LEADERS WORRIED OVER KREMLIN'S PASSIVITY IN VIETNAM
[The following paragraphs have been extracted from an article by Philippe Ben in the July 2 issue of the Paris daily Le Monde. Philippe Ben is one of the more conscientious reporters Specializing in Soviet and East European affairs. The first part of his article deals with various political currents that have appeared in ruling circles in Poland. The section translated below carries a subhead~ ing, "Anxiety over Soviet passivity in’ Vietnam,"]
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"The confusion existing in Poland is reinforced by the very grave fears aroused among the Polish leaders as well as among the Czechoslovaks, East Germans and Hungarians by the war in Viétnam and by the evident incapacity of the Soviet Union to react against the American raids against North Vietnam, According to accurate information, ‘the leaders in Warsaw, Prague, and perhaps likewise in certain other Communist countries of Eastern Europe took steps in Moscow ‘quite recently to request that the Soviet leaders find some possibility of countering the American attacks against North Vietnam by taking the initiative somewhere on the globe. They motivated their request by the catastrophic decline, throughout Eastern Europe, in Soviet prestige due to Moscow's passivity in face of the American action in Vietnam, Thus, for example, in Warsaw the party functionaries recently proclaimed that the Russians make a lot of noise about their guaranteeing the Oder-Neisse line, but in Vietnam the Americans are omnis and the Russians are doing nothing. The Communist leaders have likewise told Moscow that the erosion of Soviet prestige has been accompanied in their countries by the development of a certain admiration for China. These feelings have become so evident that
the Polish politbureau issued a secret decree banning all party organizations from discussing the Sino-Soviet conflict. . In some countries of Eastern Europe, neither China nor Albania are criticized any longer. Quite the contrary, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary are now negotiating with Tirana for the’ reestablishment of normal diplomatic relations, and the reopening of embassies by these countries in the Albanian capital is expected soon,
"However, this request for a Soviet initiative against the United States was reportedly qualified by one condition -= a new crisis in West Berlin would only halt the disintegration of NATO and reestablish solidarity between Washington and Paris as well as between Paris and Bonn, Moreover it would cut us off from de Gaulle, the man on whom we now base our hopes,
"It nevertheless seems that the Soviet leaders were not convineed by these arguments and that they stressed in their reply that in the present situation the United States is especially vulnerable in Vietnam and nowhere else, This reply was considered to be extremely disappointing because the Communist leaders of Eastern Europe are very well aware that Soviet aid to Hanoi has been relatively modest and that it hinges entirely on the good will of Peking, since the Soviet government does not dare, despite reports to the contrary, to ., send arms and specialists by sea because of fear of an American block- .cade like the one imposed during the-crisis in the Caribbean."