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August 12, 1977

TO: Dr. Henry A. Kissinger

You may be interested in these press accounts concerning
your work for the American Enterprise Institute.

Between Issues

THE SEEDs of Polycentrism planted two decades ago by Italian Communist party leader Palmiro Togliatti have flowered this summer into an ideological spectacle of sorts bearing the rubric "Eurocommunism." If not entirely new, it is nonetheless a variously-hued display, with the participants large and small in many ways as different from each other as they are united in rejecting Moscow's claim to be the sole fount of Marxist wisdom. In the Soviet Union, the heresy is feared as the beginnings of a conspiracy to undermine "proletarian internationalism," a euphemism for Kremlin supremacy. It is also a source of problems on a day-to-day strategy level, as Eliahu Salpeter shows in his report from the Helsinki follow-up meeting now under way, "Soviet Brinksmanship at Belgrade," starting on page 5.

In the United States, reaction to the latest flexings of the Western Communist parties has given rise to much debate and some serious division of opinion. Last month, for example, in an interview granted to an Italian journalist, Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance suggested that Communist victories at the polls in countries like Italy and France could prove more troublesome to the Soviet bloc than to the Atlantic Alliance. In addition, although he noted that the Carter Administration was not "indifferent" to "who serves in the government of any country" and preferred "those who have a democratic backdrop," he said: "We have tried to make clear from the outset that we believe it is not for us to tell any country whom they should elect in the way of their political leaders. That is their responsibility and their right."

Last month, too, Henry A. Kissinger addressed himself to Eurocommunism. That he views the phenomenon with less equanimity than his successor at the State Department is already well-known from his past official pronouncements. But in a paper delivered at a Washington conference sponsored jointly by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research and the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Kissinger presented in detail his assessment of what Western Communist "independence" from Moscow would mean in a crunch, why the Atlantic Alliance remains vital and would be undermined by Communist participation in NATO governments, and how this might be prevented. Reading the paper, we found it a remarkably lucid and cogent analysis of what is, after all, more than merely a summer spectacle, and we have adapted it as the feature article for this issue. "Eurocommunism: A New Test for the West" begins on page 8.

OUR COVER drawing is by Sam Kweskin.

THE NEW LEADER: Published biweekly—except the last issue in August—by the American Labor Conference on International Affairs, Inc. Editorial and executive offices: 212 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010. Telephone (212) 892-6316. (Postmaster: Please send change of address on form 8579.) THE NEW LEADER, 212 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.) National distributors: Eastern News Company, 111 Eighth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10011. Indexed in the Public Affairs Information Service. Price this issue: 75 cents. Subscription $15 per year, Canadian $16, foreign $17. Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y. Copyright © 1977 by the American Labor Conference on International Affairs, Inc. Microfilm editions available from Xerox University Microfilms, 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission prohibited.

THE New Leader

JULY 18, 1977

VOLUME LX, NUMBER 15

<table><tr><td>Correspondents' Correspondence</td><td>3</td></tr><tr><td>Pressuring Israel/MARVIN KALB</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Janata's Shaky Future/DARRYL D'MONTE</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Soviet Brinksmanship at Belgrade/ELIAHU SALPETER</td><td>5</td></tr><tr><td>Eurocommunism: A New Test for the West/HENRY A. KISSINGER</td><td>8</td></tr><tr><td>Bermuda Shorts/RICHARD J. MARGOLIS</td><td>15</td></tr></table>

Writers & Writing

<table><tr><td>India Through a Glass Darkly/GEORGE WOODCOCK</td><td>17</td></tr><tr><td>Playing Back a Life/GIL MULLER</td><td>19</td></tr><tr><td>Pointless Passion/LAUREL GRAEBER</td><td>20</td></tr><tr><td>A Fairy Tale Gone Awry/ANNA QUINDLEN</td><td>21</td></tr><tr><td>On Music/M. ANATOLE GUREWITSCH</td><td>23</td></tr><tr><td>On Art/VIVIEN RAYNOR</td><td>25</td></tr><tr><td>Dear Editor</td><td>27</td></tr></table>

Executive Editor: MYRON KOLATCH

Assistant Editors: BEN YAGODA, DEAN VALENTINE

Assistant to the Editor: BARBARA SHAPIRO

Art Director: Herb Lubalin. Regular Critics—

Literature: Pearl K. Bell (on leave), Isa Kapp, Poetry:

Phoebe Pettingell. Theater: John Simon. Film: Robert

Asahina. Television: Marvin Kitman. Art: Vivien Raynor.

Music: Bruce Cook. Regular Contributors—Daniel Bell, Theodore Draper, Milton R. Konvitz, Robert

Lekachman, John P. Roche. Regular Columnists—

Ray Alan, Walter Goodman, Richard J. Margolis.

Signed contributions do not necessarily represent the views of The New Leader. We welcome a variety of opinions consistent with our democratic policy. Unsolicited manuscripts cannot be returned unless accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope.

2

The New Leader

Thinking Aloud
EUROCOMMUNISM:
A NEW TEST
FOR THE WEST

BY HENRY A. KISSINGER

ENRICO BERLINGUER

THE COHESION of the industrial democracies of Western Europe and North America plus Japan has been for 30 years the bulwark of peace and the engine of global prosperity. It has been the keystone of our foreign policy in every Administration from President Truman to President Carter. The first permanent peacetime security alliance in U.S. history was with the democratic nations of the Atlantic Community; that was soon followed by our commitment to the security of Japan. Since then, the agenda of cooperation among the industrial democracies has spread from collective defense to common action on energy policy, on the international economic system, and on relations with the Communist countries and with the Third World.

This cohesion rests not simply on material considerations of wealth and power but on a common moral foundation as well—on the shared conviction that the consent of the governed is the basis of government, and that every individual enjoys inalienable rights and is entitled to constitutional liberties. So it is ironic that at the moment when the industrial democracies are most unified in their opposition to external threats, at a time when their cooperative efforts cover a broader range than ever, their unity should be jeopardized by an internal danger: the growth of Communist parties and the possibility of their accession to power in some of the countries of Western Europe.

In *Italy*, in the parliamentary elections of June 1976, the Communist party obtained 34 per cent of the vote, strengthening its position as the second largest party and as a powerful rival of the Christian Democratic party that has governed the country throughout the postwar period. The Communists' growth has been primarily at the expense of the Democratic Socialist groups, and is part and parcel of an increasing polarization of Italian politics. The Communists have already achieved a virtual veto over government programs in the Italian Parliament.

In *France*, in the Presidential election of April 1974, a coalition of the Communist and Socialist parties came

HENRY A. KISSINGER's article is adapted from a paper delivered at the Conference on Italy and Eurocommunism sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research and the Hoover Institution.

8

The New Leader

man Rights. Moreover, they undoubtedly expected that the world at large would continue to accept the special Soviet "interpretation" of these matters, and that Washington, instructed by a "political realist" such as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, would not permit its relations with Moscow to deteriorate over what was essentially a "domestic affair."

But several unexpected things happened to Brezhnev on the way to the Belgrade follow-up conference called for in the Helsinki agreement. In 1975, as soon as the Soviets signed the Final Act it was embraced by dissidents. Demanding that their government honor its word, they even set up an unofficial (and therefore, by the Kremlin's precepts, illegal) group to monitor its implementation. This left the Kremlin with the not very happy choice of either relaxing its domestic totalitarian control a little, or openly violating a charter on which its signature had barely dried.

In 1976, riding the crest of Eurocommunism and reminding the Kremlin of Basket III, the Communist parties of Spain, Italy and France made support of East European dissidents one of their expressions of independence from Moscow. Once again, the Kremlin was presented with an unappealing decision: It could accept the Eurocommunists' backing of the dissidents, or it could exacerbate disputes with the comrades to the West.

In 1977, Jimmy Carter entered the White House and, to Moscow's great confusion, stuck to the human rights stands he had taken during his campaign. Perhaps worse, he went so far as to point out that for those who had signed the Helsinki document, human rights ceased to be an exclusively domestic affair. For a third time, the Kremlin had to choose—between tolerating Carter's "interference" in what it has always claimed to be "entirely internal matters," and starting a dispute with a new American President.

In all three cases, Moscow opted for confrontation over flexibility. Evidently, anything that might threaten its total authority seemed more dangerous than the deterioration of links with the governments or Communist parties of the West. As a result, the Soviets came to Belgrade determined to repair the damage caused by what they probably now see as mistakes or weaknesses on their part in Helsinki.

THE SOVIET attitude has led to some ironic twists at the Belgrade meeting. The Maltese and the Yugoslavs, for example, are again peddling the idea of involving non-European Mediterranean countries in the conference by creating a special Mediterranean committee. Their motive is to promote the Soviet-Libyan gimmick of "demilitarization" of the Sea (i.e., the withdrawal of the U.S. Sixth Fleet and nuclear submarines). Yet support of the Yugoslav-Maltese suggestion would imply acceptance of the general principle of separate committees—something the USSR desperately wants to avoid. Consequently, the Soviet delegates have been rather cool to the entire Mediterranean angle.

Soviet rigidity and bluster have also had an effect on the non-Communist participants. Instead of wooing the "neutrals" with sounds of sweet reasonableness, the Soviets felt obliged to enter into conflicts with them, too, thereby pushing them closer to the Western side.

Meanwhile, Moscow's tactics have at the very least postponed the surfacing of differences within the Western group. During the discussions within the European Community and NATO in preparation for Belgrade, some disagreements became noticeable. One concerned human rights: At Helsinki, the West Europeans pressed for inclusion of as many such clauses as possible and the U.S. seemed less eager to hit the point, but in recent months the roles have been reversed. This development

stemmed less from the Carter Administration's firmer stand on the issue than from different evaluations of possible Soviet reactions: Washington apparently felt that Moscow's vested interest in the survival of Helsinki pushed the Soviet breaking point back farther than the Europeans thought.

Among the Europeans themselves, attitudes and evaluation had differed somewhat as well. The British and Dutch, for instance, favored a tougher stand than did the West Germans, who were worried lest renewed tensions be detrimental to the (meager) expansion of family contacts being permitted East Germans.

Yet with Moscow having chosen the stick over the carrot, all these splits in the Western camp became less critical. And the fundamentals—where there was no disagreement—received better than expected support from the neutral nations.

As the first stage of the Belgrade conference—scheduled to last some six weeks in all—continues, it has become quite apparent that Moscow's rigidity is closely related to the problem of dissent in the Communist camp at home and abroad. The sharply worded criticism of Spanish Communist leader Santiago Carrillo last month in the Moscow journal *New Times* also included a sweeping attack on Eurocommunism as such. Since the Kremlin must have anticipated hostile reactions from its Spanish, Italian and possibly French comrades, it was obviously signaling its determination to put a halt to the spread of dissent.

If this evaluation is correct—and many diplomats in Belgrade seem to believe it is, despite a later *New Times* article softening the line—then Soviet inflexibility here could run much deeper than mere conference tactics. Indeed, the rest of the participants have braced themselves for an exhibition of Soviet brinkmanship that has not been witnessed for some time.

July 18, 1977

7

within one percentage point of victory on the final ballot. A majority for this coalition in the parliamentary elections that must take place by March 1978 would bring Communist leaders into key ministerial positions. It would do so, moreover, in conditions of constitutional crisis, for the Constitution of the Fifth Republic has not yet faced the test of a President and a Prime Minister from different parties.

In the *Iberian peninsula*, where hopeful steps are being taken toward democracy, Communist parties have fought with ruthlessness and disciplined organization to increase their influence. Portugal is a member of NATO; Spain is strategically crucial and tied by special agreements to the United States. Communist participation in the government of either country would have serious consequences for Western security.

And these Communist challenges do not exist in isolation from each other. There is no doubt that a Communist breakthrough to power or sharing of power in one country will have a major psychological effect on the others, by making Communist parties seem respectable, or suggesting that the tide of history in Europe is moving in their direction. Most of the causes of this phenomenon are indigenous to the individual countries. By the same token, the response to it has to come in the first instance from European leaders and voters who are persuaded that democracy is worth the effort. America cannot make their choices for them or decide the outcome of free elections.

But we must not delude ourselves about what the accession of Communist leaders to executive power will mean to the basic premises of American foreign policy. Similarly, we must not weaken the resolve of those in allied nations who take our judgments seriously by treating a Communist electoral victory as inevitable—which it is not—or by imagining it would be a transitory or inconsequential matter. While the ultimate decisions are for the voters of Europe to make, we all would be indulging in wishful thinking if we did not acknowledge that such an eventuality (1) would represent a massive change in European politics; (2) would have fundamental consequences for the structure of the postwar world, and for America's relationship to its most important alliances; and (3) would alter the prospects for security and progress for every free nation.

THOSE WHO take a less grave view often claim that the European Communist parties are independent of Moscow, that they have been effectively democratized and assimilated, and that they therefore pose no international problem in the broader East-West context. Granted, the centrifugal and polycentric tendencies in the Communist world are one of the most striking developments of our age. Granted, too, these schisms are made doubly intense by the passions of a quasi-religious battle over what is true dogma and what

is heresy. Symptomatic is the fact that the Soviet Union has used military force in the postwar period only against other Communist countries—in East Berlin, in Hungary, in Czechoslovakia, and on the Sino-Soviet border. The Sino-Soviet conflict may indeed be the most profound and potentially explosive current international conflict. In addition, no serious observer disputes that the Communist parties in Western Europe have in fact occasionally demonstrated some degree of independence from the Soviet Union.

But this hardly exhausts the subject. For we must ask: In what sense and on what issues are they independent? And what are the objective consequences for the West of their policies and programs?

We are entitled to a certain skepticism about the sincerity of declarations of independence that coincide precisely with electoral self-interest. One need not be a cynic to wonder at the decision of the French Communists, traditionally perhaps the most Stalinist party in Western Europe, to renounce the Soviet concept of dictatorship of the proletariat without a single dissenting vote among 1,700 delegates, as they did at their party Congress in February 1976, when all previous party Congresses had endorsed the same dictatorship of the proletariat by a similar unanimous vote of 1,700 to nothing. Why was there not at least one lonely soul willing to adhere to the original view? Much was made of this change as a gesture of independence. Now it turns out that the new Soviet Constitution, in preparation for years, drops the phrase as well.

Throughout their existence, the guiding principle of the Communist parties has been their insistence that a minority had to seize power as the vanguard of the working class and impose its views on the rest of the population. This disdain for democratic procedures—whether it is presented in the usual form of the “dictatorship of the proletariat” or wrapped in Antonio Gramsci’s more elegant phrase, “the hegemony of the working class”—is precisely what has historically distinguished the Communist from the Socialist parties. I find it hard to believe that after decades of vilifying Social Democracy and treating it as their mortal enemy, especially in every Communist country, Communist parties have suddenly become Social Democrats. Independent of Moscow or not, Communists represent a philosophy that by its nature and their own testimony stands outside the “bourgeois” framework of Western constitutional history; they are a movement that appeals to a different tradition and uses a largely misleading vocabulary.

To be sure, the French, Spanish and Italian Communist parties have recently declared their resolve “to work within the pluralism of political and social forces and to respect guarantees and develop all individual and collective freedoms.” Italy’s Enrico Berlinguer and France’s Georges Marchais pledged their devotion to

July 18, 1977

9

national independence and political pluralism at a con-
ference of Communist parties in East Berlin in June
1976. Yet can we take these declarations at face value?
After all, Marchais has listed Bulgaria, Poland and East
Germany as countries having a "pluralistic" party sys-
tem. As recently as 1972, French Communist doctrine
was that "there can be no return from Socialism to
capitalism." And a few weeks ago, to the great irritation
of their Socialist allies, the French Communists esti-
mated the cost of the economic program of the two
parties at over $100 billion. The Communist program
—by definition—calls for the radical transformation of
society; by the very nature of their beliefs Communists
will be driven to bring about institutional changes that
would make their ascendance permanent.

It should also be noted that professions of the na-
tional road to Communism and of devotion to demo-
cratic principle are not really something new. The fol-
lowing quotations from European Communists illus-
trate the point.

* Georgi Dimitrov, leader of the Bulgarian Commu-
nist party, in February 1946: "The crux of the matter,
and we Marxists should know this well, is this: Every
nation will effect its transition to Socialism not by a
mapped-out route, not exactly as in the Soviet Union,
but by its own road, dependent on its historical, na-
tional, social, and cultural circumstances."

* From a proclamation of the (East) German Com-
munist party in June 1945: "We take the view that the
method of imposing the Soviet system on [our country]
wcu'd be wrong, since this method does not correspond
to present-day conditions of development. . . . We take
the view rather that the overriding interests of the . . .
people in their present-day situation prescribe a differ-
ent method . . . namely the method of establishing a
democratic anti-Fascist regime, a parliamentary demo-
cratic republic with full democratic rights and liberties
for the people."

* Erno Gero, Communist party leader of Hungary,
in November 1944: "The great national task facing the
country cannot be solved by either the Communist party
or by any other party alone. The Communist party
holds that it does not have a monopoly, and it does not
need the monopoly, to work among the masses for the
reconstruction of the new [nation]. The Communist
party does not approve of the idea of a one-party sys-
tem. Let the other parties operate and organize as well."

* Wladyslaw Gomulka, Communist party leader of
Poland, in January 1946: "In [our country] there is a
division of functions, and State power is based on par-
liamentary democracy. The dictatorship of the prole-
tariat or of a single party is not essential. [Our country]
can proceed and is proceeding along its own road."

* Klement Gottwald, Communist party leader of
Czechoslovakia, in January 1947: "The Communist
party seeks to attain Socialism, but we are of the opin-

ion that the Soviet system is not the only road to So-
cialism. . . . The coalition of the Communists with other
parties is not opportunistic, a temporary limited coali-
tion, but the expression . . . of all strata of the working
people. . . . We seek at present to make certain that our
new democratic parliamentary methods . . . be ex-
pressed in constitutional law. If you want the view of
the Communists, I can only say that they will be the
strictest guardians of the new Constitution."

Interestingly, Marchais speaks of "Socialism in the
colors of France," and in 1938, George Orwell de-
scribed French Communist strategy as "marching be-
hind the tricolor." In short, what the leaders of the
Western Communist parties are saying today about their
affection for democracy is not significantly different
from what East European Communist leaders declared
with equal emphasis in the 1940s—before they seized
the total control they have never relinquished.

CERTAINLY Communist parties are willing to
come to power by democratic means. But could
they permit the democratic process to reverse
what they see as the inevitable path of "historical pro-
gress"? Would they maintain the institutions, the free-
doms that could turn into instruments of their future
defeat? No Communist party governing alone has ever
done so, and the vast majority of democratic parties
that entered coalitions with European Communists are
now in the indexes of history books rather than in
ministries or parliaments.

The Italian Communist party, of course, left the gov-
ernment following its disastrous defeat by the Christian
Democrats in 1948. But the situation is greatly changed.
In 1948, the Communists were a far smaller party, with
little regional or municipal power. They had to contend
with a younger and more united Christian Democratic
party, a strong Socialist party, and a determined West-
ern Alliance alarmed by Stalin's adventures in Greece
and Czechoslovakia. In 1977, Italian Communists par-
ticipate in the governments of most major cities and re-
gions, have enormous trade union strength along with
substantive support from intellectuals and the popular
culture, and have reduced the role of the Socialists to a
fraction of what it was three decades ago.

The French Communists were similarly removed
from the government in 1947, following the intensifica-
tion of the Cold War. But, just as in the Italian case the
following year, the popular revolt against the Commu-
nists took place within the framework of a united West
with a clear perception of an external and internal
threat to its survival. By contrast, there are currently
many people on both sides of the Atlantic who have
permitted themselves to be convinced that European
Communism is only Social Democracy with a Leninist
face.

We cannot know, beyond all doubt, whether or not

10

The New Leader

a fundamental change has occurred in these parties'
traditional goals and tactics. But their internal organiza-
tion and management speak against the likelihood. It
is not democratic pluralism but the stern Leninist pre-
cept of "democratic centralism" that continues to guide
the internal structure of all European Communist par-
ties. This is a doctrine of iron discipline, not a principle
of free and open dialogue. It is a system of dogma, of a
"party line," of authority and obedience, of suppression
of dissent and purge of dissenters. There are too many
recent instances of resorts to violence, attempts to cen-
sor newspapers and broadcasting, and efforts to con-
trol the functioning of universities to be optimistic about
their character.

Only in Western Europe and the United States are
there still illusions about the nature of Communist par-
ties. In Eastern Europe, boredom, intellectual empti-
ness, inefficiency, and stultifying bureaucratism have
been obvious for decades. Countries that used to be

GEORGES MARCHAIS

leading industrial powers have been reduced to mediocrity and stagnation; nations with long democratic traditions have seen the destruction of civil liberties and democratic practices. The nations of the West would mortgage their future if they closed their eyes to this reality. Societies that try to avoid difficult choices by making comforting assumptions about the future win no awards for restraint; they only speed their own demise.

Nonetheless, it is sometimes asked: If the United
States can deal with Communist governments in the
Soviet Union, China, Eastern Europe, and even Cuba
or Vietnam, why can we not accept and learn to deal
with Communist parties seeking power in Western
Europe? Is not the Soviet Union uneasy about the pros-
pect of new Communist regimes that they may not be
able to control?

These questions miss the central point. There is a
crucial difference between managing a conflict with
adversaries and maintaining an alliance among friends,

particularly when the prospects for stable East-West
relations depend vitally on the cohesion of the Western
Alliance. Even if some West European Communist par-
ties should prove more difficult than the better disci-
plined satellites of East Europe, and thus pose new
problems for Moscow, they would pose far more seri-
ous problems for the West.

For the key issue is not how "independent" the Eu-
ropean Communists would be, but how Communist.
The dynamics of the Communist parties and the pro-
gram they would be elected on suggest that their for-
eign and domestic policies are not likely to be consistent
with the common purposes of the members of the At-
lantic Alliance.

THE SOLIDARITY of the great industrial demo-
cracies has maintained global security for 30
years. Western collective defense provided the
shield behind which the United States, Western Europe
and Japan developed the institutions of European unity
and the progressive world economic system. All of
these would be severely jeopardized if Communists
came to power in allied governments. More specifically:

1. The character of the Alliance would become con-
fused to the American people. The signatories of the
North Atlantic Treaty pledged in 1949 that "they are
determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage
and civilization of their peoples, founded on the prin-
ciples of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of
law." If Communists entered governments in allied
countries, the engagement to help maintain the military
balance in Europe would lack the moral base it has
stood on for a generation. The American people would
be asked to keep their Alliance commitment on the
basis of two highly uncertain, untested assumptions:
that there is a new trend of Communism which will in
time split from Moscow, and that the West will be able
to manipulate the new divisions to its advantage.

Both of these propositions are open to the most seri-
ous doubt. No major Communist split has ever been
generated or sustained by deliberate Western policy—
in fact, the Soviet Union's disputes with Yugoslavia
and with China had been festering for months and pos-
sibly years before the West became aware of them.
But even such a split would hardly diminish the danger
to existing Alliance relationships. By the time it oc-
curred—and it would surely take years to develop—
the damage to the NATO structure would probably have
become irreparable. And the character of the Atlantic
Alliance would be totally transformed, even should the
United States, for its own reasons, eventually decide to
support a revisionist Communism. While the United
States can never be indifferent to the extension of So-
viet hegemony to Western Europe, the permanent sta-
tioning of American forces in Europe could hardly be
continued for the object of defending some Communist

July 18, 1977

11

governments against other Communist governments. A
development of this kind could be justified only on the
crudest balance of power grounds that would be incom-
patible with American tradition and public sentiment.

2. The effect on Alliance cohesion generally would be disastrous. The Western Alliance has been held together by a system of close consultation based on shared goals and compatible philosophies. President de Gaulle cherished France's independence from the United States, but in major crises, over Berlin or Soviet missiles in Cuba, he stood firmly with his allies. In the same way, Communist governments in Western Europe, however independent of Moscow they may be on intraparty issues, can be expected to demonstrate their basic Communist convictions on major international issues—giving rise to significant foreign policy divergences between Europe and the U.S., and between the European states with Communists in their governments and the others.

In February 1976, for instance, Berlinguer told a London *Times* interviewer that "the Soviet Union's peace policy is in the general interest of mankind." The Italian Communist newspaper denounced NATO last year as "one of the fundamental instruments for American manipulation of the politics and economy of our country and Western Europe," and declared that "relations between the countries of Western Europe and the two superpowers must be rediscussed." A leading member of the Italian party's Central Committee was asked in a recent interview with Radio Free Europe: If the French and Italian Communist parties were in power, what would you do in the event of "a grave international crisis between the Soviet Union and the West?" He answered: "We would choose the Soviet side, of course." Such "support" of NATO as is expressed is explicitly tactical, and rests upon a distortion of détente. It is coupled with the proposition that a Soviet threat against Western Europe is inconceivable. No European Communist party suggests that it wishes to be part of the Western Alliance to withstand Soviet expansion. And, indeed, one could hardly bank on Communist parties dedicating themselves with any conviction to an alliance whose primary purpose was and remains to counter Soviet power.

Those parties have had their differences with the So-
viet Union, but in practically every case it has been on
a matter of relations within the Communist movement.
They have rarely, if ever, diverged from the Soviet po-
sition on an international issue. The Italian Communist
party has hailed the Cubans in Angola as "freedom
fighters," condemned the Israeli rescue of hostages at
Entebbe as an "intolerable violation of Uganda's na-
tional sovereignty," applauded Soviet policy in Africa,
and denounced America's diplomatic efforts in South-
ern Africa as an attempt to "save the neocolonial and
military-strategic interests of imperialism."

At best, West European Communist parties can be
expected to steer their basic policies closer to the so-
called nonaligned block and in an anti-Western direc-
tion. Yugoslavia—whose independence from Moscow
on East European issues is by now traditional—has
emerged as a champion of anti-Western and anti-Amer-
ican positions on most international issues outside of
Eastern Europe. Why should we think that Communist
parties in Western Europe would be more friendly to
us than the most independent East European state,
which has been engaged for nearly three decades in an
open dispute with Moscow and whose government the
Kremlin has sought repeatedly to undermine?

The strong role our allies play in defending Western
interests in many parts of the globe—such as President
Giscard's courageous actions in Zaire—could not be
expected from a nation where Communists share power.
In the Middle East, in Southern Africa, in relations
with the Third World, on Berlin, on arms control and
European security, the parallelism of views that has
existed between the United States and its European
allies would almost certainly be eroded. Worse, active
opposition, especially in regions of long-standing Eu-
ropean cultural and political influence, is probable. In
our common efforts to improve the world economy and
stimulate progress in both the developed and develop-
ing worlds, divisions would soon be apparent. Atlantic
unity could not be maintained in such circumstances,
even in the area of security.

3. The military strength and unity of NATO would be gravely weakened. It is hard to visualize how the present NATO structure could continue, with its exchange of highly classified information, its integrated military planning and political consultation, if Communists had a significant share of power in West European governments. That would force a major change in NATO practices, as happened temporarily when Portugal had to exclude itself from classified discussions because its political future was in doubt. In addition, the Communists are unlikely to give NATO defense a high budgetary priority; instead, they would use their positions to diminish the combined defense effort of Western Europe and inevitably sap the U.S. will to pay the costs of maintaining forces in Europe.

Furthermore, if Communists participate in key Eu-
ropean governments, NATO may turn by default into a
largely German-American alliance. This specter could
then be used in other West European countries to un-
dermine what remains of Atlantic cohesion. With NATO
thus weakened, while the Soviet Union continued to
increase its strategic and conventional strength and
maintained its grip on the Warsaw Pact, the essential
East-West equilibrium in Europe would be fundamen-
tally threatened. The freedom of many European coun-
tries, allied or neutral, to chart their own future would
be diminished in direct proportion to the growth of their

12

The New Leader

fear of Soviet power. Eventually, massive shifts against us would occur, not because a majority freely chose such a course, but because the upsetting of the overall balance left them no alternative.

4. The hopeful progress toward European unity would be undermined. The French and Italian Communist parties opposed the creation of the European Common Market as a conspiracy of monopoly capitalism. Until quite recently, they have consistently fought advances in European unity. Lately they have come to accept the European Community as a fact of life; they now say they seek to make it more "democratic" and to transform it, in Berlinguer's words, by "a process of innovation . . . in the spheres both of institutions and of general orientations." They can be counted on to reorient the Common Market toward closer ties with the state economies of Eastern Europe and toward the more extreme of the Third World's demands for a "new international economic order." It can be assumed that they will not encourage European political unity to foster cooperation with the United States; rather they will urge it, if at all, to encourage Third Force tendencies. Over time, the governments with Communist participation will manage to pull the others in their direction, or deep fissures will open up between the traditional Atlanticists and the "New Left" in the European Community. Either outcome would be destructive of European unity and Atlantic solidarity.

Whatever hypothesis we consider, therefore, Communist participation in governments of Western Europe would have a profound impact on the international order as it has developed in the postwar period. We cannot be indifferent to this, or delude ourselves that it would amount to anything short of a watershed in Atlantic relationships.

STILL, THE reaction of the United States necessarily has to be complex. As I have said, the crucial role must be played by the European governments; the final decision must be that of the European voters. There is no way we can substitute for either. For in the end, Western Europe's Communist parties find their opportunities less in their inherent strength than in the demoralization, division or disorganization of their opponents; they succeed only when the democratic system seems unable to solve the social problems of the day, when the center does not hold and societies become polarized. Violence—like that currently tormenting Italy—drives many to support Communism in desperation, convinced that drastic remedies are required to end a state of siege.

The basic causes of Communist gains, in other words, go deep and are not easy to remedy. In many European countries disillusionment with democratic government and democratic leaders is pervasive. In an era of peace, in a world of bureaucracy and mass production, there

is no galvanizing crisis and little opportunity for heroic performance. A relativist age debunks authority and puts nothing in its place as an organizing principle of society. Massive impersonal bureaucracy disillusions the citizen with the responsiveness of his government, and simultaneously makes the task of elected officials more difficult. In too many democratic countries the young are offered too little inspiration; their elders too often have lost confidence in their own values. Too frequently democratic leaders are consumed by winning and holding office and are unable to demonstrate the philosophical self-assurance of their radical opponents.

The very success of Western societies in maintaining prosperity at a level undreamt of even 40 years ago sometimes contributes to their malaise. Intellectuals condemn society for materialism when it is prosperous and for injustice when it fails to ensure prosperity. The widespread economic difficulties of the last four years —recession and inflation unparalleled in a generation, to a large extent induced by the extraordinary increase in oil prices—fuel the frustration of all whose hopes for economic advancement are rebuffed. The interdependence of economies causes inflation and recession to surge across national boundaries, compounding the sense of individual impotence.

And yet, with all these difficulties, the democratic forces of the West have it in their power to determine whether the Communist parties have opportunities to succeed. They have the capacity to put their economies on the path of steady noninflationary expansion. They have the intellectual capital and the resources to usher in a new period of creativity. Anti-Communism is not enough; there must be a response to legitimate social and economic aspirations, and there must be a reform of the inequities from which these antidemocratic forces derive much of their appeal. With able leadership—and Western cohesion—the democracies can overcome their challenges and usher in a period of dramatic fresh advance. And in this process it is vital that the United States encourage an attitude of resolve and conviction.

First of all, we must frankly recognize the problem that we will face if the Communists come to power in Western Europe, and we must understand the practical decisions this will impose on us as a nation. We must avoid facile projections that seek to escape difficult choices by making the most favorable assumptions about what might happen. We must have a program for supporting the forces of moderation and progress in this critical period, and for rallying them should a Communist party nonetheless prevail.

Second, we must avoid giving the impression that we consider Communist success a foregone conclusion by ostentatious association or consultation with Communist leaders, or by ambiguous declarations. Communist success is not a foregone conclusion; United States

July 18, 1977

13

hesitation or ambiguity can, however, contribute to it. Communist parties are riddled with weaknesses and internal strains, and marked by a fundamental flaw: Parties that do not speak for the humane values that have inspired the peoples of the West for centuries are unlikely to appeal to a majority in a Western nation, except in a moment of unsettling crisis. In no Western European country has the Communist party ever fairly won more than about a third of the vote. Their most powerful weapons are fear, distrust and discouragement; their principal asset is the myth of their inevitability. Consequently, we do our friends in Europe no favor if we encourage the notion that the advent of Communists and their allies into power will make little or no difference to our own attitudes and policies. I am talking less of formal statements—which depend on tactical judgments difficult for any outsider to make—than of a clear U.S. position.

Some have argued that such a policy would be counterproductive, that it would encourage Communist protest votes. I believe the opposite to be true. On balance, I consider it important that Europe know of America's interest and concern. Many voters in allied countries value the friendship of the United States and appreciate the security supplied by the Atlantic Alliance. We should not ignore them, or demoralize them, or undercut them. The gradual gains scored by the Communist parties over the past years occurred—by definition—at the margin, among voters who had not voted Communist before; who did not vote by anti-American reflex; who for one reason or another were persuaded that the Communists have now become acceptable or indispensable.

There is no evidence that voters are influenced to vote Communist by American attitudes. On the contrary, the real danger may well be the other way; many usual opponents of the Communist parties may be lulled by voices, attitudes and ambiguities in this country implying that our traditional opposition has changed. Paradoxically, we even weaken whatever moderate elements may exist in Communist movements by settling too eagerly for verbal reassurances.

If the United States has a responsibility to encourage political freedom throughout the world, we surely have a duty to leave no doubt about our beliefs on an issue that is so central to the future of the Western Alliance, and therefore to the future of democracy. Human rights is not an abstraction concerned only with judicial procedures and unrelated to basic questions of political and geopolitical structure. We cannot fail to reckon the setback to European freedom that will result if Communist minorities gain decisive influence in European politics; we must not close our eyes to the effect on freedom throughout the world if the global balance tips against the West.

Third, the United States should conduct its policies

toward its allies in a manner that strengthens the moderate, progressive and democratic governments of Western Europe. We must, on the one hand, avoid demands or lectures which, regardless of their intrinsic merit, magnify domestic fissures in European countries or the sense of impotence of European governments. On the other hand, the United States can contribute to a sense of accomplishment by offering vigorous cooperation in joint efforts to solve common problems in the fields of diplomacy, arms control, energy, and economic growth. This was the purpose of the economic summits among Western leaders begun by President Ford at Rambouillet and Puerto Rico, and continued so successfully in London by President Carter.

Unity and cooperative action among the democracies are crucial to all that America does in the world. Western unity defends not simply our security but our way of life and the most basic moral values of our civilization. Here we cannot be neutral. Fostering these principles deserves the same dedication and commitment that inspired the most imaginative diplomacy in the history of our country.

THE STAGNANT societies of the East to which I have referred serve as both a warning and a hope. They remind us that the West's latent intellectual and political vitality, even more than its material prosperity, is the envy of the world. The winds of change are ultimately blowing from the West. The men and women of Eastern Europe are certainly aware that the West, for all its doubts and spiritual dilemma, is the vanguard of modernization, the vital source of learning and of much of modern culture, and the haven of the free human spirit. The developing countries yearning for progress also turn to the West, not the East, for assistance, support and the measure of what man can achieve when he aspires. Our technology, our creativity, our unequaled economic vigor, not some bureaucratic doctrine of economic determinism, are the forces that will shape the future if we mobilize the energies of free peoples.

This is not the time for resignation or acquiescence. It is a time for confidence, determination and hope. The power of free men and women and free nations acting in concert, confident of their strength and of their destiny, cannot be matched by any totalitarian regime or totalitarian movement. The spirit of freedom can never be crushed. But freedom can be lost gradually. That danger exists today in Western Europe, and that threat could have consequences throughout the community of democracies and the world. If we cherish freedom, we will face the peril, marshal joint efforts to overcome it and begin an era of new fulfillment for our peoples. Western Europe, our closest partner and the cradle of much of our civilization, is too precious to us for us to do otherwise.

14

The New Leader

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Beaver, Pa. - Times

JUL 14 1977

Europe looks again at
Kissingers warning

BY JOHN PINKERMAN

When Henry Kissinger was U.S. secretary of state, his words of warning often were ignored here in Britain and in other Western nations associated with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Now that the "Kissinger policy" has been replaced by the "Carter-Young policy (President Jimmy Carter and U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young)," however, some of the former secretary's cautions against the spread of Communist influence in the West - called Eurocommunism - are getting more attention.

A recent Kissinger speech sponsored by the *American Enterprise Institute* and the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace was quoted and reprinted here and in Bonn, Brussels, even Paris. One editorial on the speech was headed "We Should Listen." Another, "Great Risks to NATO."

Within such a frame of reference, it is interesting to read what Kissinger had to say, particularly in view of the Carter-Young policy of laughing off Communist gains in Italy, France and other NATO countries as "none of our business" ("our" meaning America's), along with admonitions that we should not concern ourselves with another nation's internal affairs - even though Young and Mr. Carter both are neck-deep in the internal affairs of African and Middle Eastern nations.

Specific parts of Kissinger's philosophy, as enunciated in his speech that was lightly reported in the United States, have caused alarm here. For instance, he has a very clear response to the Carter-Young Pollyanna approach that Italian and French Reds are different from the big bad Reds of Eastern Europe and that we shouldn't get excited if they win control of governments or parts of governments by the free election process.

Kissinger calls direct attention to the mission of NATO - to protect the West from Soviet communism, and says, "The permanent stationing of American forces in Europe could hardly be maintained for the object of defending some Communist governments against other Communist governments.

"Such a deployment could be justified only on the crudest balance of power grounds that would be incompatible with American tradition and American public sentiment." And, he adds, "the key issue is not how 'independent' the European Communists would be, but how 'Communist.'"

Observers here and on the European continent express genuine fear over one end result that might occur from American passive acceptance of Communist control of NATO governments. They reluctantly agree with this Kissinger statement: "If Communists participate in a significant way in the governments of key European countries, NATO may turn by default into a largely German-American alliance. This specter could then be used in other West European countries to undermine what remains of Atlantic cohesion...

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# Kissinger on Eurocommunism

By Henry A. Kissinger

From a speech by the former Secretary of State at this summer's Washington conference on Italy and Eurocommunism sponsored by the American Enterprise for Public Policy Research and the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace.

In the end, the Communist Parties in Western Europe find their opportunities less in their inherent strength than in the demoralization, vision or disorganization of their opponents; they succeed only when the democratic system fails unable to solve the social problems of the day; when, the center does not hold and societies become polarized.

A relativist age debunks authority and puts nothing in its place as an organizing principle society. Massive impersonal bureaucracy sullies the citizen with the responsiveness of his government, and simultaneously makes the task of elected officials more difficult. In so many democratic countries the young are offered too little inspiration; their elders too often have lost confidence in their own values. Too frequently democratic leaders are confined by winning and holding office and are unable to demonstrate the force of conviction and philosophical self-assurance of their radical opponents.

The very success of Western societies in maintaining prosperity at a level undreamt of for 40 years ago sometimes contributes to their malaise. Intellectuals condemn society

for materialism when it is prosperous and for injustice when it fails to insure prosperity. The widespread economic difficulties of the last four years — recession and inflation unparalleled in a generation, to a large extent induced by the extraordinary increase in oil prices — fuel the frustration of all whose hopes for economic advancement are rebuffed. The interdependence of economies causes inflation and recession to surge across national boundaries, compounding the sense of individual impotence.

And yet, with all these difficulties, the democratic forces of the West have it in their power to determine whether the Communist Parties have opportunities to succeed. They have the capacity to put their economies on the path of steady noninflationary expansion. They have the intellectual capital and the resources to usher in a new period of creativity. Anticommunism is not enough; there must be a response to legitimate social and economic aspirations, and there must be a reform of the inequalities from which these antidemocratic forces derive much of their appeal.

We must have a program for encouraging the forces of moderation and progress in this critical period and for rallying them should a Communist Party nonetheless prevail.

We must avoid giving the impression that we consider Communist success a foregone conclusion by ostentatious association or con-

sultation with Communist leaders or by ambiguous declarations. Communist success is not a foregone conclusion: United States hesitation or ambiguity can, however, contribute to it. Communist Parties are riddled with weaknesses and internal strains, and marked by a fundamental flaw: parties that do not speak for the humane values which have inspired the peoples of the West for centuries are unlikely to appeal to a majority in a Western nation except in a moment of unsettling crisis. In no Western European country has the Communist Party ever fairly won more than about a third of the vote. Their most powerful weapons are fear, distrust, and discouragement; their principal asset is the myth of their inevitability. Therefore, we do our friends in Europe no favor if we encourage the notion that the advent of Communists and their allies into power will make little or no difference to our own attitudes and policies.

Some have argued that such a policy would be counterproductive, that it would encourage Communist protest votes. I believe the opposite to be true. The gradual gains scored by the Communist Parties over the past years occurred — by definition — at the margin, among voters who had not voted Communist before; who did not vote by anti-American reflex; who for one reason or another were persuaded that the Communists have now become acceptable or indispensable.

There is no evidence that voters are influenced to vote Communist by American attitudes. On the contrary, the real danger may well be the other way; many usual opponents of the Communist Parties may be lulled by voices, attitudes and ambiguities in this country implying that our traditional opposition has changed. Paradoxically, we even weaken whatever moderate elements may exist in Communist movements by settling too eagerly for verbal reassurances.

The stagnant societies of the East to which I have referred serve as both a warning and a hope. They remind us that the West's latent intellectual and political vitality, even more than its material prosperity, is the envy of the world. The winds of change are ultimately blowing from the West. The men and women of Eastern Europe are certainly aware that the West, for all its doubt and sense of spiritual dilemma, is the vanguard of modernization, the vital source of learning and of much of modern culture, and the haven of the free human spirit. The developing countries yearning for progress also turn to the West, not the East, for assistance, support, and the measure of what man can achieve when he aspires. Our technology, our creativity, our unequaled economic vigor, not some bureaucratic doctrine of economic determinism, are the forces that will shape the future if we mobilize the energies of free peoples.

Press Intelligence, Inc.

WASHINGTON, D. C. 20001

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## Communists in West Europe

The Italian premier's recent visit with President Carter is the latest reminder of a new worry: Some Europeans governments, Italy being the most likely, will soon include Communists. The worry brings a soothing reply: Don't worry, these Communists are different. An Italian, Altiero Spinelli, who was once a commissioner of the European Community, puts it this way:

> Look at the sociological makeup of the (Italian Communist) party. It's the same as the Labour Party in Britain and as the Socialists in Belgium, Austria and the Netherlands. It includes the poorer classes who want to better their condition through reform, not revolution. At the level, its members are administrators and parliamentarians and leaders of trade unions, cooperatives, cultural circles, municipalities, regional governments.

> So what would these nice people—the New Class in Italy—do in foreign affairs? Writing in the July/August issue of *European Community*, Spinelli says the Italian Communist Party, (PCI) knows it is in its best interests that there be no Soviet expansion in the Mediterranean. He says the CPI wants Yugoslavia to be independent of Moscow; that “the CPI is the only party in Italy facing the problems of its own history and ideology and trying to keep pace with events.”

In Spinelli's opinion the leaders of the Christian Democratic Party in Italy—the good guys so far as American policy is concerned—realize that they have a problem, that “the problem is not *whether* they will take the Communists in but *when*.”

In that phrasing there is the old allure of the Communist line, the “inevitable,” the “train of history” and the “dustbin” into which all are swept who do not recognize the inevitable and get on the train. For 40 years that line has swept up and destroyed the theoreticals of popular fronts. More stringent is the advice of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger: “...parties that do not speak for the human values which have inspired the people of the West for centuries are unlikely to appeal to a majority in a Western nation except in a moment of unsettling crisis.

> “In no Western European country has the Communist party ever fairly won more than about a third of the vote. Their most powerful weapons are fear, distrust and discouragement. Their principle asset is the myth of their inevitability. Therefore, we do our friends in Europe no favor if we encourage the notion that the advent of Communists and their allies into power will make little or no difference to our own attitudes and policies”—From *Communist Parties in Western, Europe, Challenge to the West*. Reprint No. 70, American Enterprise Institute.

The United States has learned, sadly enough, that it cannot control the world. It may not be persuasive even in the area of its greatest foreign policy success, the post-war reconstruction of Western Europe. If Eurocommunism takes hold, we may have to sing an Italian tune, *Che sara, sara* (What will be, will be). But give the idea no encouragement.