17 SEPTEMBER 1983, Page 9

Reagan's restraint

Nicholas von Hoffman

Washington or the past seven days the way for a ,anY publican in America to get himself -11"` the name of his bar on television was to lake his two or three bottles of Stolichnaya Ri,tissian vodka and pour their contents into 41",: gutter. In similar manifestations of rage and patriotism state-Owned liquor ni()noPolies in New Hampshire, Iowa, Ohio and Virginia said that they too', as a state- life on behalf of the sanctity of human „sufe, would sell not one more dram of nolshevik potato whisky. a The Atlanta Ballet of Georgia cancelled Cict°her tour of the Soviet Union; iv -'aYor Charles Royer of Seattle did likewise ,ith his visit to Seattle's sister city, ashkent; Local 13 of the International

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ngshoremen's and Warehousemen's 4.11i°11 declared an unshakeable determina- ra never to unload goods from a Russian teighter again; in Boston 400 rallied in aiin,,t,i;cornmunist fury in front of Faneuil A", one of the sacred places of the ;411erican i- Revolution; and listeners to Salt aake City's radio station KLRZ could hear r new song, set to the music of 'Eye of the (the theme from Rocky III), called the Russians are Liars', with words supplied u ,,lay the station's premier disc jockey. (Didn't eethoven do as much for Napoleon?) b The list of patriotic manifestations could ` „cIe lengthened indefinitely. Nor were they fnfined to the lower orders. Mr Reagan, he °11h"ling 1.1P his speech of last week, could ev„-; ear, d — almost hourly it seemed to the minority — denouncing the Rus- tI:ans with unbridled vocabulary. In addi- wcban to which a 'National Day of Mourning' n'is; Pr°01aimed, and a solemn service at the cathedral was conducted by a bishop t,"0 congratulated the chief executive on '1?e dePth of his emotions and his n,estraint', meaning, presumably, his deci- "on not to start World War III. iii,.112king their cue from the chief, the Ad- lesser lights burnt no less „Ig,htlY in their indignation. The Secretary ;' otate, Mr Shultz, a man unhappily not thill°wed with the gift of eloquence, never- scee'ess was seen on the colour television horn,Ts in a hundred million American etiri sPluttering both before and after Wehns with the abominable Gromyko. en s the circumstances are right, as they 0,:e indeed been right for the past two p,',Fks, the American presidency can be a 'Tit of frightful power. de's t the same time that the President was cribing the shooting

Inurder, that of the plane as

the iv . a pillar of the civic cathedral, `-ri

ashington Post, was printing a string ik aIllerticles by its Pentagon reporters using ncan military sources, all of which

tended to show that the Russians may in- deed have thought Flight 007 was on an espionage mission. The gist of the paper's articles on the pattern of American air reconnaisance was that the case either way had not been proven.

Other than to provide furtber proof of the communists' penetration of American journalism, the Post's low-keyed peeling back of the Administration's oratory has not had visible impact. The New York Times, the television and the great inter- coast ochlocracy have chosen to stay with patriotism rather than undergo the risks in- trinsic to independent thought.

There have been repercussions, never- theless. Politically, it has not been all skit- tles and beer for Mr Reagan. He has had to endure that ignominy of praise from the computer keyboards of such known and named liberals as the New York Times's Tom Wicker, who has been hailing the American leader's 'restraint'. Specifically pleasing has been Mr Reagan's refusal to cancel a small, recently concluded sales agreement between the Russians and the Caterpillar Tractor Company. There has also been no cancellation of the newly sign- ed grain deal, but that may have less to do with statesman-like forebearance than the clause prohibiting its unilateral abrogation by either signatory. There is also the mitigating fact that, after the last cancella- tion, wheat farmers of Iowa and the Dakotas have agreed, in consequence of the severity of their punishment, never to in- vade Afghanistan again.

But Mr Reagan has shown no verbal res- taint whatsoever. Seldom has the hot lava flowing out of the mouth of an American president been so violent in a time of technical peace. His words have inflamed his own right wing, which has been loudly critical of his failure to punish people whom he has denounced again and again as bar- barians. brutes, murderers, liars. Whether or not he has injured himself with his hard core followers remains to be seen — pro- bably not, they love him too much — but he has certainly made it harder for himself to negotiate with the Russians should he want to do so. He has stiffened and enlarged the political pressure consecrated to absolute opposition to any kind of deal. And let it be noted, whether or not the timing was coin- cidental, while the windows of the White House were thrown open for shouting and denunciations, the Administration was tell- ing Congress in a far quieter way that the United States is suspending negotiations for the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty. In explanation, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency said that, 'while a CTB continues to be a long-term US objec- tive, nuclear tests are specifically required for the development, modernisation and certification of warheads, the maintenance of stockpile reliability and the evaluation of nuclear weapons'. Which is to say the United States does not want a test ban because it wants to test.

While a few writers with secure jobs or more zeal than circumspection have begun to question how good is the government's reconstruction of what happened to the plane, we have yet to get the first criticisms of the government's diplomacy. It goes over well at home to have your Secretary of State stand in front of the room where he's about to meet the Russian foreign minister and say, 'That son of a bitch better admit guilt and pay up or we're gonna let 'em have it with both barrels.' But if the idea is to find out what the 'Russians have to say for themselves, if the idea is to give them a way out in the event the shooting was a mistake, the Reagan/Shultz approach is a textbook illustration of how not to conduct foreign affairs. One suspects that no inten- tion exists to talk, to accommodate, to understand. For the United States diplomacy with the Russians is but another chance to extend the ideological struggle.

We think they are butchers, but what if Mr Reagan is correct in what he has been charging, namely that the Russians knew it was an airliner, had every reason to believe it was full of civilian passengers and then blew it out of the skies regardless? That means they think the American government would risk 269 civilians as a shield to carry out its espionage activities. If we think that of them and they think that of us, then we may both be slipping down the double helix of disaster.