far deeper. The Point of the Helsinki min Summit the reason that Bush flew through seven time zones for seven hours of talk was to impress iraqis Saddam Hussein with the solidity of the great Powers Alliance against his aggression. Let us Hope it does so. But once they had agreed on the necessity of Saddam a obeying the United nations resolutions to leave Kuwait Bush and Gorbachev could not conceal the differences in the Way they View the persian Gulf crisis or the Way in which they think it can be resolved. Their meeting thus demonstrated that the antagonists in the cold War have an easier time writing its epitaph than they do in deciding what should come next. Gorbachev has higher Hopes that diplomacy backed by the International embargo will bring his onetime client ally Saddam to his senses. Bush while willing to give that strategy More time believes that the military option May ultimately have to be exercised. While he docs not Rule it out Gorbachev is obviously reluctant to get into that game. The source of the differences is evident enough when you think about what the two leaders had in their Heads As they sat Down. Bush views the iraqi threat through a double prism of traditional american foreign policy. The first is the a National interest perspective that identifies certain vital territories and resources a like the persian Gulf countries and their Oil a As being of such importance to the United states that we cannot allow them to come under the control of a hostile Power. The second is the a collective Security perspective Walter r. Mears Mcgrif bars was Sutof Imbt embodied partially in the United nations and partly in nato that seeks to mobilize International opinion and Multi National forces to isolate any aggressor. In Saddam Scase Bush has managed to get both the United nations and nato on the move. In both respects Gorbachev is playing with a different deck of cards. The soviet Union never housed the United nations and never attached much importance to it a except As an occasional propaganda forum. The soviet unions a collective Security arrangement the Warsaw pact always included More pawns and captives than allies. And the Warsaw pact was in the process of rapid self liquidation when Saddam struck against Kuwait. As for a National interests a Gorbachev has been drawing the Circle of foreign commitments Ever smaller As his own country has been buffeted by political and economic stresses. While the soviet Union historically had designs on the persian Gulf Access to the Gulf and its Oil is not a vital necessity. Given All of these differences it is no wonder that Bush a and Gorbachev a policy views on the iraqi Challenge did not fit neatly together. For All the mocking of a the special relationship Between great Britain and the United states the Gulf crisis again has demonstrated a symmetry of interests and viewpoints Between those two countries that Moscow and Washington just do not share. They do share two other things however. One is their desire to liquidate the remnants of the cold War by finishing the work on the strategic and conventional arms agreements that will allow both of them to reduce and redirect their defense spending. And the other is the weakness of the economic bases on which this venture in Power politics rests. The United states wracked by a decade of self indulgent budget deficits is scraping up contributions from other countries to help pay for the deployment of its forces to the Gulf. It is right that those countries should contribute but it is also a Stark necessity for the United states. Moscow which has far worse economic problems at Home and far fewer affluent allies is that much More reluctant even to commit its military strength to a possible Gulf War. What the sunday television contrast made evident is that Only the Young a whether nations or individuals a really have the Freedom to say it is a Brand new Day. Everyone else is shadowed by the past. C Washington Post writers group Gulf crisis is litmus test for Post cold War Era yesterdays adversaries can become today s allies when they find that they need one another As Washington and Moscow do now. President Bush needed and got soviet backing for the .-led Effort to Force iraqis Saddam Hussein out of conquered Kuwait. He needs soviet cooperation for the creation of a new East West Security system in Europe and for arms control deals that May yet spare some military spending and produce the elusive peace dividend. The latter Aims mesh with Mikhail s. Gorbachev a goals including his urgent need to revive a collapsing soviet Economy with Western support and perhaps with . Economic assistance. Sundays Summit at Helsinki served All those Aims. It produced no further Steps to be taken against Iraq in Case  economic sanctions done to suffice. Both sides said they were satisfied. Bush and Gorbachev repeated in person the demand their governments had made before that Iraq obey the United nations and withdraw unconditionally from Kuwait. That did t alter the position of the two Powers but dramatized it and Brent scowcroft Bush a National Security adviser said their Solidarity had to be terrible news for Saddam Hussein. There were Points of difference. The soviet Union Long the major arms supplier to Iraq still has military advisers there. Gorbachev said they were gradually withdrawing and about 150 were left. Bush said he would prefer that they All got out but did no to regard it As a major problem. Gorbachev stressed the Summit quest for a political solution in the persian Gulf Bush said that would be Best but did not Rule out the use of Force if the embargo and other measures do not work. Bush said that might reflect a difference with Gorbachev. But he also said that one of the keys to their personal diplomacy is that they done to try to hide differences but discuss them without rancor and concentrate ground. Bush said if this crisis had occurred 20 ears ago cooperation with Moscow would ave been impossible. Indeed a Large scale military move into the area by either Side would have prompted the other to War talk. Now Moscow has accepted the deploy on common e ment though it wanted reassurances that it is temporary a that . Forces in saudi Arabia and warships in the persian Gulf Are there for the Ennis not for Good. Bush told him the . Forces wont stay a Day longer than necessary. On the other Side . Policy for More than 40 years has been to keep soviet forces out of the Region. Bush said that if Moscow decided to Send in troops at saudi arabians invitation it would be Fine with him. Gorbachev said he had no such plans. The Summit emphasized a perhaps inflated a Gorbachev a role in dealing with the crisis. That could help strengthen him at Home where his government is struggling with severe economic hardship. Such a development would be Fine with the White House. Bush asked Gorbachev to Tell him about the economic situation in the soviet Union and later said that he wants to help improve it. He said soviet cooperation on the Middle East a gets me inclined to recommend As close cooperation in the economic Field As  that sounded a Little like a Cash and carry Deal and Gorbachev said soviet support can to be bought for dollars a although we do look Forward to cooperation in this very serious time of far reaching changes in our  the Summit also serves a Domestic purpose for Bush who was to address a joint session of Congress tuesday night on the Middle East crisis. The solid front with Gorbachev is both a buttress for administration policy and a prototype for what could be a different Way of handling future International emergencies. Quot for the first time since world War ii the United states and the soviet Union Are Allied in dealing with a crisis offering a Sample of the new world order the administration has been talking about. A this is a test of the durability of the new approach to resolving world problems a Gorbachev said. A history dictates that a lot is going to depend on whether the two countries can work  their world War ii Alliance ended when the War threat did and the enmity that followed shaped the cold War generations. Should the new Way of doing business succeed in settling this crisis without War and survive to be applied to the ones that follow the Helsinki Summit really will symbolize a remodelling of history. The associated press