European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 19, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday june 19. 1991 the stars and stripes Page 13 commentary William Safi re t s save the Union plea on june 22, 1941 50 years ago this saturday a hitlers a operation Barba Rossau began 3 million German troops invaded the soviet Union. The a great patriotic War Quot As a communists like to Call it gave a temporary sense of nationhood to a far Flung collection of separate Peoples who never were a nation. Now a half Century later that Imperial Unity is dissolved Defeated not by any invader but by the failure of its overextended tyranny. The soviet a a Union is no More a Union today than the British Empire is an Empire. June 1991 is the month that historians May choose its the end of the unnatural Union. Mikhail Gorbachev last of the unionists began this epochal month with a Nobel speech throwing Bis Empire on the mercy of the world whining that it was a entitled to expect Large scale support and threatening that a a new peaceful period in history will vanish if his demands for Money to maintain the old Quot order Are not met. \ following that death rattle of an expiring system the russian people for the first time in their Long history went to the polls to choose a Leader. The election of the anti Colum unit Boris Yeltsin proclaims  acceptance of the dissolution of the Bonds of Empire and the devolution of Power to the various re pub lies. A a a. A y. A a a. The soviet a a Union Quot is now a fiction its facade maintained by old party apparatchiks and Kab and red army Bosses who know that with the end of the myth of Homo Sovie Ticus a the new soviet Man a their Power to do More than negotiate arms reductions will end. The reality is Russia. The reality is eight other Peoples who May be amenable to a Loose association of Sovereign states. The reality is three other republics and three Baltic nations that rightly consider themselves free and Independent a. Is this breakup of the last Imperial Power Good for the cause of Freedom and conducive to peace not if you listen to our state department status quo enthusiasts our Charles River Chicken Littles our foreign policy establishment drawn up in vast cumbrous array. Their mantra is disintegration As if the . Were still integrated or ought to be. They caution against dismemberment As if Georgia and. The Ukraine were arms of the russian body. They warn of chaos As if Only the continuance of Moscow sold internal Empire could Avert anarchy. If you buy their conclusion that the political realignment now on the March is headed not toward Freedom but toward chaos then you will find their policy makes sense we should prop up the Union Dole out Money to encourage experiments with a Market system and democracy and thereby make certain that the nuclear missiles remain in responsible hands. But what if that chaos Assumption is wrong what if the hard times and angry desire for great change now in Crescendo Are ameliorated by Western Aid and the Kren Ilin centralist Are permitted to regain their authority once past the crisis. They can be depended upon to revert to Type and we will once again confront an expansionist superpower. Chaos mongers forget that the driving Force for productive change is pervasive disgust with the Way things Are in a communist Union. The Only Way to improvement must be a leap into capitalism a no More baby Steps no More hot air about phony Reform and no More vain Hope that Western governments will come to the Rescue. The notion that other governments can solve their problem gives the Kremlin unionists game away. They will never understand that Relief can hot come from infusions of other governments capital. The Only investment massive enough to help must come from private Enterprise Quot Pas willing to take risk to make a  investment will come Only when Russia and the other freed countries embrace private property let the currency become convertible and make profit possible in an atmosphere of Freedom. 1�?The russian people by their vote last week have shown they will follow a politician in this direction. In his meeting this week with president Yeltsin president Bush should urge him on. He a should not undercut this russians unprecedented mandate with warnings against disunion. Breaking ill is hard to do but it is necessary and right. We should not make it harder by holding out false Hopes of a Union bailout. C the now York times Tom Wicker the threat to . Freedom is from within some years ago i attended a dinner of the new York emergency civil liberties committee honouring teachers who had lost their jobs in the Mccarthy Era. They had refused to sign oaths declaring their loyalty to the United  the end of the evening the master of ceremonies called upon these former teachers to receive applause. I expected to. See perhaps a dozen people stand. To my Surprise 100 or More men and women Rose in proud testimony to their decisions even at the Price of their livelihood to defy the unreasoning fears of a bygone time. A few weeks ago i spoke at University commencement exercises in a Southern City and deplored the government s rigorous highly successful control of information during the persian Gulf War. I was not so much amazed As disappointed that a sizable audience Rose and applauded the governments policy and its restrictions on a supposedly free press. Both these episodes came to mind when i read that the Senate foreign relations committee had approved 18-0, and the Bush administration had a rooted purging from a secret list a Quarter million names of foreigners who for 40 years had been considered ideologically unfit for entry into the land of the tree and the Home of the Brave. The House already has approved the Bill cleared by the Senate committee and agreed to by the administration. Presumably then a disreputable chapter in american history is about to come to an end at last. If americans have anything to fear it is not different or even exotic ideas from people nurtured in other circumstances and by foreign influences or with even anti american views. It is rather what de Tocqueville discerned More than a Century ago in a society protected by its oceans and confident of its superiority to others a a tendency toward a unanimity of opinion and belief and a consequent rejection of those w to May have other opinions and beliefs. Louis Hartz meant by Quot the Liberal tradition a in a Book of that name something near today a conservative orthodoxy. He believed that tradition derived from a Peculiar historical fact a that the nations founders had lied the ancient tyrannies of Europe and never had to revolt against or overthrow class oppressions in what became the United states. Therefore no real revolutionary ethic Ever formed among any significant number of americans. Most instead. Believed As an article of Faith in so called �?oamericanism.�?�. It was just such americanism that supposedly was to be protected by the Mccarran Walter act with its lists of people to be feared by that acts progenitor the Mundt Nixon Bill which was never passed by the tul Mihat ions of Joe Mccarthy by the loyalty oaths to which those teachers and Many other Brave americans refused to succumb and by All the loyally and subversion scares that More than any foreign isms have undermined the values proclaimed in the declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Hie nation is and has been in no danger of being subverted or overrun from abroad. Instead the most pressing danger to. American Freedom arises As it always has from within from americans unwilling to Trust that Freedom its meaning and its reach who would replace it with a deadly unanimity. The Mccar ran Walter act served that Craven purpose for too Long. C the new York times the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of t he stars and stripes or the United states government