*** MAY 15 1981

# Lantos assails Kissinger

## Ex-secretary is faulted in Wallenberg case

By Chris Reidy

Times Tribune: Washington bureau

WASHINGTON — Rep. (Tom Lantos) fondness for Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. apparently does not extend to Haig's mentor, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Lantos, the Democrat from Hillsborough, had some unkind words for Kissinger in a released statement Thursday that implied that Kissinger may be partly responsible, through nonfeasance, for the fate of Raoul Wallenberg. Wallenberg is the Swedish diplomat credited with saving the lives of thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust.

"Had Kissinger pursued the case in 1973," Lantos' statement read in part, "Wallenberg might be alive today.... There is considerable evidence that he was alive in the late '70s."

Lantos' statement was in response to a story that appeared Wednesday in the San Francisco Chronicle. The story reported that Kissinger, while lecturing in Sweden, revealed that he had discussed Wallenberg's case in 1973 with Soviet ambassador Anatoly F. Dobrynin. Dobrynin told Kissinger that Wallenberg was dead, Kissinger told his Swedish audience.

Stated Lantos in his press release, "I find it remarkable that a man of Kissinger's sophistication accepts a statement by the Soviets at face value.... Theirs is a long history of lies.... The Soviet lie about Wallenberg is just one more in a long series...."

When Soviet troops drove the Nazis out of Budapest late in World War II, the Soviets took Wallenberg into custody. It was later re-

Times Tribune file photo

Tom Lantos

leased that Wallenberg died in a Soviet prison cell in 1947. Several years later, the Soviets reversed themselves and admitted that Wallenberg was still alive.

Kissinger's remarks in Sweden seem to be in disagreement with the rationale that prompted Lantos to introduce in Congress a resolution that would bestow honorary American citizenship on Wallenberg.

It is Lantos' belief that Wallenberg's citizenship would give the State Department additional leverage in pressing demands to the Soviets about Wallenberg's fate.

Kissinger, it seems, has a different view.

"Human rights cases should be discussed privately," Kissinger was reported to have said during a telephone interview. "A formal demand would only produce a negative answer the next day."

Lantos and his wife, both born in Hungary, were indirectly saved from the Nazis through Wallenberg's efforts. When Lantos came to Washington earlier this year, one of his priorities was the introduction of the Wallenberg citizenship resolution. The resolution is expected to pass Congress sometime in the next few months.