‘Carter’s instability poisons atmosphere’

Press, 9 June 1978, Page 6

‘Carter’s instability poisons atmosphere’

NZPA Moscow! The Soviet Union has accused President Carter: of “poisoning the international atmosphere” with an unstable foreign policy, and has blasted China for its! “frenzied campaign” against: Russia’s ally, Vietnam. The Russians were react-; i ? to a speech by Presi-i dent Carter to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, in which he offered the Soviet Union "confrontation or cooperation.” A stern article in the Soviet Communist Party daily, “Pravda” blamed problems with the United States on its National Security Adviser (Mr Zbigniew Brzezinski), saying he had been “speaking in a language of the; most frosty days of the cold; war.” Mr Brzezinski, who j recently visited Peking, also) was singled out in a Radio; Moscow broadcast beamed: to China that condemned: “collusion between the! United States and Peking”!: as the cause of recent Sino-I Vietnamese disputes. I “Pravda,”. in an article from Washihgton, said Mr Carter was bending to pressures from Mr Brzezinski and “the bosses of the military industrial complex, the , ultra-reactionary politicians, representatives of the academic. world brought up on anti-Corntpunism (who) have constantly been exerting pressure on the Administration in a bid to shift its course to the Right. “They have been doing their utmost to frustrate the process of detente and to return, if not to the cpld war, to the cool war.” Addressing the theme of instability in Mr Carter’s policies, “Pravda” said So-viet-United States problems

'had been “complicated by constant zig-zags and inconsistency in the stand of the • Government itself.” “The Washington Administration itself has lately been actively involved in poison- ; ing the international atmosJphere. What about election pledges to strive for delivering the world from the ; burden of armaments and I for international co-oper- ; ation, which helped Democrats win elections in 1976?” The broadcast beamed at China recalled that Mr Brzezinski had said in Peking that the United States and China held basically similiar views on some important . international questions, and said the Chinese Communist Party Chairman (Mr Hua . Kuo-feng) held the same [ view. The Sino-Vietnamese I troubles, which involve the | flight of thousands of Chinese residents from Vietnam 'lto China, were also conJnected with China’s support ;for Cambodia in the Viet-|nam-Cambodia border war, I Radio Moscow said. The Russian Government. I news agency, Tass, threw!

back Mr Carter’s contention that the Kremlin could choose between confrontation or co-operation. The Soviet Union had chosen peaceful coexistence long ago, “but evidently the choice has still not been made in Washington’s ruling circles,” it said. Soviet leaders appeared to have decided that for the time being, it was better to answer Mr Carter through the official media. President Leonid Brezhnev spoke at a dinner for King Carl Gustav of Sweden, but! although he touched on So-j viet disarmament policy, there was not even an allu-| sion to what Mr Carter had' said. “A significant part of the; President’s speech was dedi-; cated to concoctions about! the Soviet Union and its; social structure,” the Soviet! agency commented. “He again resorted to re-| peating concoctions which! are standard for current; American propaganda about} an ‘excessive build-up of So-; ; viet military might,’ and to| j unfounded allegations that ’the Soviet Union is allegedly trying to ‘export’ its form of government, “This whole propagandist' set (of statements) was, evidently needed by James Carter to justify United States and N.A.T.O. claims! to the role of ‘world gen- ! darme’,” it said. President Carter had toid the Soviet Union it risked gravely damaging its relations with the United States unless it maintained a commitment to genuine detente. The President said he was . eager to strengthen detente but, pointing to Soviet intervention in Africa and a military build-up in Europe, warned that it must be truly reciprocal.