Page Eight
THE SUMMER DAILY
Thursday, June 7, 1 973
Detente: Unresolved issues
By WILLIAM L. RYAN
AP Special Correspondent
Between them the Americans
and Russians have whipped up
an enticing batch of icing for
their detente cake. But painfully
visible and rock-hard lumps re-
main beneath, stirred in over
generations of cold war.
The Soviet-American summit
coming up shortly represents an
attempt by the two leaders to
keep their countries off a col-
lision course.
AT THE same time, each
hopes to reap benefits for his
own side.
But neither is likely even for
a moment to entertain the no-
tion that genuine peace is either
at hand or around the corner.
Not peace, but peaceful coexist-
ence, has broken out.
Some remarkable and even
revolutionary things have been
going on in advance of the visit
of Leonid L Brezhnev, the So-
viet Communist general secre-
tary, to President Nixon begin-
ning June 18.
AMERICAN capitalists have
been roaming the Soviet Union,
talking about and even sealing
big deals. Westerners who, not
many years ago, might have
viewed any high Communist as a
personification of menace now
profess to find Russia's boss
Communist a man of engaging
charm and business wisdom.
On the other hand, Russians
read things in their papers that
a r e practically unbelievable.
The same Soviet journalists who
devoted themselves industrious-
ly to lambasting everything
A m e r i c a n have accustomed
themselves to casually dropping
names like Rockefeller, Ford,
American Can, Pepsi - Cola, and
so forth. All are mentioned in
tones of respect.
Soviet readers are told that
some Americans are showing
"common sense and realism,"
and the clear implication is that
there can, after all, be such a
thing as a good capitalist. In-
stead of giving readers the im-
pression that absolutely nothing
is right about American society,
the press has taken to telling
them some things are even pret-
ty good, like the organization of
the American consumer econo-
my.
THE SOVIET press scarcely
mentioned the Nixon Adminis-
tration's Watergate woes, and
what little it did report was
phrased with delicate care.
Yet Brezhnev and other Com-
munist leaderstrepeatedly warn
that peace mustn't he allowed to
go too far, to interfere with the
ideological war or to permit wide
open East-West contacts.
"The Communist party of the
Soviet Union has always held
and still holds that the class
struggle between two systems,
Communist and capitalist, in the
economic, political and of course
ideological domains will contin-
ue," said Brezhnev in a recent
speech. All he promised to do
was to "strive to shift this his-
torically inevitable struggle to a
path free from the perils of
war."
THE RUSSIAN military, how-
ever, seems to have less faith
than the civilian politicians in
the blessings of peaceful coexist-
ence. The military press harps
on a need for "constant vigil-
ance and readiness to deal a re-
buff to any intrigues of the ag-
gressive, reactionary circles of
imperialism."
But the civilian press assures
critics that "positive changes"
in the world climate were forced
on the capitalists because of the
might and authority of the U.S.
S.R. It tells them the policy now
combines "flexibility and firm-
ness" and creates "more favor-
able conditions externally for the
building of communism in our
country." This means that in an
atmosphere of relaxed tension,
internal problems can get more
top-level attention.
The Russians and Americans
indeed have taken long strides
in some areas, particularly trade
and commerce, each for its own
compelling reasons. Also, there
is likely to be a look of pro-
gress at the Washington summit
as how to hring the Strategic
Arms Limitation Talks SALT in-
to a new and complex phase
dealing with offensive weapons.
WHAT ABOUT other issues?
Europe and European Security
Moscow's appetitie is sharper
than ever for the sort of all-Eur-
ope security conference it wants
to develop from preparatory
talks now going on in Helsinki.
The Soviet press has been en-
thusing about "progress" both
in Helsinki and Vienna, where
other talks are in progress on
reduction of forces. Most of all,
the Kremlin wants a security
conference - soon.
The West is not against a con-
ference, but has insisted that any
security arrangement would be
meaningless unless it provided
for free exchange of people and
ideas.
MOSCOW sought to overcome
that hurdle by suggetting it was
all for exchanges of information
and people within the framework
of "sovereignty" That meant
Moscow would retain full control.
Later the Kremlin was report-
ed amenable to freer movement
of people and ideas within cer-
tain specified areas, possibly on
the assumption that such move-
ment still would be subject to a
large measure of control.
Forces Reduction
The progress in Vienna has
been hardly worth mentioning.
The two sides have hardly been
able to agree on what they want
to talk about. The United States
wants to talk about "balanced"
reductions, because georgraphy
makes it so much easier for the
Russians to reach Central Eur-
The Berlin wall, remains stand-
ing. Nothing has been said about
knocking it down. As for West
Germany's claim to represent
West Berlin in international or-
ganizations and prospectively in
the United Nations, Brezhnev did
some agile sidestepping.
THERE MAY, however, be
some cold war dividends yet
to come from the Washington
summit. Brezhnev, no less than
President Nixon, has strong rea-
sons for wanting to get some-
thing to show from it, some sort
of glittering success.
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SOVIET LEADERS Brezhnev and Kosygin wave to crowds from
the Lenin Mausoleum. The Russian leadership is making it clear
that they want better relations with the U.S., but serious issues
between the two countries remain unresolved.
HIGH LIGHTS OF THE 1973_
ANN ARBOR'
FILM FESTIVAIL
A special showing of films
selected to tour the country.
TONIGHT-JUNE 7
Two different o
showings'a Cinema guild
night for
three nights.
A feast for 10:00 P.M.
film lovers. FLYING-NO LOW ALTITUDE_-
Jeanne Mininzll
8:00 p.m. THE DIVINE MIRACLE-Diana
PAN DORA'S BOX-Stove Segal Krumins
EMERGING NATION-Jerrold Peil DOWN WIND-Pat O'Neill
RICKY AND ROCKY-Tom Palaggolo ROBERT WALL, EX-FBI AGENT-
and Jeff Kreines , Michael Anderson, Saul Landau,
6344-Joseph Pipher Bill Lahraus, Paul Jacobs
ROSELAND-Royanne Rosenberg SPIDER-Gary Anderson
SILENT REVERSAL-Lewis Hock HATS OFF TO HOLLYWOOD-
ZOCALO-Richard Meyers Penelope Spheeris
THOUGHT DREAMS-Barbara MATRIX Ill-John Whitney
Linkevitch THE TRACK-Richard Sanders
TAKE OFF-Gunvor Nelson Rosenthal
Architecture Auditorium1ec .s
ope. Moscow objects to the word
"balanced." It does not even
agree that Hungary is in Central
Europe. The Russians have pos-
sibly 50,000 troops there and
aren't disposed to move them out.
BRESHNEV is aware of pres-
sure in the U. S. Congress for
withdrawal of troops. Why bar-
gain if he can hope to get all be
wants without giving much at
all?
Berlin
In his Bonn summit with West
German Chancellor Willy Brandt,
Brezhnev seemed to do well. He
now has a prospect of German
economic collaborations, tech-
nology and capital in exchange
for raw materials. He gave little
politically and in fact kept op-
tions open on West Berlin, where
the East German Communists
still want Bonn's hopes obstruct-
ed.
While it is possible an im-
pression that the President has
been weakened by Watergate
might make Brezhnev more ag-
gressive, it is also clear that he
badly wants the things he is
shopping for - enough to pay a
price.
For example, Brezhnev in two
recent speeches has said flatly
"the Vietnam war is over," al-
though the fighting there con-
tinues. He has shown what
seems to have been a fair dose
of caution in the Middle East.
Possibly his hope of hastening
economic benefits for the Soviet
Union might persuade him to
contribute more generously to
tranquility in such areas.
IT MIGHT not mean the cold
war has ended, but it does sug-
guest that it has been post-
poned.
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