Likely power of Soviet peace movement noted

Press, 10 September 1984, Page 10

Likely power of Soviet peace movement noted

NZPA-Reuter Washington A growing peace movement in Eastern Europe could one day challenge Soviet control more seriously than Poland’s Solidarity labour union, a Pentagon analyst says in an article made public yester-

day. Robert English, a Soviet and East European expert in the Defence Department, wrote in the “Foreign Policy” quarterly that the East Bloc peace movements, taken together, “are more ominous” for Moscow than the now-banned Solidarity.

He said the Communist leaders in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, “retain the military and police power to crush these

troublesome dissidents should the costs of tolerance appear too high. A unified, bloc-wide movement would obviously force Moscow’s hand.”

He also said it would be “disastrous” for the United States to speak out on behalf of those movements or support them directly. “Soviet paranoia would skyrocket, the peace activists would be accused of anti-Soviet conspiracies and ties to the CJA. (and) the movements would be swiftly crushed,” Mr English said.

As a result, he said, “the United States should keep quiet and allow the East and West European peace movements to support each other as natural allies in

their struggle against the military policies of both super-Powers.” In addition to growing popular anti-nuclear sentiment in East Germany, Czechoslovakia and elsewhere in Eastern Europe, Mr English said there was considerable official resistance among Moscow’s allies to the installation of Soviet nuclear missiles in the region in response to the start of United States missile deployments in Western Europe late last year. “While Western policy makers have yet to appreciate the extent or implication of these developments, the Warsaw Pact is unmistakably in the midst of its own crisis over .nuclear weapons,”' he said.