Page 2 THE BATTALION
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 1977
France, West Germany strain nuclear ties
By ALAIN RAYMOND
PARIS — During the months
ahead, France and West Germany
will be locked in close and perhaps
tense negotiations with the United
States over the issue of nuclear pro
liferation. The view here is that
Europe comprehends the U .S. posi
tion better than Americans ap
preciate European concerns on this
issue.
Therefore, unless misunderstand
ings on the matter are cleared up,
relations between the United States
and its European allies could be
come sorely strained — to the de
triment of the Atlantic community.
The problem has surfaced as the
result of a French deal to sell nuclear
installations to Pakistan and a West
German agreement to provide Brazil
with similar but larger-scale
facilities.
These arrangements have been
made at a time when the developing
nations, confronted by the prospect
of oil shortages, are reaching out to
ward nuclear power as an alternative
source of the energy they desper
ately need for economic growth.
But the United States, as well as
the Soviet Union, sees risks in sup
plying these nations with nuclear
know-how. For a plant capable of
reprocessing uranium leftovers can
produce plutonium, which can be
used to manufacture atomic bombs.
Thus, in theory at least, to sell
such plants abroad is to give to all
kinds of countries the ability to build
up nuclear arsenals. French Presi
dent Valery Giscard d’Estaing and
West German Chancellor Helmut
Schmidt are as sensitive to this
danger as are President Carter and
Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet leader.
In commercial terms, the problem
is more serious for West Germany,
since its $5 billion contract with
Brazil is bigger than any deals con
cluded by France. Yet the problem
is in its political and longer-range
economic dimensions equally im
portant for France and West Ger
many, which are Europe’s principal
exporters of nuclear technology.
The key question, then, is
whether France and West Germany
should submit to American and
Soviet pressures and give up present
and future nuclear markets — or
whether they should stand their
ground and face difficulties in their
vital ties with the United States.
Although the United States is ap
parently still unconvinced, France
has made it amply clear that it has
not and will not sign any nuclear con
tracts without taking international
atomic regulations into account.
In March 1976, after the deal with
Pakistan was signed, the French
government publicly announced
that it contained five major
provisions designed to safeguard
against the use of nuclear facilities
for military purposes.
Among other things, Pakistan
agreed to place the French equip
ment under the aegis of the Interna
tional Atomic Energy Agency, a
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United Nations body empowered to
inspect nuclear installations. It also
pledged to protect the plants against
terrorists, and it gave France the
right to exercise control over the
production of irradiated fuels.
The provisions conformed to the
guidelines set down by the Nuclear
Suppliers Conference, which was
organized by the United States in
order to put restraints on nuclear ex
porters.
But despite these efforts, France
was criticized by both U.S. officials
and the American press for the
Pakistan deal. By way of dealing with
the criticism, the French govern
ment indicated that it would not
drop the deal itself, but would be
willing to cancel the contract at
Pakistan’s request.
The aim of this move was to give
the United States the responsibility
for persuading Pakistan to break the
accord, so that France could not be
accused of having reneged on the
contract.
With all this, the U.S. pressure
has rankled the French, and they are
wondering whether they are going to
face further American pressure in
the nuclear field.
France, for example, now pos
sesses a major reprocessing plant
with sufficient capacity to handle a
large portion of European and
Japanese radioactive waste. The
Japanese, in fact, are currently
negotiating an agreement with
France to treat their spent nuclear
fuel. .
This capacity means that France,
along with West Germany and
Canada, have managed to overcome
the monopoly in nuclear engineer
ing that was once held by the United
States. And it means more and more
competition for the United States in
commercial terms.
The French are bracing them
selves, therefore, for the possibility
that President Carter’s campaign
against nuclear proliferation may
also be directed against France’s
own facilities. If so, it would weaken
ties with the United States that are
already frayed.
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A***- "- 77
“I THINK WE’VE GOT SOMETHING HERE!
CHILI JUST UNSTOPPED TH’ SINK!’’
Carter s many faces
shape foreign policy
WASHINGTON — The puzzle
ment about the Carter adminis
tration’s foreign policy is pervasive,
dominating conversations from
Capitol Hill to Embassy Row. The
frequent “clarifications” of com
ments from assorted foreign policy
spokesmen in Geneva, New York
and Washington, and the President’s
own eagerness to rush in verbally
where others fear to tread — as witb
this week’s discussion of “defensible
borders” for Israel — have caused a
degree of consternation among those
who look to the American govern
ment as a source of stability in the
world.
Making sense of what is going on
may or may not be possible for those
on the inside; it is certainly a chal
lenge that intimidates any outsider.
But it may be useful to go back to
basics, and remind ourselves where
Carter himself draws his fundamen
tal notions about the way we relate to
the world beyond our borders.
There are three different impulses
at work on him, and, through him,
on American policy. First, there is
Carter the moralist. Anyone who
thinks that the heavy emphasis on
human rights in the first weeks of
this administration is either acciden
tal or a passing phase does not
understand the depth of the moral
passion in this President.
What is coming through now, in
world diplomacy, is the same force
that made Carter so powerful and
effective in his campaign meetings in
black churches: a strong empathy for
the oppressed victims of a society.
This belief in social justice and per
sonal freedom, like alj of Carter’s
root ideas, is universal in its applica
tion and intrinsic to his character.
The moral fervor finds expression
in another way, too: the abhorrence
of nuclear weapons. This goes be
yond any calculated appraisal of the
dangers of nuclear war or the costs of
the nuclear arms race. It is more
fundamentally a passionate rejection
of the essential inhumanity of visit
ing technological terror on human
beings. It is, if you will, another pro
test against torture.
The second strain in Carter’s
foreign policy is that of the
“Trilateralist. His introduction to
the international world came under
the auspices of banker David Rock
efeller and the Trilateral Commis
sion — an assemblage of big shots
from the United States, Europe and
Japan.
As has been well-documented,
Carter staffed his national security
apparatus with colleagues from the
commission, and its precepts color
his approach to the world.
Davii:
Brotkl
11 is an approach that emphi
above all else, the economick|
dependence of the advanced ii
trialized countries, their poteid
profitable trade with
Communist-bloc nations, andli
obligations to the developingc<
tries of the southern hemisphm|
is a world of multinational (
panics, where ideological i
need to be submerged becaij
frankly, they are not goodbnsisj
or good economics.
Responding to this impulse,!
ter has put heavier emphasisoaij
international economic order-
particularly on the multilateral!)
ganizations seeking to manageit|
than ainy previous President.
The third impulse is that'
Carter carried away from Anna
and his years as a career Navyo
It is a much more traditionalist^
of the world, embodying concept^
national interest, definedbya
to and control over vital ]
the surface of the globe, guarantel
ultimately, by the availabilitydij
pressive American military po*
This was the view that shaped!!
ter’s attitude toward Vietnam,! 1
fore he became an avowedpresiil
tial candidate. During his year|
governor, when the war had bee
highly unpopular in thiscountiyi
did not indulge in the rhetorictf
described Vietnam as a morablj
on American honor. Itwas,inj
eyes, at worst a tactical or strati
mistake, made in an honestefe|
preserve an important Amert
sphere of interest.
That same “Annapolist”in
shown in his quick defense of|
covert activities of the CIA, a
dispatch of Navy units and Mar
to counter the threat to Amer
lives from Uganda’s Idi Amin S
hind the smile, there are
eyes of the man who wanted tob
prey in a nuclear submarine.
That is the paradox of JimmyO
ter — moralist, Trilateralist,
napol is t. Wheth er and how thes( i |
fering impulses can be worked®
coherent framework offoreignp
I would not guess. But aj
rides on that question.
(c) 1977, The Washington Poil I
F
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