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Red-baiting, no. Anti-Communism, yes. THE 'PEACE COUNCIL' AND PEACE

BY RONALD RADOSH

AN OLD PROBLEM is back. Activists in the nuclear called the World Peace Council, which is bought and fl. freeze movement are faced, whether they like it or paid for by the Soviet Union." Far-right author and not, with the question of what attitude they should take researcher John Rees followed suit, stating that "the toward Communists and Communism. They want the Soviet Union is running the current worldwide disarma­ White House to engage in serious arms control negotia­ ment campaign through the K.G.B. and ... the World tions, which is an essential goal. While working toward Peace Council," and that U.S. peace activists were "up that goal, they are receiving overtures from American to their necks in this effort." And there were more such Communists who espouse unity in a common effort, but attacks. Of course all this is nonsense: the vast majority whose own private agenda is quite different. of those who campaigned and voted for freeze resolu- • One might have thought that the experience of de­ tions in November have never even heard of the World cades would have settled this issue long ago-indeed, as Peace Council. long ago as 1924, during the third-party campaign of The right's tactic of using this relatively obscure group Senator Robert M. Lafollette. After working to support to undermine the peace movement has not worked. The Lafollette as part of a broad coalition, the Communists American press has been sharp in exposing the paucity received new orders from Moscow and suddenly con­ of the allegations, particularly in challenging the Presi­ demned him as a Fascist. Lafollette concluded in a dent's recent assertion that "foreign agents" instigated public letter that Communists had joined his campaign the freeze movement. Even a cursory look at the Nuclear only "to disrupt it," and warned, "To pretend that the Weapons Freeze Campaign shows that the U.S. Peace Communists can work with the progressives is deliber­ Council, the American branch of the World Peace Coun­ ately to deceive the public." cil, is not part of its elected leadership. It is not to be After World War II, liberals faced the issue again found on its National Committee or on the smaller when the remnants of the wartime Popular Front sup­ executive and strategy committees. On the other hand, ported Henry A. Wallace's 1948 Presidential campaign. major organizations such as the Presbyterian Church are Wallace's "Gideon's Army" believed that there were officially involved, and one suspects that it is this kind of "no enemies on the Left," that liberals and Communists popular support that really upsets the White House. had to work together and maintain unity against the If Communists and U.S. Peace Council members are conservative drift. Americans for Democratic Action, the involved in working for the freeze on a local level, their American Civil Liberties Union, the New York State participation is too minimal to have any po1iti, al mean­ Liberal Party, and many other liberal groups disagreed, ing. Yet they are trying to play a more activE' part. contending that the Communists' antidemocratic ideol­ Indeed, just as the right needs to paint thE' freeze move­ ogy and their subservience to Soviet policy were flatly ment as pro-Communist, so do the Communists need incompatible with liberal goals-and that liberal orga­ this Red-baiting to gain them attention and legitimacy. nizations were not only within their rights to exclude A new generation of activists naively responds to the them but had a moral obligation to do so. This did not problem with their own kind of illogic. If the attack on prevent right-wing extremists from continuing to attack the peace movement through the U.S. Peare Council is such organizations as Communist, but it deprived such McCarthyism, they reason, the rejection of the U.S. charges of much of their force. Peace Council must also be McCarthyism. Today the issue has reappeared, with the Reagan It is this attitude, newly emerging, that allows such an Administration and its right-wing allies Red-baiting the old-fashioned Communist front as the U.S. Peace Coun­ entire nuclear freeze movement. The President himself cil to gain a following among old left peace groups such started the attacks, proclaiming in December 1981 that as Women's Strike for Peace and the Women·s Interna­ antiwar demonstrations "are all sponsored by a thing tional League for Peace and Freedom. Tht·:-e groups were themselves incorrectly attacked bv Senator Jere- Ronald Radosh is co-author with Joyce Milton of The . miah Denton as Communist fronts. R~t it would be Rosenberg File: A Search for the Truth, to be published in correct to describe their leaders as unfailing fellow trav­ August by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. elers of the type that flourished in the 19~ :, ,. and 1950s.

14 THE N l: W REP U BL IC January 31, 1983 The brochure of the U.S. Peace Council's national con­ Communists smoothly excludes the "peace activities" of ference is adorned with ads from both the various locals the Party's most popular and long-standing leader, Earl and the national office of the W.I.L.P.F. Browder-who went to prison for his peace campaign Perhaps the best example of how the new breed of during the Nazi-Soviet pact, and who was purged in fellow travelers reacts to Soviet policy can be found in 1945 for prematurely advocating the detente the Party their response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. It now supports. Meyerson ends his "Open Letter" by never occurred to them to react first with an outright extolling the virtues of his Party comrades: "Our experi­ condemnation of the invasion-to say nothing of offer­ ence in working with U.S.P.C. members who belong to ing their moral support to an indigenous liberation the Communist Party has shown them to be as honest, movement struggling for self-determination. They ar­ hard working, thoughtful and dedicated to the cause of gued that the Soviet invasion was not a cause for alarm. peace as anyone else." After all, Afghanistan was already a client state of the Soviet Union, and the Afghani rebels were composed of XCEPT, THAT IS, when the cause of peace is es­ barbarians-wife-beaters who objected to imposed pro­ E poused within the Soviet Union. I asked Meyerson gressive measures such as elimination of the bride price. what he thought of the independent peace activists who You simply could not, as Nation correspondent Fred were arrested after demonstrating in Red Square on June Halliday argued, compare the Afghan rebels to the 12. He regretted the suppression, he said, but he charac­ heroic Vietnamese Communists. One group was com­ terized the brave group as "not a peace movement," but posed of Marxist guerrillas, the other of "ultraconserva­ a tiny band "seeking passports to emigrate to Israel." tive tribesmen" who need to be brought into the modem When I asked him if there had ever been a Soviet action world under progressive Soviet tutelage. Thus the So­ to which the U.S.P.C. might object, Meyerson recalled viet invasion was to be applauded, not condemned. Nikita Khruschchev's testing of a 58-megaton bomb in 1961, which ended a three-year moratorium on Soviet ED-BAITING helps the Communists gain a hearing. and American above-ground testing. "That probably R How this works is revealed in a recent special issue wasn't necessary," he said with a sigh. I reminded him of The Nation, in which Frank J. Donner writes that the that at the time, Communists and their allies in the peace U.S. Peace Council is simply a peace group with chap­ movement rushed to defend these tests, claiming that ters around the country; it has "some Communist Party they were necessary to match America's strategic superi­ members in its midst, but it also has members from ority. "They probably weren't good Communists," he Congress, state legislatures, city councils and legal and retorted. "Good Communists," it seems, should have religious groups." Donner makes the U.S. Peace Council been able to see through Khrushchev's revisionism and sound like a broad-minded chapter of the Rotary Club. adventurism. But the fact is the U.S. Peace Council was established by Meyerson, like Reagan, claims that the U.S.P.C. has the American Communist Party two years ago as a played a major role in the nuclear freeze movement, a vehicle to consolidate its "peace work," and as a way to conclusion directly at odds with the December 9 report reach the newly emerging broad peace movement with of the House Select Committee on Intelligence. "We run pro-Soviet arguments. it [the freeze campaign] in West Virginia," he told me. In December the U.S.P.C.'s executive director, He went on to say-falsely, it turns out-that Randall Michael Meyerson, a longtime Communist Party activist Forsberg, who originally formulated the freeze idea, and a member of its Political Committr,, issued a long traveled to Moscow as part of a U.S.P.C. delegation. "Open Letter" on "The New 'Red Sc2~e,' " v,hich the Forsberg told me that she went to Moscow as an individ­ U.S.P.C. mailed to every major peace £;To.1p. As Meyer­ ual, and then, as part of a group put together by the son's letter describes the U.S.P.C., it i~ ~imply an inde­ U.S.P.C., attended a dubious meeting with the official pendent group of peace activists. It ha5 "known Com­ Soviet Peace Committee. Forsberg says she refused to munists in its leadership," but that is bfxause it rejects sign the statement Meyerson had drawn up as a press anti-Communism and refuses to bar the "Left" from release on the eve of the group's departure from Russia, "progressive organizations and coalitions in times of and adds that she bluntly told him that she would not Cold War in order to please the Cold Warriors." (Meyer­ "be a propaganda tool for the Soviet Union." Forsberg son ignores the possibility that the peace movement stressed that she was fully aware that the Soviet Peace might have its own reasons for wanting to bar Commu­ Committee was actually a state-run group, not a "non­ nists.) He offers another argument for Communist "par­ governmental" body as claimed by the U.S.P.C. The ticipation": that Communists bring "a sometimes miss­ U.S. Peace Council, Forsberg says, is "completely anti­ ing sense of organization, direction, an:i ideological American," a group whose members see nothing wrong cohesiveness." He points with pride to yu,rs of "peace "on the other side." They hew only to "the current line acti"ities" on the part of Communist "quintessential in the Soviet Union." They are simply a "pro-Soviet Americans," like William Z. Foster and Benjamin Davis, organization, and there are a lot of other people in the the hvo most hardline Stalinists ever to rise from the peace movement in the United States who feel the same ashes of American Communism. M,. • rson's list of way about them."

JANUARY 31, 1983 15 Forsberg's assessment of the U.S.P.C. is accurate. tating defeat also for peace." Newport sees it differently Meyerson's "Open Letter" invites anyone to join, as (as does Meyerson, who told me he had "great respect long as they understand that "the Soviets want peace." for Thompson, but he is wrong"). Newport said that he The U.S.S.R. is described as a power that takes unilateral supports workers' movements, but added that the steps toward disarmament; only the United States, in smashing of Solidarity was used by Reagan to distract U.S.P.C. eyes, has ever "escalated the arms race." There attention from the smashing of PATC0; moreover, the is a lengthy attack on NATO's proposed deployment of "labor movement in Britain took a position against Pershing missiles in Europe, but not a word about the Solidarity." They had "sent people over there to investi­ actual Soviet buildup of SS-18 and SS-20 nuclear mis­ gate the situation" and they had not viewed the Polish siles targeted on Western Europe. movement favorably. Finally, Newport said that Ameri­ The U.S.P.C. stresses that "the struggle for disarma­ can peace groups that rejected working with the ment is indivisible from the struggles for independence U.S.P.C. "have received a lot of money from the Rocke­ and self-determination," except when the struggling feller Foundation and places like that." takes place in Afghanistan or Poland. Only in Central America and the Middle East is liberation looked for. HERE HAVE BEEN two different responses to the The U.S.P.C. is certainly unique among peace groups to Tefforts of the U.S.P.C. to gain entry into the peace list as a main demand "defeat for the Camp David movement. Two years ago, the influential Coalition for a accord," which, it argues, was designed to neutralize New Foreign and Military Policy met to discuss the Egypt so that Israel could carry out "genocide" against U.S.P.C.'s application for affiliation. (The groups affili­ the Arab peoples. The U.S.P.C. is clear that it only ated with the coalition include the National Council of supports "legitimate movements of national liberation," Churches, the United Hebrew Congregations, the Dem-• such as the P.L.O. ocratic Socialists of America, and the War Resisters League.) Admirably, after long and heated debate, its UT WHY a U.S. Peace Council, when the American board voted 18 to 4, with four abstentions, to reject the B Communists can peddle their line through their U.S.P.C.'s request. According to the minutes of the own Party? Because the creation of a front allows the meeting, the majority decided that it had to make clear Communist Party to win sympathy among people who that "the positions the Coalition takes that are critical of would otherwise have nothing to do with it. Thus the the U.S. government and its policies come from our own brochure of the U.S.P.C.'s 1981 National Conference independent analysis and conclusions and are not influ­ contains an ad from "Friends of Iowa," which appears to enced by organizations that may have associations of be signed by virtually every peace-minded minister and some sort with a foreign power." Particular concern was church activist in that Midwestern state. The nuances of expressed that the U.S.P.C.'s affiliation with the World the U.S.P.C.'s positions are oflittle interest to these good Peace Council meant that they were "completely domi­ people; it is enough for them that the organization has nated by the Soviet Union." "peace" in its title and is a proclaimed opponent of This response was not repeated, however, by the June Ronald Reagan. 12 Rally Committee that put together the massive New The U.S .P.C. has also obtained a good share of politi­ York City freeze rally. The U.S.P.C. had one seat on its cal support from elected black leaders, including State executive committee, and four other seats were held by Senator Julian Bond of Georgia, Representative John Communists or fellow-travelers who officially repre­ Conyers of Michigan, and Gus Newport, the mayor of sented their unions but were backed for admission by Berkeley, and a co-chairman of the U.S. Peace Council. the U.S .P.C. Yet the committee refused a seat to the Conyers declined to discuss the issue, and Bond did not Democratic Socialists of America, on the ground that return repeated phone calls. But Mayor Newport they are a "political grouping." The U.S .P.C. was able to strongly endorsed the U.S.P.C.'s positions. Only the get the committee-whose members were keen on United States, he told me, takes steps to gain superiority unity-to tone down the official rally call so that it was when in fact it "has even more [arms] than the Soviet not equally addressed to both the United States and the Union." I asked him about the SS-20s, and he re­ Soviet Union. In its own literature, the U.S. Peace sponded that any expressions of concern about them Council described June 12 as a day in which Americans had to be in the context of understanding that "our would be demanding action to "reduce our arsenals." foreign policy is the worst in the world." Western Euro­ (My emphasis.) peans, he argued, felt threatened because the U.S. was At the executive committee meetings, Meyerson ar­ "dictating that missiles be deployed on their shores." gued that the rally should include such demands as a These missiles, he said, gave the Soviet Union "justifica­ call for an end to U.S. intervention in Central America. tion to deploy the SS-20s." This was part of what he terms a "serious attempt to I read to Newport the wise words of E.P. Thompson, address the question of ... U.S. interventionism, and the British social historian turned peace leader. "Martial the racist consequences of the arms race." The rally itself law in Poland is not only an internal matter," Thompson ended up hearing from at least one speaker who con­ writes. "A defeat for freedom in Poland will be a devas- tended in his speech that "there can be no disarmament

16 THENEWREPUBLIC without the independence of Puerto Rico." 'peace-loving' propaganda, and where state sponsored Obviously, some of the rally committee board mem­ Peace Committees have never, thoughout their whole bers who welcomed the U.S.P.C. to their ranks did not thirty-year existence, fluttered an eyelash in protest against any action of Soviet militarism. privately agree with Meyerson. But they implicitly adopted the mushy logic that all enemies of American The only beneficiaries of Communist involvement in militarism are their friends, even if these new allies the peace movement are the two groups that would like actively support Soviet militarism. Perhaps these indi­ to see a pro-Soviet peace movement in the United viduals should listen to the advice of E.P. Thompson, States: the Reagan Administration on the one hand, and who has related an inciden~ that occurred at the end of a the Communists and fellow-travelers on the other. Iron­ speech he gave at the Riverside Church peace confer­ ically, these two forces think of each other as mortal ence last year. A Soviet citizen rose to speak on behalf of enemies; in fact, both are enemies of an effective peace the World Peace Council. This man praised Thompson movement. The desire to do something about the nu­ for his critique of NATO defense strategy, but criticized clear danger is faultless. So is the desire to protect civil him for not defending the Soviet SS-20s. Thompson liberties. But there is no good reason to collaborate with comments: Communists, and plenty of reason not to. Those in the peace movement who wish to rid its ranks of Commu­ To allow the Western peace movement to drift into collu­ sion with the strategy of the World Peace Council-that is, nists are not McCarthyites. There is a difference between in effect, to become a movement opposing NATO militarism Red-baiting, which must be rejected, and anti-Commu­ only-is a recipe for our own containment and ultimate nism, which is a moral and political necessity. Unless the defeat. This will also meet with a refusal in Eastern Europe peace movement understands this, it will sink into . . . where much public opinion is utterly jaded with official oblivion .

The making of a socialist, capitalist, and African state. THE CRACKS IN ZIMBABWE

BY XAN SMILEY

EVISITING JOURNALISTS who inhaled the pun­ ing for the hardened journalist's glazed and weary eye. R gent scent of Zimbabwe at war ("the vultures," as Physically, Zimbabwe is as neat-in many ways as un­ we were then known) are curiously unhappy nowadays. African-as Rhodesia was. The capital hedges are as It is confusing. You used to know, roughly, who was maddrningly trim as ever, as though there'd never been killi1'g whom, who were goodies and baddies, who was a hiccl•} cf, iolence during those eight bloody years of righ t and who was wrong. And you knew what the war. E,i~imss (almost entirely white business) is boom­ outc,,me had to be: black rule, as simple as that. In the ing-c,1 , the surface, at any rate. (The omens are much dayc- before independence, few felt compelled to haggle less Li\ orahle than they were a year ago.) Yet, three over what sort of black state it should be. There were year, ago, I was fairly sure that there would eventually nua:-,dc>s of death, to be sure. There was that half-cocked be a smoking ruin: indeed, that would surely have been inder-endence (for some, "the Kerensky phase"), that Rhodesia's legacy had the Lancaster House constitu­ push me-pull-you period of 1978-1980, when grim­ tional talks failed. faced Ian Smith in awkward tandem with Bishop Abel So there is a feeling, even now,_ of astonishment that Muzorewa told his white supporters that the country order eventually prevailed. But what, really, does Prime was still white, and the once militant nationalist prelate, Minister Robert Mugabe want? He proclaims himself a looking shiftily over his shoulder at his own white Marxist; yet since his ascent to power Zimbabwe has hatchetmen and South African financiers, told his sup­ barely s'1ifted from its profoundly capitalist base. The posed constituency-the seven-and-a-half million new le, der-inscrutable, uncorruptible, scholarly­ blacks-that Zimbabwe was indeed theirs. may be biding his time. But his ministers and the Today, in subtler ways, the fuzziness is more confus- burgeon ;.g new black civil servant and business elite, though calling each other "comrade" and occasionally Xan Smiley is an editorial writer for The Times of ob1i f, •-~ 'o mouth Marxist rhetoric, look more wedded to London. r~;,. ;: ... · and personal wealth by the day. The white

18 THE NEW REPUBLIC (o 1.

. Commentary

The Peace Movement & the Soviet Union "'

Vladimir Bukovsky

Peace will be preserved and strengthened if the only 40,000 Communists. Anyone who had taken people take the cause of peace into their own the trouble to read the Communists' "fine print" hands and defend it to the end. with just a little care could have discovered that JosEPH STALIN, 1952 what their soon-to-be masters meant by · "peace" was not peace at all but rather the "transforma­ HE "struggle for peace" has always · tion of imperialist war into civil war." T been a cornerstone of Soviet foreign The Russian people were in any case so fed up policy. Indeed, the Soviet Union itself rose out of with the war by then that they did not care. Any­ the ashes of World War I under the banner of thing seemed better, or at least not worse. After "Peace to the People! Power to the Soviets!" Prob­ three ye.ars of civil war, however, in which some 20 ably from the very first, Bolshevik ideologists were million people were slaughtered or died of starva­ aware of how powerful a weapon for them the tion, cold, and typhoid (i.e., ten times as many as universal craving for peace would be-how gulli­ were killed at the · front during the whole of ble and irrational people could be whenever they World War I), the war came to seem a trifle by were offered the slightest temptation to believe comparison, a sort of frontier skirmish somewhere that peace was at hand. . in the Byelorussian swamps. Only a year before the Bolsheviks raised their And once again an irresistible craving for peace banner, the most terrible prospect for any Russian drove people to accept Soviet rule-as a lesser evil. would have been to see an enemy burning down Anything was now preferable to this· monstrous his villages and defiling his churches. Yet once slaughter, starvation, and typhoid. They would blinded by the slogan, "A just peace without an­ give anything for some kind of order. nexations or tribute," he was to rush from the The order imposed by the Communists was front lines, along with hundreds of thousands of. nothing more than a permanent state of civil war, his fellow soldiers, sweeping away the last rem­ both inside the country and around the world. Or ' I nants of the Russian national state. He did not as Lenin put it, "As an ultimate objective peace want to know that his desertion had done no more simply means Communist world control." Thus, than simply prolong the war for another year, not while comrade Chicherin, at the Conference of only condemning thousands more to death on the Genoa in I 922, was appealing to the entire world Western front, but ending in that very German for total · and immediate disarmament, crowds occupation of the Ukraine and Russia he had so of bewildered people in the Soviet Union were much dreaded just a year ago. For the moment marching to the cheerful song: the only thing that mattered was peace-right now, · f and at any price. · We'll fan the worldwide flame, Hardly anyone taking part in the stampede Churches and prisons we'll raze to back home the ground. in 1917 knew the first thing about the The Red Army is strongest of all ideology of Communism-except possibly · for a From Moscow to the British isla~ds. couple of simple slogans and this· one incendiary word: Peace. In a country of 70 million there were Indeed, the churches were the first to be put to the torch. As for the prisons, the Communists were in no hurry to carry out their bold promise. Quite VLADIMIR BUKOVSKY spent twelve years in Soviet prisons, the contrary, the number of prisons grew with work camps, and psychiatric hospitals before being released to the West in 1976 as a result of a puhlic outcry. He now each year to accommodate tens of millions of lives in Cambridge, England, where he is connected with "class enemies" or "enemies of the people." And Kings College. He is the author of an autobiographical speaking of worldwide flame, one need only com­ book, To Build a Castle: My Life as ri Disse11ter (Viking, pare the map of the world of, say, 1921 with that 1979) and, most recently, of Celle lnnci11ante douleur de la Libertt!: Lettres tl'un resistant rwle tiux Occideutaux ("This of -1981 to see that the song's promise was not en­ Stabbing Pain of Freedom: Letters of a Russian Resister to tirely empty. Westerners"), which was published in Paris last year. Once they recognized the po¼'.er of "peace" as a 25 26/COMMENTARY MAY 1982 1 weapon, the Communists have never let go of it. and Soviet peoples are enemies of the German In this respect, it must be admitted, Soviet politics people and are branded as accomplices of British have invariably been most "peaceful.". We must at imperialism." . the same time bear in mind that according to The British Daily Worker adopted a similar Communist dogma, wars are the "inevitable con­ line and greeted the new alliance as a victory for sequence of the clash of imperialist interests under peace, as did the American Daily Worker .. On capitalism," and therefore they will continue to be September 19, 1939, when the war was raging in inevitable as long as capitalism exists. The only Poland, it published a clecfaration of the National way to save humanity from the evil of wars, then, Committee of the American Communist party pro• is to "liberate" it from the "chains of capitalism." claiming the war declared by France and Britain Accordingly, there is a very precise distinction to on Nazi Germany to be an imperialist (that is, be made between "just wars·" and "unjust wars." "unjust") one, which should be opposed by the "Just wars" are those fought "in the interests of workers. This appeal was immediately supported by the proletariat." It is perfectly simple and perfect­ fellow-travelers like Theodore Dreiser, and Com­ ly clear: just wars are absolutely justifiable be• munist trade unions set out to sabotage produc­ cause they lead to the creation of a world in which tion in munitions factories, lest any aid reach there will be no wars, forevermore. Proletarians Britain or France. Right up to the eve of the Nazi are all brothers, are they not? So, once the world invasion of Russia, Communist. propaganda did is rid of capitalists, imperialists, and various other everything possible to dissuade the United States class enemies, why should those who are left fight from helping the European democracies in their one another? war against Nazi Germany. These pages in the By this same impeccable logic, the interests of history of the glorious "struggle for peace" by the the proletariat are best known to the advance­ progressive social forces are not much spoken of guard of the proletariat, that is, the Communist any more, particularly where the young might party, and should be defined by Lenin, Stalin, hear. Khrushchev, and Brezhnev, since they are in turn But nowhere was this "struggle for peace" as the advance-guard of the Communist party. influential as in France, where the Communist As soon as we have pinned down this formula party and its fellow-travelers were openly defeatist and deciphered its terminology, the. course of his­ before, and remained so during-and some time tory becomes absolutely clear. For instance, Soviet after-the Nazi invasion of France. The French occupation of the Baltic states and Bessarabia, Communist party, which was quite considerable or the war with Finland in 1939-40, were of in strength, worked so energetically to undermine course perfectly just, as was the partition of the French war effort as to suggest a fifth column. Poland, achieved in cooperation with Nazi Ger­ Within ·a month of France's declaration of war many in 1939. On the other hand, the Nazi attack the party's leader, Maurice Thorez, fled to Moscow on the Soviet Union in 1941 was blatantly unjust. to direct the resistance to French preparations By the same token, any attack by the Arabs on against Germany. In November I 940 Thorez and Israel is just, at least insofar as it is successful. If his associate Jacques Duclos exulted openly over Israeli resistance to attack is successful, however, the fall of France, Thorez declaring that "the then all peace-loving peoples must protest. struggle of the French people has the same aim· as the struggle of German imperialism." T GOES without saying that world pub­ The Franco-German alliance alluded to by I lic opinion must accept the distinction Thorez expressed itself in concrete terms. German I have outlined above and direct every effort in . propaganda leaflets dropped over the Maginot line the struggle for peace toward establishing it. For­ pointed out that "Germany, after her victory over tunately, there are a great many "progressive" peo­ Poland and since her pact with Russia, disposes of ple in the world, people for whom any direction inexhaustible resources in men and material," taken by Moscow is progressive because by defini­ while all the Communist deputies petitioned Presi­ tion it is taken in the service of socialism. Thus, dent Herriot to make peace in response to Hitler's before the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of 1939 was appeal. After Communist publications had been signed, the energies of all progressive people were suspended by decree in France, the party continued mobilized against fascism, whether in Spain, Italy, to publish its propaganda on German presses. Its or Germany .. As soon as the pact was signed, the leaflets urged troops, dockers, and others engaged notion of wqat was· progressive and what was not in essential war work to resist and to sabotage the changed drastically.• country's effort. In March 1940, a party leaflet On February 2, 1940, for example, the German claimed that the Allied failure to launch an offen- Communist leader, Walter Ulbricht, later to be­ come head of the East German state, was per­ • Much of the material that follows here on the early mitted by the Nazi government to publish an days of World War II is taken from the book by Nikolai article in Die Welt in which he said: "Those who Tolstoy, Stalin's Secret War (1981), where the appropriate intrigue against the friendship of the German references can be found. THE PEACE MOVEMENT&: THE SOVIET UNION/27 sive was due to the effectiveness of the party's de­ plained otherwise, short of the reactionary sugges­ featist propaganda. And there can be no doubt tion that NATO generals were not in the least that this effective spreading of defeatism, coupled aggressive? with a serious campaign of sabotage in munitions In any case, members of the older generation factories, played a major role in the catastrophic can still remember the marches, the rallies, _and French defeat of June 1940. the petitions of the l 950's (particularly the famous At the very time that General de Gaulle, in Stockholm Appeal and the meetings of the inde­ London, was issuing his appeal for resistance, the fatigable World Peace Council). It is· hardly a French Communist paper l'Humanite said: "Gen­ secret now that the whole campaign was organized, eral de Gaulle and other agents of British capital conducted, and financed from Moscow, through would like to compel Frenchmen to fight for the the so-called Peace Fund and the Soviet-dominated City.... " World Peace Council-where a safe majority was Later Khrushchev was to recall that "Stalin secured by such figures as Ilya Ehrenburg, A.N. once told me that Hitler had sent a request for a Tikhonov, etc. This was the period when comrade favor through secret channels. Hitler wanted Stalin presented his memorable recipe for peace Stalin, as the man with the most authority and that is the epigraph to this article. Stalin's formu­ prestige in the Communist world, to persuade the lation was enthusiastically taken up by millions, French Communists not to lead the · resistance some of them Communists, some loyal fellow-trav­ against the German occupation of France." Evi­ elers, a number of them muddleheaded intellec­ dently Hitler's request was not denied. tuals, or hypocrites seeking popularity, or clerics Even in Yugoslavia, where the Communist hungry for pu~licity-not to mention profession­ movement had directed all its efforts to vilifying al campaigners, incorrigible fools, youths eager the British and French, Tito's first appeal for a to rebel against anything, and outright Soviet struggle against the German invaders did not come agents. Surprisingly, this -odd mixture constitutes until June 22, l 941. 11 was not the German con­ a fairly sizable population in any Western quest of Yugoslavia that aroused his ire, but the society, and in no time at all the new peace cam­ German invasion of tlie Soviet Union. Even in far­ paign had reached grandiose proportions. It be­ off Buenos Aires, a British diplomat had noticed came fashionable to join it and rather risky to that Nazi diplomats were "collaborating with local decline. Communists in a very dangerous attempt to win The purpose of all this peace pandemonium over the masses with the cry of 'away with British was well calculated in the · Kremlin. First, the capitalism and commercial exploitation.'" threat of nuclear war (of which the Soviets peri­ As soon as Nazi Germany turned against its odically created a reminder by fomenting an inter­ great Eastern ally, the "struggle for peace" was national crisis) combined with the s'cope of the instantly terminated. Indeed, the sudden outburst peace movement should both frighten the bour­ of patriotism among the "progressive social forces" geoisie and make it more tractable. Second, the was remarkable. No strikes, no condemnation of recent Soviet subjugation of Central European Western imperialism-as if .the 'latter had never ' countries should be accepted with more serenity existed. For the remainder of World War II the by Western public opinion and quickly forgotten. Allies were to enjoy a happy time of industrial Third, the movement should help to stir up anti­ peace and a relaxation of the class struggle. The American sentiment among the Europeans, along war, of course, was now a "just" one. with a mistrust of their own governments, thus moving the political spectrum to the Left. Fourth, DDLY, the passion for peace was resur­ it should make military expenditures and the 0 rected shortly after the war was placement of strategic nuclear weapons so un­ over, while the Soviet Union was swallowing a popular, so politicaliy embarrassing, that in the dozen countries in Central Europe and threaten­ end the process of strengthening Western defenses ing to engulf the rest of the continent. At that would be considerably slowed, giving the Soviets time, some "imperialist- warmongers" were sound­ crucial time to catch up. Fifth, since the odd mix­ ing the alarm over Soviet conduct and even sug­ ture of fools and knaves described above is usuaHy gesting the creation of a "very aggressive" NA TO drawn from the most socially active element in the alliance. The "reactionary forces" in the world population, its activism should be given the right were starting a "cold war." Beyond this, the Soviet direction. Union was troublesomely lagging behind the U.S. The results were to exceed all expectations. in the development of nuclear weapons. For some Soviet money' had clearly been well spent. The curious reason, however, the "imperialist military­ perception· of the Soviet Union as an ally of the industrial complex"-all those Dr. Strangeloves­ West (rather than of Nazi Germany) was still fresh failed to drop the atom bomb on Moscow while in peoples' minds, which undoubtedly contributed they still enjoyed a monopoly 011 it, This should to the success of the "struggle for peace." undoubtedly be ascribed to the success of a p;reat Subsequently, the death of Stalin, the shock cre­ movement of peace-lovers. How could it be ex- ated by the official disclosure of his crimes, the 28/COMMENTARV MAY 101!2

Khrushchev "thaw" in international relations, and, and to "modify" the policies of its government. Un­ above all, the fact that the Soviets had caught up fortunately, Germany is a key factor in East-West with the West in nuclear weapons, were to make relations because in order to avoid a major split in the peace movement temporarily redundant; it the \Vestern alliance the other members have to ceased to exist just as sucldenly as it had once adjust their positions in accordance with Ger­ appeared. Meanwhile, the inefficiency of the Soviet many's. So it was that Soviet influence came to be economy once again brought it to the point of exerted through the back door, and the West was collapse. The Soviet Union badly needed Western politically paralyzed. goods, technology, and credits. Without these, In addition, far from making the Soviets more there would have to be very substantial economic dependent-as the proponents of detente had as­ reform, dangerous to continued· party control over sured us-increased trade, and particularly huge 1 the entire economic life of the Soviet Union. At Western credits, have made the West more and the same time, it was from the· strategic point of more dependent on the Soviet Union. The dimen­ . view importarit for the Soviets to legitimize their sions of this disaster became clear only recently, 1 territorial holdings in Eastern Europe and to when the discussion of economic sanctions against il secure for themselves the freedom to move further. the Polish military rulers and their Soviet masters ~omething new was called for. Out of the depths revealed the inability of the Western countries to I of the Kremlin, the doctrine of detente was born. reduce once-established economic relations with the Eastern bloc without harming themselves even ' •I HOUGH the peace movement was put in more. In fact, by now the Soviets are in a position T cold storage, the issue of peace was to threaten the West with economic sanctions. Un­ I,, nevertheless central to this new Kremlin policy as doubtedly, they will take advantage of it very soon.

I well. The West had grown so exhausted by the con­ In the meantime, far from relaxing internally, ! I stant tension of the previous decades that the temp­ the Soviet regime had stepped up its repressive ~I tation to relax, when offered by the Kremlin, was policies, totally 'ignoring the weak Western protests simply irresistible. And after a decade of a ruthless against Soviet violations of the human-rights agree­ "struggle for peace," no Western government could ments. The weakness of these protests had in turn get away with rejecting a proposal to limit the served only as further incitement for the Soviets to arms race-however well some of them understood proceed in their course of repression without re­ that it would be senseless to try to reach an agree­ straint. Clearly, the ideological war waged by the ment with the Soviets while the essentially aggres­ Soviets through all those earlier years had only in­ sive nature of Communist power remained in creased in intensity during the era of detente. Nor force. Probably some such recognition explains why did they try to camouflage this warfare. On the the Western governments insisted on linking par­ contrary, Leonid Brezhnev stated openly in his . I ' ticipation in the Helsinki agreements to the observ­ speech to the 25th Party Congress, on February 24, ance of human-rights agreements inside the Com­ 1977: " ... it is clear as can be that detente and munist bloc. Their idea was to force the internal peaceful coexistence relate to interstate relations. relaxation of the Soviet regime and so make it more • Detente in no way rescinds, or can rescind, the laws open and less aggressive. In exchange the West pro­ of the class struggle." vided almost everything Brezhnev demanded in his Furthermore, as it transpired, instead of reducing "Peace Program" of the 24th Party Congress in their military expenditures and arms build-up, as 1971. "The inviolability of the postwar frontiers in the Western nations had during those years, the Europe"-that is, the legitimation of the Soviet Soviet Union, taking advantage of Western relaxa­ I' territorial annexations between 1939 and 1948-'-as tion, had significantly increased its arsenal. So much we11 as a substantial increase in economic, scientific, so that if in the I 960's it could be said that a cer­ and cultural cooperation were solemnly granted by · tain parity between East and West had been ), the Western countries in Helsinki in 1975. Earlier achieved, by now the Soviets have reached a point · '.1 I a separate treaty had perpetuated the artificial di­ of clear advantage over the West. We also now vision of Germany without even a reference to the know that the benefits to the Soviet Union of trade I I I Berlin Wall. with the West were invariably put to military use. The Western democracies had displayed such For example, the Kama River truck factory built readiness to accommodate their Soviet partners that by Americans in the I 970's has recently begun their behavior was perceived as weakness. Probably manufacturing the military trucks that were ob- the most disgusting features of ·detente could be . served in action during · the Soviet invasion of seen in Germany where the "free flow of people Afghanistan. and ideas" had very quickly degenerated into trad­ ing people like cattle, the right to visit one's rela­ Y THE end of the 1970's the West was tives in the East becoming a kind of reward condi­ B be~oming increasingly aware of these tional on the "good behavior" of the West German dangerous developments. The usefulness of de­ government. By playing on this sensitive .issue the tente, long challenged by some, was now being Soviets were able to .blackmail the whole country questioned by many. And then came the final THE PEACE MOVEMENT & THE SOVIET UNION/29

blow-on Christmas 1979. Just at the moment pranks, and stunts. In fact, it was not a very diffi­ when most people in the West were preoccupied cult thing to predict, for the Soviet state is not a with such things as Christmas cards and presents, particularly intelligent creature. If you think of it something like 100,000 Soviet soldiers moved in to rather as a huge, brainless, antediluvian reptile occupy neighboring Afghanistan, an officially "non­ with a more or less fixed set of reflexes, you can­ aligned" country. with a population of about I 7 not go far wrong. "Well, here we are, back to the million. The world was shocked and the USSR I 950's again," I thought to myself. was immediately placed in isolation. Even the What was much more amusing to observe was Communist parties of many countries condemned the ease with which presumably mature and re­ "' the Soviet action as a piece of blatant aggression. sponsible people had by the thousands fallen into The invasion of Afghanistan, followed by the ar­ the. Soviet booby-trap. It is as if history were re­ bitrary banishment to internal exile of Nobel peating itself before our eyes, offering us a chance laureate Andrei Sakharov, followed still later by to see how the Russian state collapsed in 1917, or the threatening of Poland (leading, finally, to the how France collapsed within one month in I 940. imposition of martial law), virtually terminated It is also quite amusing, if one has a taste for the era of detente. such amusement, to be reminded of how people This termination has cost the Soviets dear. In are practically incapable of deriving any useful fact, they have lost almost everything they had knowledge from even the recent lessons of history. gradually managed to gain while the West was Once again, the universal craving for peace right enjoying its bout of unilateral relaxation. Ratifi­ now, this very moment, and at any price, ·has ren­ cation of the SALT II agreement was suspended dered people utterly illogical and irrational, and indefinitely. The Americans were awakened from left them simply unable to think calmly. Their their prolonged lethargy to discover with horror current arguments, if one may call them that, are how weak, ineffective, and unproductive their so childish, senseless, selfish, that an involuntary country had becom,e. In this new psychological at­ smile comes immediately to one's lips. Even at mosphere, the victory of Ronald Reagan was inevit­ best what one hears is a parroting of the kind of able, promising an end to American defense cut­ old moldy Soviet slogans and cliches that even backs, the deployment of a new, previously shelved, schoolchildren in the Soviet Union would laugh generation of weapons like the B-1 bomber, the at. cruise missile, the MX, and the neutron bomb. It seemed equally inevitable that the military o BEGIN WITH, why is- it that everyone budgets of all the other Western countries would T has suddenly begun to be so apprehen­ be increased, while the trade, technology, and sive about nuclear war again? What has happened credit arrangements with the Soviets would be re­ to make it more real than it was, say, two or three duced, or at least be made more difficult to obtain. years ago? The entire history of East-West rela­ Thus, if this trend were to continue, the Soviets tions shows that the only way to force the Soviets would lose their position of mil~tary superiority­ to respect agreements is to deal from a position of especially in view of the fact that their economy is strength. So are we to understand that because the so much less efficient than that of "rotten capital­ Soviets might cease to be militarily superior to us, . ism." Add to t\lis the new wave of international nuclear war is once again a reality? Should we, hostility noticeable especially in the Muslim world then, take this proposition to its logical conclusion (the United Nations General Assembly voted and say that the only guarantee of peace is Soviet against the Soviets on Afghanistan, for the- first military superiority? . time since the Korean war), a continuing crisis in Meanwhile, countless TV programs have sud­ Poland, a hopeless war in Afghanistan, and a denly sprung up that unfold before us images of I growing unrest among the population at home the great treasures of our civilization-paintings, caused by food shortages, and the picture grew so sculptures, pyramids, antiquities, etc.-and at the I· gloomy as to be just short of disaster. Clearly the end of each the narrator reminds us, his voice Soviet rulers had to undertake something dra~atic trembling with noble passion, how terrible it f to avoid a total catastrophe. would be if all these treasures were to be destroyed I myself, to tell the truth, was not very much · along with the great civilization that produced surprised when suddenly, within a year, a mighty them. And on other channels, we are treated to I peace movement came into being in Western documentary after documentary about nuclear ex­ Europe. Especially since, by some strange coin­ plosions and the consequences of radiation. After I cidence, this movement showed itself first of all such relentless programming, naturally public­ I precisely in those European countries where the opinion polls show a sudden increase in the num­ i old missiles were to be replaced by newer Per­ ber of those who believe that nuclear war is im­ I shings and cruise missiles. I make no claim to spe­ minent, cial prescience; iL is just that a(Ler 31 years of life Then there is the catchy new idea that "Our in my beloved Communist motherland, I have deterrent docs not deter anyniore." Why? Has a some sense of its government's bag of tricks, nuclear war begun already? Have the Soviets at- \\ BO/C.. . " t,iENTARY MAY 111112 ~..!.#.uwi . , . ~ ~~ ... tacked any NATO country? 01~ is it simply l>ecause people in Great Britain, Germany, Holland, Bel­ those who like to say the deterrent no longer deters gium, France, and Italy, supposedly of sound mind have seen their full quota of televised nuclear and with no evidence of the influence of LSD, explosions? . . . march about claiming that the threat of war comes It i!I so easy to start a pamc. The question 1s: from ... their own governments and the govern­ who is served by this panic? The Soviet-controlled ment of the U.S.! A psychoanalyst might char­ World Peace Council declared in 1980 (and the acterize this behavior as the Freudian replacement whole European peace movement repeats it as if of a real object of fear with an imaginary one. under a hypnotic spell): "The people of the world Except that even a psychoanalyst might conclude are alarmed. Never before has there been so great that pro-Soviet propaganda had something to do a danger of a world nuclear holocaust. The nu­ with the delusion in this particular case. clear arms build-up, the accumulation of deadly The facts are too obvious to discuss here. One arsenals, has reached a critical point. Further es­ may like or dislike President Reagan or Chancellor calation in the arms build-up could create a most Schmidt, but unlike comrade Brezhnev, they were dangerous situation, facing humanity with the elected by the majority of their respective popula­ threat of annihilation." tions and are fully accountable in their actions to Never before. But was not the world in as much the parliaments and to the people. They simply danger a year earlier? The leaders of the Euro­ cannot declare a war on their own. Besides, it is pean peace movement themselves claim that the quite enough to look around to see the real source nuclear potential accumulated on both sides is suf­ of aggression. Was it American or Soviet troops ficient for them to destroy one another ten times. who occupied half of Germany and built a wall Is there any technical reason why "twenty times" in Berlin? Is it not the Soviets who still occupy is more dangerous than, say, "five times"? Or is it Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the Baltic states, not to that, like a nuclear charge itself, the accumulation mention Afghanistan, very much against the wishes must reach a "critical mass" in order to explode? of the people in these countries? Was it East or Somehow, in the midst of all this nuclear hys­ West German troops who took part in the occu­ teria it seems to be totally forgotten that bombs pation of Czechoslovakia and who are prepared themselves are quite harmless, unless somebody to invade Poland? wishes to drop them. So why are we suddenly Everything in the West is done quite openly­ alarmed by the stockpile of hardware and not by . one might say, far too openly. But what do we the Soviet military move toward the Persian Gulf? know about the decisions made by 14 old fools in Again, quite suddenly, voices begin to cry out the Politburo whom nobody ever elected to make in a huge chorus, "Nuclear weapons are immor­ these decisions and whom nobody can call to ac­ all" Wait a minute. Did these weapons just be­ count? No press is allowed to criticize them, no come immoral? Are conventional weapons moral? demonstrations to protest against their dictate. Why should this idea come all at once into Anyone refusing to obey their secret orders would the minds of so many people? "(ake as another instantly disappear forever. There is in fact very example the question of the new missiles to be de­ little difference between the Soviet system and ployed in Europe. Why is it more dangerous to that of Nazi Germany. Is there anyone who sup­ replace the old missiles with the new ones than poses that he should have trusted Hitler more to leave the old ones where they are? Are not the than the democracies? old ones equipped with nuclear warheads as well? To be sure, the new missiles are more accurate. So AFTER the experience of speaking several what? We can thank God that they are on our rl. times with members of the current side. They may make life more difficult for the European peace movement, however, I know only Kremlin adventurers, but why should millions of too well how futile is the recourse to rational argu­ people in the West perceive that as a tragedy ment. They announce unabashedly that there is and danger? no Soviet military superiority. It is all, they say, Deep in their hearts most of these terrified peo­ CIA propaganda; the only reliable source of infor­ ple have a very simple answer to all these "whys." mation as far as they are concerned seems to be the They know that the only real source of danger is KGB. They refer one to the findings of a certain the Soviet Union and that anything which might Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, make the Soviets angry is dangerous for that very leaving one to guess at the kind of methods em­ reason. But fear is a paralyzing and deranging ployed by this institute for assessing the Soviet force. So deranging as to lead some people to ad­ arsenal. Since the Institute has no satellites at its vocate the abolition of the police because the disposal, its "researchers" are undoubtedly left in criminals are becoming too aggressive. a painful dilemma: whether to obtain their infor­ Indeed, the most amazing aspect of the present mation from the blue sky, or from the Sputniks. antiwar hysteria_:aside from the fact that it has Nobody in the European peace movement, it arisen at a time. so remarkably favorable for Mos­ seems, has ever wondered about the reliability of cow-is_the direction of the campaign. Millions of this obscure establishment.

== THE PEACE MOVEME~T &: THE SOVIET UNIO_N/31

But this is just a trifle. More seriously, our movement. It is even more pro-Soviet than that of peace-lovers-repeating word for word an old the local Communist parties, who after all at least Pravda cliche-maintain that the "crazy American have to camouflage themselves with a cover of generals" are so trigger-happy as to push the but­ independence from Moscow. Nothing is more ob­ ton just for the fun of it. I have never been able to vious, for example, than that the present increase understand why generals must invariably be crazy in international tension was brought about by the -American generals, of course, not the Soviet Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. There is hardly kind, who seem to have some innate immunity a country, a political party (including some Com­ ... from craziness-and if they are crazy, why they did munist parties), or an international organization not push the damn button long ago. In any case, it that did not condemn the Soviet aggression un­ is hard to imagine that the generals, who at least equivocally. The only public movement in West­ have some technical education, are less equipped ern Europe that never condemned the invasion, to understand nuclear problems than the primary­ paradoxically, is the one that calls itself the school teachers who are so heavily represented in "peace movement." No such condemnation has the peace movement. ever been pronounced at a peace-movement rally Some of the "peace-makers" sincerely believe that in Western Europe, or passed as a resolution, or as soon as the West disarms itself, the Soviets will published in one of the movement's major publica­ follow suit, and with an almost literally incredible tions, or circulated as a mass petition. Perhaps you naivete they urge us to "try" this suicidal experi­ will imagine that the peace groups condemned the . ment. Others, far more sophisticated, know perfect­ invasion in their hearts? On the contrary, the evi­ ly well that their Soviet comrades need to gain dence is far more convincing that they simply time so as to enjoy a more advantageous posture in justify this international crime. future negotiations with the Americans. What they urge is that the West start negotiations first and OT long ago I myself was publicly improve the Western position later. Still others are N charged by the leaders of the British more candidly selfish and qbject only to the de­ Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) with ployment of nuclear weapons near their own vil­ having distorted their position on Afghanistan. lage, so to speak-as if being protected is more Therefore I find it particularly useful to quote ~ dangerous than not being protected. Or better still, from an official CND booklet, Why We Need Ac­ as if any single village, city, or country could tion, Not Words, by Betty England: "The inter­ t maintain neutrality during a nuclear war. "Let the vention in Afghanistan may well have been caused Americans fight the Russians," they say, implying partly by the . Soviet Union's fear of its growing I that the entire problem of the modern world grows . encirclement. The fear cannot be called unreason­ l out of some stupid far-off quarrel between "Ameri­ able after Sir Neil Cameron's statement in Pek­ cans and Russians," who are apparently in some ing ..." (p. 12). In other words, the poor Russians kind of conspiracy to destroy the poor Europeans. whom Sir Neil, Marshal of the Royal Air Force, so Surely if comrade Brezhnev promised to respect the frightened with a speech critical of diem, must "nuclear-free zones" in case of war, people could have good reason for what they do. By this logic, heave a sigh of relief and go to sleep untroubled. we ought to be imposing strict censorship on anti- . I If Brezhnev says so, there will be no nuclear-armed Soviet speeches lest we be faced with Soviet occupa­ submarines off your shores. After all, has comrade tion of the entire world. But the implications are Brezhnev ever broken his word? Of course not. He even more important. The idea buried in Miss is an honest man. He is so honest he can even England's passage is that the only way to keep the guarantee you in what direction the contaminated peace is gradually to accept the Soviet system and clouds will move and locate for you the radio­ Soviet demands. active fallout. "Why should the Russians attack Even more outspoken than the CND is the us, if we are disarmed?" Why indeed? Ask . the World Peace Council. Its booklet, Program of Ac­ Afghan peasants, they would probably know the tion 1981, contains a direct instruction to support answer. the present puppet government of Afghanistan (p. There is no sense in rehearsing all the various 25). This program was unanimously adopted in I "peace arguments," so contradictory and even in­ 1980 by a gathering in Sofia, Bulgaria of represen­ " compatible ·that one wonders how those who make tatives of most of the peace, gTOups (about this them manage to get along· together in the same gathering, more later). After this it comes as no movement. Only one thing these various strands surprise that at the recent International Peace have in common: panic, and a readiness to capitu­ Conference in Denmark it was decided to convene late to the Soviet threat even before such capitula­ the next meeting.in Kabul, the capital of Afghan- tion is demanded. Belter reel than Brussels, not one can be accused of indifference. I have, for instance, word. was s4id about Sakharov, still in exile and never heard of a case in which a representative of on a hunger strike-Sakharov, who has done more the Chilean or Argentinean government was in­ than anyone in the world to halt nuclear testing. vited to expound his government's views before These peaceful souls would happily throw stones any international peace conference. But for some at General Haig, but they would welcome Marshal strange reason, an exception was recently made Brezhnev with servile smiles. for a representative of the Polish junta, who was This is not to deny that there are plenty of well- . ·invited by the World Peace Council to address the intentioned, and genuinely concerned and fright­ International Peace Conference in ,Denmark. His ened people in the movement's ranks. I am certain vicious lies about Solidarity and personal· slanders that the overwhelming majority of them are. Just against Lech Walesa (see the Guardian, Jart'llary as it did in the I 950's, the movement today prob­ II, 1982) were greeted with hearty applause by t~e ably consists of the same odd mixture of Commu­ peace-lovers (BBC report). nists, fellow-travelers, muddleheaded intellectuals, hypocrites seeking popularity, pro.fessional polit­ T 1s simple common sense to try to re­ ical speculators, frightened bourgeois, and youths I strain both sides of any would-be con­ eager to rebel just for the sake of rebelling. There flict if one wishes to preserve peace. But the Euro­ are also the inevitable Catholic priests with a pean peace movement is so remarkably unilateral "mission" and other religious people who believe that it seems barely conscious of "the other side." that God has chosen them to make peace on earth It cries shame on the Americans for as yet non­ right now. But there is also not the slightest doubt existent weapons like the neutron bomb, or the that this motley crowd is manipulated by a handful not-yet-deployed cruise and Pershing missiles, but of scoundrels instructed directly from Moscow. speaks only in whispers, if that, of the hundreds of In fact, just as this essay was going to press, John Soviet SS-20's already aimed at Europe. Vinocur reported in the New York Times (April Since,' again, I have provoked an angry reaction 6, 1982) "the first public substantiation from in­ from the CND leaders for pointing out this par­ side the antinuclear movement ... that the West ticular instance of extreme unilateralism (Lon­ German Communist party, at the direction of the don Times, December 9, 1981), I looked through· Soviet Union, has attempted to coopt public senti­ the major CND publications once more. The ment against nuclear weapons." The environment­ booklet by Betty England quoted above does not _alist party known as the Greens "charged that the contain a single mention of the SS-20's, though it West German Communist party, which is aligned is virtually saturated with the names of American with Moscow, dominated and manipulated a meet­ missiles. Nor does a widely distributed report on ing [in Bonn] Sunday_ [April 4] in which repre­ the CND annual conference of 1981 (the latest sentatives of 37 groups, describing themselves as to my knowledge), nor the official CND leaflet, elements of the antimissile movement, planned a Nuclear War and You, dropped into my mailbox major demonstration against President Reagan by some caring hand. Only recently I have learned when he visits Bonn ... June IO." The Greens, · that a decision to mention the SS-20 was finally who participated in the meeting, acknowledge -

THE PEACE MOVEMENT 8c THE SOVIET UNION/33 that they themselves have cooperated with the sentative meeting of the world's peace forces Communists "on certain local issues,'' but what convened in the last years by the World Peace happened in Bonn was "scandalous'' even to them. Council. (Izvestia, S~ptember 23, I 980) "The Communists dominated the meeting com­ The same day Pravda referred to "the biggest pletely. It took place under seemingly democratic gathering in history of the fighters for peace." rules, but that was a joke. We could barely get a Indeed, the most peaceful and independent coun­ word in." The meeting-at which were repre-. try of the world, Bulgaria, played host during sented such groups as the German Student Feder- ' those September days to 2,260 peace-lovers from ation, the Evangelical Student Committee, the 137 countries, claiming to represent 330 political Federation of German Youth Groups, and the parties, 100 international and over 3,000 national German Peace Society-rejected resolutions con­ non-governmental organizations. To be sure, this demning Soviet interference in Poland and Soviet was no ordinary meeting of the international intervention in Afghanistan, and the delegates re­ Communist movement. The political spectrum of fused to express support for Solidarity. "They those represented was exceptionally wide: 200 adopted, however, by a large majority, a motion members of different national parliaments, 200 condemning United States actions in Central trade-union leaders, 129 leading Social Democrats America, the Middle •East, southern Africa, and (33 of them members of their respective national other regions." executive bodies), 150 writers and poets, 33 repre: Earlier, as I was in the process of writing this sentatives of different liberation movements (in­ essay, news came that one of the Danish leaders of cluding the Association in Defense of Civil Rights the movement, Arne Petersen, was arrested along from Northern Ireland), women's organizations with his wife for channeling Soviet money into the (like the National Assembly of British Women), funds of the peace movement. His master, the youth organizations, the World Council of Second Secretary of the Soviet embassy in Copen­ Churches and other religious organizations, 18 rep­ hagen, was expelled from the country. Now and resen iatives of different UN specialized committees then we hear about subsidized trips taken by peace and commissions, representatives of the Organiza­ activists to the best Soviet resorts where they are tion of African Unity and of OPEC, ex-military wined and dined royally-and, of course, shown people, some of them generals, and representatives kindergartens, schools, and hospitals (no munitions of 83 Communist parties (Pravda, September 23, factories). 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, November 5, 1980; Izvestia, The majority of the European peace movement September 23, 24, 27, 28, 1980). is undoubtedly not aware of these facts. Probably It had all started about a year earlier, as,we are they will ignore the charges of the Greens, just as informed by a talkative Bulgarian, the chairman they missed the reports of Mr. Petersen's activities, of the Organizational Bureau, responsible for the which involved placing paid advertisements (out "practical preparation" for this show (Pravda, Sep­ of Soviet donations) for the Danish peace move­ tember 23, 19&0). They had expected, you see, ment in the Danish papers, ads signed by a num­ only 1,500 delegates, but 2,200 came. No wonder . ber of prominent Danish intellectuals (who for the chairman wished to talk about his success. sure knew nothing about it). And even our angry Yet a year earlier~in I 979--none of the condi­ CND leaders "know nothing of the subsidized tions now cited to explain the current miraculous trips to Soviet resorts" (London Times, December ·resurrection of the peace movement existed. There 9, 1981). Well, sometimes it is very comfortable­ was no so-called "new strategy of the Pentagon," even for professional intellectuals-not to know the famous presidential directive 59; there was things. no new escalation of the arms race; there was no neutron bomb. The Vienna summit meeting OR those, however, who do wish to had just been successfully concluded with the sign­ Fknow, let us track down the origin of ing of SALT II. September 1979 was a time of the current revival of the "struggle for peace." universal happiness, the sky was cloudless. Only Anyone who has read thus far will not be sur­ one significant thing happened in September 1979: . prised to hear that the earliest traces of this revival a sudden wave of mass arrests in the Soviet Union are to be found in Soviet publications, quite clear and, as we have learned now, a decision to reacti, for those who know how to rea_d them: vate the peace movement. Who could have pre­ dicted in September .1979 that within a year the ' The first bright colors of autumn have already cold war would be back-who else but. those in­ touched the emerald green parks of Sofia. The volved in "practical preparations" for the invasion golden leaves of maples and aspens are trem­ bling on the breeze. And everywhere the tender­ of Afghanistan? Given the nature of the Soviet blue streamers bearing the insignia of the World planned economy; with its fabulously inflexible, Peace Council. Sofia is expecting an important slow, and inefficient workings, the Soviets must event: the World Parliament of the Peoples for prepare everything well in advance. Why should Peace will be working here from 23 to 27 of they have allocated such a large sum of money to September. It is the biggest and the most rcpre-. hold a Bulgarian peace show in the middle of 114/COMMENTARY MAY 1982

happy times, if not in anticipation of grave polit­ comrade Ponomarev, suggested a whole program ical trouble ahead? of action intended to bring America's aggressive Furthermore, we learn from comrade Zhivkov, circles into compliance. He appealed for unity the Bulgarian Communist leader who opened the among all those concerned with preservation of meeting with a long speech, about an appropriate peace, irrespective of their political views. '_'The decision taken by the Political Consultative Com­ time has come for action, not words," he said. · mittee of the Warsaw Bloc countries in May I 980 (Wait a minute, have we not met this sentiment (Pravda, September 24, 1980), as well as an appro­ somewhere already? Surely not in the CND official priate resolution of the Plenary Session of the Cen­ booklet?) tral Committee in June 1980 (Pravda, September The show proceeded smoothly, exhibiting the 29, 1980). Comrade Zhivkov was simply revealing whole gallery of monsters, from the greatest peace­ the way decisions and resolutions first travel lover of our time, Yasir Arafat, to a "representa­ through the Communist bureaucratic machinery tive'' of Afghanistan. on their way to rubberstamping by a "representa­ How did all these 2,260 representatives of Social r! tive" body-:-in this case, the Sofia "Parliament" in Democrats, trade unions, youth, women, and reli­ ii September. 1j1 gious organizations react? Did they rush out in dis­ 1·: gust? Did they demand the withdrawal of the l NDEED, the whole show was depressingly Soviet troops from Afghanistan in order to remove • I familiar to anyone acquainted with the the main obstacle' to detente? Did they express con­ methods the Kremlin producers applied to the •l· cern about the massive Soviet arms build-up and I! same scenario in the time of Stalin. Even the dra­ the deployment of SS-20's? By no means. This self­ :l I matis personae were the same. There was the same appointed World Parliament issued an Appeal in • I World Peace Council with its immortal President I which the main ideas of comrade Ponomarev's Ramesh Chandra; there was the same chief con­ 1f 1 speech were repeated. Thus, the "Parliament" is 1, ductor, Boris Ponomarev, former official of the opposed "to the vast machine and arms build-up •: · , l Comintern (now responsible in the Politburo for of the most aggressive forces of imperialism which contacts with fraternal Communist parties as well seek to take the world toward a nuclear abyss; to as for intelligence). Even the slogan adopted for l•n, the falsehoods and lies of the propaganda in favor I the occasion, "The people have the power to pre­ I of the arms build-up, which are disseminated •I serve peace-their basic right," was remarkably through imperialist-controlled mass media." similar to · the unforgettable words of comrade Translated from party jargon, this constitutes a { Stalin i_n I 952. clear directive to work against the armament pro­ :! Only this time the personal message that com­ /· grams of the Western countries (first of all, of ''j rade Ponomarev brought to those convened was course, the U.S.-the "most aggressive forces of j .r, . from comrade Brezhnev, not comrade Stalin. The imperialism"), and to reject any "lies" of the mass ' 'ilj_ latter, of course, would never have tolerated even media about the Soviet arms build-up. b,,, the mention of the .term "rights"-basic or any Beyond this, the "parliamentarians" set "the I ~- ! other-in his slogans. Well, the times have new tasks and duties ... for action of the peoples changed after all. Still, those damned "human of all continents" and worked out the Charter of I rights" had gotten out of hand. Hence, better to the Peoples for Peace which was adopted unani­ find something like "basic rights." mously (I) together with the Peoples' Program for The first to speak, as I said, was comrade Zhiv­ Peace for the I 980's. The year I 981 was chosen to kov, and he spilled the beans about the Soviets' be "the springboard of the 80's, a year of a deci­ real concern (Pravda, September 24, 1980). The sive offensive of the peace forces to achieve a break­ aggressive circles in America, he said, refuse to ac­ through in curbing the arms build-up." cept the present balance of forces in the world. Most of the program was carried out, the mass They don't wish to submit to their historically demonstrations of October 1981 in the European predestined defeat. They have become so arrogant capitals having been planned within a framework as to reject all of the recent Soviet peace proposals. of what is called in the Soviet program "UN Dis­ They have decided to replace detente with a policy armament Week (October 24-31)." How on earth based on a "position of strength." They don't could the Soviets have known in I 980 about events observe agreements on cooperation; they interrupt that would take place at the end of I 981, unless political and economic contacts; they interfere they were running the whole show? with cultural and scientific exchange; they dis­ My pointing out this strange coincidence, which solve sporting and tourist connections (in other I did in an article in the London Times (December words, the grain embargo, the Olympic boycott, 4, 1981 ), wa,s bound to provoke heated denials; and the scie_ntific boycott, etc., responses to the inva­ did so. The Soviets in Literaturnaya Gazella (De­ sion of Afghanistan and ·the persecution of scien­ cember 23, I 981 ), as well as the CND leaders in the tists in the USSR). London Times (December 9, 1981), made much of This theme was taken up by most of the speak­ the fact that UN Disarmament Week had original­ ers with only minor variations. The main speaker, ly been designated as an annual observance by the l THE PEACE MOVEMENT & THE SOVIET UNION/85 UN General Assero'bly as early as June 1978. Now, petitions, etc., all around the world. It constantly the UN flag may seem to many to be a perfect emphasizes the urgent need for "further intensifi­ cover. One must ask, however, why virtually noth­ cation of actions against the deployment of the ing happened during that all-important week in new U.S. weapons of mass annihilation in West­ 1978 or 1979.,-even the Sofia meeting was sched­ ern Europe" and plans for "strengthening and uled in September, not October, of 1980-until broadening of national movements into a world­ details for its observance were specified by the wide network of peace organizations." Soviet-inspired program? Moreover, if one looks It is not possible here to discuss all the details through the Final Document of the Assembly Ses­ of this remarkable document. It simply introduces sion on Disarmament (May 23-July 1, 1978), issued each and every aspect of Soviet foreign policy by the UN, one can find hundreds of designated wrapped around with the phraseology of peace. weeks, months, years, and decades, all totally ig­ Not surprisingly, therefore, it includes Afghanis­ nored by our peace-lovers, whereas the suggestion tan under the guise of a "week of solidarity, with • singled out by the Soviets was the one, the only special emphasis on support for a political settle­ one, to gather thousands in the streets. For exam­ ment as proposed by the Afghan government." For ple, was anyone aware that the decade 1969 to Ethiopia it proposes "a week of solidarity with the 1979 was solemnly declared by the United Nations Ethiopian revolution" and "support for the strug­ to be "The Decade of Disarmament"? If there gle o'f the Ethiopian people against imperialist were any huge rallies or vigorous campaigns dur­ and reactionary conspiracies and plans in the ing these ten years, they seem to have escaped Horn of Africa." For Kampuchea there should notice. be an "international campaign of solidarity with the government and people of Kampuchea led by UT let us return to this remarkable pro­ the National United Front for National Salvation B gram, unanimously adopted by the and an international campaign for recognition of international community of peace-lovers. (It is · the People's Revolutionary Council of Kampuchea published by the World Peace Council in Hel­ and. the seating of its representatives in the UN; sinki, as already noted, and is available in English exposure of the conspiracies of the Peking hege­ under the title, Program of Action 1981.) monists who are working in collusion with the This program includes such items as the "elim• U.S. imperialists against Kampuchea." For Israel: ination of all artificial barriers to world trade," an "Support for the peace forces in Israel in their amazingly frank recognition of the Soviet need struggle for the complete withdrawal of Israel for Western goods and technology and its desire from the occupied territories and for the realiza­ to be granted the status of most favored nation. tion of the inalienable national rights of the Pales­ But what this has to do with the problem of peace tinian people." Whereas for the Middle East in and why all peace-loving people should fight for general: a "campaign of solidarity with the Arab it tooth and •nail is hardly made clear. peoples in their struggle to liquidate the political As could be expected, the program contains ·a and military consequences of the Camp David and clear definition of "just" and "unjust" wars: "The Washington accords; solidarity actions with Libya ' ! policy of destabilization of progressive regimes in against the threats of aggression by the Egyptian developing countries actually constitutes an aggres­ regime and U.S. imperialism." As for the U.S., sion, waged by psychological, economic, political, even in so totally pro-Soviet a document as this and other means, including armed intervention." the instruction to campaign for the "release of However, similar acts against "racist and fascist" political prisoners in the United States of Amer­ regimes are quite justified because the mere exis­ ica" reads like a bad joke. Clearly, the love of tence of non-progressive regimes "is abhorrent to peace dulls the sense of humor. The only countries the conscience of humankind." Accordingly, the where violations of human rights are recognized by sale of arms to these ''abhorrent" countries should the unanimous vote of 2,260 delegates from 137 be banned, but nothing need restrain the peace­ countries are: Bolivia, Chile, El Salvador,. Guate­ loving from selling arms to "progressive" regimes mala, Haiti, Israel, Paraguay, Uruguay, Indonesia, and to "liberation movements." South Korea, Northern Ireland, and the U.S. Has 'I And, of course, there are directives to the mass the world not undergone a remarkable improve- media, which "must serve the cause of peace and . ment? not the military~inclustrial complex by confusing After the s11rcessful adoption o[ this program, public opinion with lies and <.lisinformation." (In what followed was simple. Returning from Sofia, other words, the media should not report on the the enthusiastic delegates threw themselves into Soviet arms build-up.) A similar directive is issued a hectic round of implementing the program, to those "who bear responsibility for educating a pressing for appropriate resolutions, actions, and new generation." rommitments in each of their respective organiza­ The program (urther specifics precisely whkh tions (Pravda, November 5, 1!180). An additional events and campaigns to umlcrtake, and designates impetus was given to the rampaig11 by an endorse­ weeks for the collection of signatures on various ment from the World Council of Churches at their SO/COMMENTARY MAY 1982

meeting in Dresden (East Germany) on August 28, distinguish what is true from what is not. This 1981, thus commiuing a huge number of adherents auitude, which I can only describe as a combina­ of the various Christian denominali.ons to follow­ tion of ignorance and arrogance, makes them an ing the Soviet line. And in no Lime hundreds o( easy target for ariy pseudo-theory (or outright thousands in the \,Vest came honestly to believe Soviet propaganda) that happens to be fashion­ that they were out to save world peace. able at any given moment. Besides, baffled by end­ less and contradictory arguments among the "spe­ ELL, is there any further need to ex­ cialists" about the nature of the Soviet system, the W plain why Lhe Soviet Union is so leaders o( Lhc peace movemenl believe Lhey have interested in the peace movement? There is a found a "new approach" which makes the entire term in party fargon coined by Lenin himself: ~•a problem irrelevant. useful idiot." Now, in spite all their blunders, A few months ago in England, I attended a pub­ senseless adventures, economic disasters, the Polish lic debate on the problem of unilateral disarm­ crisis and the stubborn resistance of the Afghan ament. The leader of a big peace group opened peasants, Reagan's rearmament plan and UN reso­ his speech by saying that from his standpoint, it lutions, the Soviet rulers have scored a spectacular is irrelevant who is the aggressor and who the vic­ victory: they have recruited millions of useful tim. He said: "It is like when two boys have a idiots to implement their bankrupt foreign policy. fight in the churchyard. It is impossible to find They are no longer isolated and there is still a big out who started ·the fight, nor is there any need question as to whether tl).e Americans will be al­ to do so. What we should do is to stop them." lowed to place missiles in Europe. This metaphor reflects very well the prevailing True enough, the American economy is vastly attitude among peace-movement members. They more productive and efficient than the Soviet, but believe they have gotten around a baffling prob­ the Americans don't have a weapon like the "strug­ lem, whereas they have in fact inadvertently gle for peace." True again, this peace movement adopted the· concept of the "normal opponent." will be expensh!e for the Soviet people (the meet­ From the "churchyard" standpoint, the present ing in Bulgaria alone must have cost them mil­ conflict seems very ordinary: two bullies have be­ lions, to say nothing of subsidizing all peace ac- come so embittered by their prolonged quarrel­ • tivists on those jaunts to the best Soviet resorts; • in which anyway the essence of the disagreement the cost of running this worldwide campaign must has been lost or forgotten-that they are quite be simply astronomical). Still, it is cheaper than prepared to kill each other and everybody else another round of the arms race, let alone the around. They are temporarily insane, mad, but are cost of maintaining a priceless military superiority. basically normal human beings. Pride and fury And the result will be long-lasting. will not permit them to come to their senses, un­ Mind you, ·we are into only the second year of a less we, the sane people around them, are prepared planned ten-year "struggle for peace." Within a to intervene. Let us make them talk to one an­ few years, the whole earth will be trembling under other, let us pin· down their hands, let us distract the marching feet of the useful idiots, for their them from their quarrel. We cannot, to be sure, resources are inexhaustible. pin down the hands of one of them. Then, in the I remember in the 50's, when the previous peace best Christian tradition, let us make the other re­ campaign w.as still in full swing, there was a popu­ pent, in all good Christian humility. Let us disarm lar joke which people in the Soviet Union whis­ him to convince his adversary of his peaceful in­ pered to each other: "A Jew came to his rabbi and tentions. Let us turn the other cheek. Sooner or asked: 'Rabbi, you are a very wise man. Tell me, later the other will come to feel ashamed. is there going to be a war?' 'There will be no war,' This view sums up exactly what I mean by a replied the rabbi, 'but there will be such a strug­ combination of ignorance and arrogance. Indeed, gle for peace that no stone will be left standing.' " if we look upon the world from the "churchyard" standpoint, there probably is no need to find out . II who is the aggressor and who the victim. There is no need for police or armed forces. All we can see NE of the most serious mistakes of the is a row of graves with the dead lying orderly in , 0 Western peace movement and of its them and a couple of children quarreling with ideologists is the obdurate refusal to understand each other. Unfortunately, outside the church the nature of the Soviet regime, and the concomi­ walls there is a bigger and far more dangerous tant effort to lift the question of peace out of the world with gangsters,,murderers, rapists, and other context of the broader problem of East-West rela­ perverse characters. tions. After several decades of listening to what Needless to say, this churchyard model simply they believe to be "anti-Communist propaganda," does not merit serious consideration. Unfortunate­ they have simply got "fed-up with it.'' They.ascribe ly, it is a widespread belief (and not only within everything they hear about the East to a "cold­ the peace movement) that the Soviet government, war-type brainwashing," and make no attempt to like any other government, is preoccupied with THE PEACE MOVEMENT 1k THE SOVIET UNION/!17

the well-being of its people, and will therefore be day apiece. So, Soviet policy is no classical case eager to reduce military ·expenditures. This notion of colonialism. . comes so naturally to our peace-makers that they Then there is another theory, far more perni­ just do not notice they have taken on a view of cious because much more widely accepted and be­ the Soviet system which is both very old and un­ cause to reject · it one needs a real knowledge of questionably wrong. If they only took the trouble Soviet life. I mean the theory acording to which to study a little Soviet history, they would know Soviet aggressiveness is the result of the fear immediately how misleading this seemingly nat­ of hostile encirclement. The proponents of this ural view is. Not only are the Soviet rulers indif­ theory argue that Russian history, particularly the ferent to the living condition of their populace, history of repeated invasions of Russian territory they deliberately keep it low; on the other hand, within the last century, has made the Russian peo­ disarmament (irrespective of the problem of well­ ple almost paranoid about an external threat. being) would lead very rapidly to the collapse of This theory sounds very scientific because many the Soviet empire.. . facts may be cited to back it up. Still, it is no more Normally we try to understand an opponent by than a shrewd combination of obvious lies, wrong taking his place, getting into his shoes, so to speak. interpretations, and very perfunctory knowledge. That is why most people try to explain Soviet be­ It is mainly basea on an overestimation of the im­ havior in terms of "normal human motives," that portance of history for any given nation and on is, by motives familiar to them. And that is exactly an oversimplification of the Soviet system. why they constantly pile one mistake upon an­ To begin with, there is an obvious lie in this other. For it is extremely difficult for a "normal" theory-that is, a deliberate confusion between the human being to put himself inside the skin of a people and the government in the USSR. Those mentally ill one. It is almost as in nature itself: who know the Soviet system only moderately well when we test natural phenomena under extreme · may still need to be reminded that the people conditions, we suddenly find some unpredictable have no privilege of representation in the govern­ anomaly -that is baffiing to us. Logic itself be­ ment-that is, have no free elections. Thus, the comes abnormal in certain extreme cases. If we government does not reflect the feelings of the .add up two numbers, say, or multiply or divide population. So if we are. to believe that the popu­ them, we invariably obtain a new number. But if lation is frightened by the long history of inva­ we use zero or infinity our whole rule suddenly sions, the government has no reason to share these goes wrong. fears. The Soviet government, with its vast and omnipresent intelligence system, is extremely well­ UT let us take an example relevant to informed about every move and every smallest in­ B the present discussion. Let us take tention of the West (anyway not very difficult to the key question: why is the Soviet Union so ag­ achieve in view of the remarkable openness of gressive, so eager to expand? We see how many Western societies). By 1978-79, when their arms schools of thought there are among those studying build-up was at a high pitch, whom were they sup­ the problem (and we see, too, how all of them are posed to be so afraid of? Their great friend, the wrong). French President Giscard? Or their even better There are some people who believe that the friend in West Germany, Willy Brandt? Britain, present Soviet expansionism is just a continuation with its puny armed forces (and ongoing discus­ of the Russian pre-revolutionary colonial policy. sion on unilateral disarmament), or perhaps In other words, it is a ba·d legacy. Indeed, this Nixon and Carter, who between them shelved all notion about Soviet expansionism was the domi­ the major armament programs? Japan, which has nant one for a very long time-and still is in some no army at am quarters. In ·line with it, there have been repeated Clearly the Soviet government had no reason to attempts to offer the Soviets a division of the be frightened. In fact, the theory of Soviet para­ world into spheres of influence. We owe to it the noia does not imply a frightened government, but Yalta agreement, the Potsdam agreement, and as­ rather a frightened nation. In a "normal" coun­ sorted other disasters. Each time the Soviets have try this might drive the government to become ag­ accepted the division into spheres of influence, · gressive. But in the Soviet Union the people mean and each time they have violated it. Is this because nothing and have no way of pressuring their gov­ they need more mineral resources, more territory, ernment to do ;mything. They would not be al­ a wider market for their goods? No. Their own lowed to voice any fears. So, who is so frightened territory is undeveloped, their own mineral re­ in the Soviet Union? Besides, as far as the rulers sources are in the earth, they do not have enough are concerned, their own experience of war, goods for their own internal market. There are World War II, could not frighten them for a very · no useful mineral· deposits in Cu ha or Afghanis- simple reason: 'they won the war. Can you show tan. There is no Russian national interest in me any victorious general who is so afraid of war Angola or Vietnam. In fact, these new "colonies" as to become paranoid? The psychology of Soviet cost the Soviet people many millions of dollars a rulers is in any case totally different. !JS/COMMENTARY MAY 1982

One need only look at a map of the world to to the Soviet leaders. Or, more precisely, it is too see how ridiculous this theory is. Can we honestly big a silllplif1cation. This theory, too--fortunatcly believe that the poor Communists in the Kremlin for us-docs not fit a number of the facts. Para­ arc so frightened that they must protect themselves cloxically, none o( the present Communist leaders by sendinp; their troops to Cuba and Cuban troops believes any longer in Communist doctrine. Fort11- to Angola? By sending military equipment and ad­ 11atcly, because no real fanatic would ever tolerate visers to Ethiopia and Vietnam and then by send­ the destruction of the object of his obsession. I ing Vietnamese troops to Kampuchea? Take an­ He woulcl rather witness the destruction of the i other look at that map: it is not al all obvious en tire worltl. I that the USSR is encircled by hostile powers. The Soviet rulers are a totally cynical lot, much Rather the other way around: it is the ,-vestcrn more preoccupied with their own privileges and .I world that is encircled by the hostile hordes of the pleasures than with Marxist ideas. They probably Communists. ,-vel!, if their paranoia can be satis­ hate Communist dogma more than any Western fied only by surrendering the whole world to their capitalist. Moreover, the majority of the Soviet control, what difference can it make to us whether people are as cynical as their leaders. There are they act out of fear or out of endemic aggressive­ many more sincere Communists to be found in the ness? West than in the USSR. Finally, and most importantly for an under­ But this fact has also created false hopes among standing of this pernicious theory, is the fact that Western politicians and the public. The same it was invented by the Kremlin propaganda ex­ false hopes encouraged by the theory of encircle­ perts. It was very successfully exploited in the ment-that it will be possible to treat the Soviets years of detente, when Western governments, act­ as normal partners at last, that it will be possible ing under its influence, deliberately permitted the to negotiate, to cooperate, and to relax. Both Soviets to achieve military superiority. They would theories lead eqtially to the same mistaken policy. probably deny it now, but I remember very well So what is the truth about the damned Soviet the discussions of that period. The argument of system? the ideologists of detente was that once the Soviet~ Certainly, there was a period when the Soviet caught up, they would relax; this would in turn leaders were Communist fanatics, ready to sacrifice lead to the internal as well as external relaxation the whole world to their faith. There was a period, of the Communist regime, i.e., to libcrnlizntion. too, when at least some part of the population was The results of _this brilliant experiment we can prepared to greet this new idea with considerable see now. enthusiasm. The people of my country, I suppose, The Soviet population, too, has been subjected, could be excused for their delusion, because Com­ day after day for sixty-five years, to an intense munism was indeed a new idea and one that might propaganda campaign about this putative "hostile be thought by the inexperienced to appeal to the encirclement." The Communist rulers unscrupu­ best qualities in human nature. Is it after all not lously exploit the tragedy of the Soviet people in a worthy purpose, to secure unalloyed happiness World War II for the purpose of justifying both for all future generations, to liberate and unite the their oppressive regime and their monstrous mili­ whole of mankind? Naturally, such a thing will tary spending. They try their best to instill into not be easy, but it is worth a great deal of sacrifice the people a pathological fear of the "capitalist to achieve. Just as naturally there will be many world." Fortunately, the people are sane enough selfish people to oppose it and we should learn to to laugh at the very idea. Thus, contrary to this be ruthless with them. Only millions of individual theory, there is no paranoid population demand­ wills fused into a single invincible "we," united ing to be protected in the Soviet Union, despite by the iron fist of a Leader, can achieve so difficult the best efforts of a perfectly sober and cruel gm·­ an end. ernment. This period of ecstasy, however, was very short­ No, it is not the fear of invasion or a World lived. One by one, the various elements of the War II hangover that has driven the Soviet rulers Soviet population cooled clown, sobered up, and to wage an undeclared war against the whole then could not believe in their own former en­ world for half a century now. It is their commit­ thusiasm. The bcsiep;ed minority reacted to this ment-repeated quite openly every five years at desertion of the public by becoming even more each Party Congress since the beginning of this ruthless and si11glc-minclccl: "\Ve will make them century-to support the "forces of progress and happy against their will; their children will be socialism," to support "liberation movements," grateful to us." I will not describe the mass everywhere on the globe. slaughter that resulted from this great determina­ tion. lt has been described many times. A terror­ RE we then to assume that the Soviet ized majority obeyed with sham enthusiasm, be­ A leadership consists of fanatics aiming cause it was a crime to look gloomy. But under­ at global control? Even such a model, crazy as it neath there was a silent, passive resistance. The might sound, still imputes too much "normality" minority of "believers" over time became simply a

·I t THE PEACE MOVEMENT &: THE SOVIET UNION /!19

ruling clique which had lost its ideals in the con­ interlocked, creating a sort of vicious circle. The stant fight for survival, in corruption, and in its more the regime becomes rotten inside, the more abuses of power and its privileges. The ensuing pains are taken by its leaders to present a formid­ political situation can best be described as a latent able fa~ade to the outside world. They need inter­ civil war in which a kind of balance has been national tension as a thief needs the darkness of maintained by political terror. the night. In the political climate of latent civil In this way the Soviet Union reached a condi­ war, given the enormous and senseless sacrifices of tion in which absolute power was exercised by ab- the last fifty years, the constant economic difficul­ ' solutely cynical people over absolutely cynical peo­ ties, and the lack of basic rights-not to mention, ple, each side vociferously assuring the other that again, the extraordinary privileges enjoyed by the they were all still sincerely building an ideal ruling clique-the only hope for stability lies in future society. But the ideology exists now almost the need to cope ·with an external threat: "hostile as in a work of science fiction: it has separated encirclement" and the subversive activity of "world itself from its substratum and has petrified in the imperialism." In this artificially created state of structure of the society, It has become an institu­ war, the worker's demand for a better deal, or a tion in which nobody (not even the top executive) captive nation's demand for its independence, can is allowed verbally to deviate from the dead dog­ then be treated as an act of subversion, "playing ma. The will of millions is still being taken into the hands of the enemy." from them · and welded · into the iron fist of Nor is it enough to create a devil in order to abstraction. maintain one's religious zeal. This imaginary There is practically no free human being inside enemy must be defeated over and over again or the entire country. The state--the only employer there will be lhe risk that he will seduce you. -will not allow anyone to be financially inde- American "imperialism" must be defeated at· any -pendent-as indeed no independence of any kind cost, and the liberation of proletarians in the will be tolerated. Everybody must be carrying out capitalist countries must be promoted by all I a useful task, performing a needed function. Sev­ means. The failure to support a "friendly govern­ eral nationwide networks of security and secret ment," to establish Communist rule in a new police spy first on each other and then together. country, will immediately be perceived as a weak­ on everybody else. Such a system has created a new ening of Soviet power, and therefore an encour­ I type of a man, who thinks one thing, publicly ex­ agement to the sullen and embittered population presses another, and does a third. at home. • Any failure of the Soviet internalional The· enormous inerlia of this system is not sur­ adventure may thus trigger a chain reaction lead­ prising. There is no internal "class enemy" any ing to the ultimate collapse of the Soviet rulers. more; there is no need to terrorize so many mil­ This is why they cannot allow a popular uprising lions. Still, there are huge concentration camps, in Hungary, a "Prague Spring" in Czechoslovakia, because they have become an integral part of the an anti-Communist "Holy War" in Afghanistan, · country's economic, political, and spiritual life. or an independent alternative center of power in Nobody believes now in lhe ultimate victory of Poland. Immediate repercussions would be felt in Communism in the world, but the policy of exter­ all the other countries of the Socialist camp as well nal subversion and the promotion of "socialist as in the Ukraine, the Baltic states, Central Asia, forces" everywhere has become an integral part of and other occupied territories. The scenario of ag­ the state machinery. The system rules-the people. gression is depressingly uniform. First, the Soviets undermine a democratic state, helping the friendly EYOND inertia, there is something else, "progressive forces" come to power. Next, they B something even more decisive: the in­ have to save their bankrupt "progressive'' friends, stinct of self-preservation of the ruling clique. when the resistance of the population threatens to Once you are riding a tiger, it is difficult to jump overthrow them. off. Any attempt at internal liberalization might Are they frightened to the point of aggressive­ prove fatal. 1£ the central power were to weaken, ness? Yes, but not by your piles of hardware, not the sheer amount of hatred accumulated within by your clumsy attempts at defense. They are the population for these sixty-five years of the frightened by their own people, because they know socialist experiment would be so dangerous, the the end is inevitable. That is why they must score results of any reform so unpredictable-and, above victory after victory over the "hostile encircle­ all, the power, the fabulous privileges, the very ment." Behind every victory is a very simple mes­ physical survival of the ruling clique would be­ sage addressed to their own enslaved population: come so tenuous-that one would be mad to ex­ "Look, we are still very strong and nobody dares pect the Soviet leaders to play with liberal ideas. to challenge our might." Only the imminent threat of total collapse might If they are afraid of you, it is because they are force them to introduce internal reforms. afraid of your freedom and your prosperity. They The two sides of the Soviet regime-internal op­ cannot tolerate a democratic state close to their pression an

buffer-states), because a bad example of thriving revolt of various tribes in Pakistan, instigated by· democracy so close at hand might prove to be too Moscow? Or a Communist takeover in Iran? provocative. There are plenty of "natural" troubles in the world, brought on by local conditions. But the in­ NOWING all this, let us ask ourselves a fluence of Moscow immediately turns them into K question: what would happen if the major strategic problems. It would be senseless to West were to disarm unilaterally? Could the try to solve- all such problems by military means Soviets follow suit? Certainly not. It would mean all over the globe. Simple logic suggests that we. the rapid disintegration of their empire and a gen­ must ,deal first of all with the source of the world's eral collapse of their power. Does this mean they major trouble-Le., the Soviet system. We must will simply roll over the now defenseless Western find an effective way to help the Soviet population countries? Again, the answer is: no. They don't in its struggle for change. After all, they are our need your territory, which would be difficult to biggest ally. hold anyway. Above all, where would they acquire Unfortunately, this has so far never been appre­ goods, technology, credits, gTain, etc., if they were ciated by the West, which has instead been contin­ to impose on· you their inefficient economic sys­ uously strengthening the Soviet system by credits, tem? They need you in the way China needs Hong trade; technology. Why should the Soviets bother Kong. But from that very moment you will gradu­ to introduce any internal reforms if their inefficient ally begin to lose your freedom, being exposed ·to economy is periodically saved by the West? The constant and unrestrained Soviet blackmail. West is still rich enough to help them out, and You may like or dislike your trade unions, but Siberia is also rich enough in turn to sell natural would you like them to have to consider a possi­ gas, gold, diamonds. bility of foreign invasion every time they wanted to declare a strike..:.._.as Solidarity had to do in E MAY shake with indignation when­ Poland for eighteen· months? You may like or dis­ W ever we hear about the Soviet inva­ like your mass media, but would you like to see sion of yet another country. We hate these little the self-censorship of your press in order to avoid obedient soldiers, ever ready •to do whatever they an angry reaction by a powerful neighbor-as in are told. Are they robots? But what do we propose Finland? You may like or dislike your system of that they should do? Do we honestly expect· them representation, but at least you are free to elect to rebel and face a firing squad, while the entire those whom you choose without considering the world continues to provide their executioners with desires· of a foreign power. Nobody threatens to goods, credits, and modern technology? Don't we come into your country and impose a government demand of them much more than we demand of of its choosing-as in Afghanistan. The nature of ourselves? Somewhere, somehow, this vicious circle the Soviet system is such that it can never be satis­ must be broken, if we are to survive as human fied until you are similar to them and are totally beings. Why not start where it is easier? under their control. . There are 90,000 of these "robots" trapped in So, we come to a very important conclusion: the Afghanistan at this very moment. They cannot issue now is not "peace versus w·ar," but rather rebel because they will be shot down. Even so, "freedom versus slavery." Peace and freedpni ap­ there are occasional rebellions (and executions). pear to be inseparable, and the old formula "Bet• They cannot desert, because they will either be ter red than dead" is simply fatuous. Those who killed in the process or, if they are lucky and live by it will be both red and dead. Whether we manage to reach Pakistan, the Pakistani authori­ like it or not, there will be no. peace in our world, ties will return them to the Soviet command (that no relaxation of international tension, no fruitful is, again, to the firing squad). Does any govern­ cooperation between East and West, until the ment try to help them? No. Instead, several Euro­ Soviet internal system changes drastically, pean governments have decided to buy Soviet nat• Has this simple and self-evident truth ever been ural gas, perhaps the very same gas that is being understood by Western decision-makers? I doubt pumped out of Afghanistan by the Soviet occupa­ it. In a way, I can share some of the concern of tion authorities as compensation for "liberating" the peace movement. Because for the West to react Afghanistan. stereotypically by increasing military spending and There is a lot of noise about Poland right now. stockpiling new hardware every time the Soviet in­ A lot of noise, and a lot of smoke screens. But stability-aggression complex manifests-itself is sim­ does any government sacrifice anything? After issu­ ply to miss the target. At any rate, it is not ing thunderous condemnations, the European gov­ enough. It is not going to change the Soviet sys­ ernments decided not to apply economic sanctions tem. It is not going to prevent Soviet expansion, against the Eastern bloc, because sanctions would especially in the Third World. Soviet ideological "harm us, probably, more than them." Why warfare is far shrewder than a big nuclear bludg­ should you establish the kind of relations that only eon. Would we, for instance, consider a nuclear make you more vulnerable than the enemy? Why bombardment if tomorrow there were to be a do you continue to sign new agreements of -the I ' . . THE PEACE MOVEMENT&: THE SOVIET UNION/41 same type (natural gas, for example)? The Ameri­ crowds on . the streets of the European capitals. can banks recently decided to cover the huge Pol­ Thanks to them, we descend slowly into the Age ish deficit because the "bankruptcy of Poland of Darkness. would undermine the world financial system." What would happen, I wonder, if tomorrow the III Soviet-bloc countries were to refuse to pay their debts and to suspend all trade? This is what the struggle for peace and freedom HIS article is not addressed to the bank­ boils down to: the people in the East should sacri­ T ers, or to the governments. I do not ex­ fice their lives, but you should not sacrifice your pect any help from them. In spite of all the harsh profits. Small wonder that the Polish army does words used in it, I wish it to be read by sincere not rebel. people who are seriously concerned with the prob­ In fact, the imposition of economic sanctions on lems of peace and freedom. They will probably the Polish military junta and on their Soviet mas­ dislike many of the things I have said here. I hope, ters is not just a possible step; . it is the actual however, that they will understand its main point: obligation of the Western countries under the that peace has never been preserved by a hysterical terms of the Helsinki agreement. A direct link desire to survive at any price. Nor has it ever among security, economic cooperation, and the ob­ been promoted by catchy phrases and cheap slo­ servance of human rights is the very essence of this gans. There are 400 million people in the East agreement. If that is forgotten now, of what point whose freedom was stolen from them and whose is all the noise lately heard from Madrid? existence is miserable. It so happens that peace is To tell the truth, I do not believe that any of impossible while they remain enslaved, and only it has been forgotten. Neither do I believe that the with them (not with .their executioners) should Western banks, industrialists, and governments are you work to secure real peace in our world. so "stupid" as to tie themselves to the Eastern Your recent mass demonstrations were disas­ chariot wheels by mistake. It is their deliberate trous, because in them you identified yourselves, policy, overtly articulated in the time of detente, willingly or unwillingly, with the rulers of the ·· and covertly now. Moreover, it is their philosophy. Eastern countries. To make broad alliances with They love stabHity, these bankers and business­ any public (or governmental) forces just for the men. And they are much against any re.sistance sake of power is a tremendous mistake. This mis­ movement in the Communist countries, very much take must be corrected if we are to live in peace against any prospect of liberation for the enslaved and freedom. We should know who are our nations of the East. They are the greatest peace­ friends and who are our enemies. The fate of lovers of all, far more powerful than all those Solidarity should open our_eyes. I I .I ii UNCLASSIFIED oc:c, "c. 1 - \H'fM !5:EC~ ATTACHMENT

NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL

June 9, 1983

TO: FRED WETTERING

FROM: KEN deGRAFFENREiri/7

Per our telecon (and your request), attached are two memoranda from Judge Clark to Secretary Haig - please keep me advised.

Attachment ~~ January 11, 1982 Memo (Secret) June 2, 1982 Memo (S/Sensitive)

UNCLASSIFIED Jil.TH SEGRE'!' ATTACHMENT ";>JW '1 [-z_/1/, c.Q__. . 'i' National Security Council

- - ,,,..... l '\ ;' E" D The wrte House i v. •. 1 ··-.. , _ : , 1 .- System # -=a=----- Package# 83 NOVl~ P\:03 SEQUENCE TO HAS SEEN DISPOSITION Executive Secretary \L

John Poindexter

Wilma Hall

Bud Mcfarlane

John Poindexter

Executive Secretary.

NSC Secretariat

Situation Room

Executive Secretary 2 r/'4: I• lnformat on Ra Retain D • Dlsp1tc:h N • No further Action

DISTRIBUTION cc: VP Meese Baker Deaver Other ------COMMENTS Should be seen by: ______(Date/Time) 0-14 (R..,;v. 8-15-12) I

Federal Bureau of Investigation Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs National Security Council

[;xJ I. For your information, I am enclosing communications which may be of interest to you.

D 2. It will be appreciated if you will have the investigation conducted as requested in the enclosed memorandum and furnish the results.

D 3. No further investigation is contemplated with regard to this matter.

D 4. You will be advised of the pertinent developments in connection with this inquiry.

D 5. Please note change in caption of this case.

D 6. Status of case: D Completed D Incomplete

Director Federal Bureau of Investigation

Enc. 1