The Battalion Viewpoint July 22, 1981 In Slouch By Jim Earle “Could you explain one more time how that helmet protects a skydiver if something goes wrong?“ Journalists watch out: diplomats have big ears By JIM ANDERSON United Press International WASHINGTON — Every so often, the State Department releases a bricksized volume in its series “Foreign Relations of the United States.” The heavy tomes, made up of some 1,600 pages of secret cables, memos and notes that are all more than 25 years old, make great door-stops. For the history buff with stainless steel eyeballs, the collections of declassified documents can also give an in sight into how foreign policy was made and how dull all those closed-door diplomatic conferences really are. The latest volume, from the Geneva con ferences of 1952 and 1954 dealing with In dochina and Korea, is a grinding exercise in futility. But, almost accidentally, the col lection of documents has a lesson in it for journalists. Diplomatic correspondents tend to think of themselves as collectors of information, gleaners who can put hints and opaque statements together to make a meaningful view of foreign policy in action. Several of the documents just declassi fied show that the reporters, to a degree they will find surprising, are themselves the source and channel of information that is collected and used by the diplomats. For example, one “confidential” cable to the State department from U.S. diplomat U. Alexis Johnson reported in 1954 that “several knowledgeable American corres pondents” had talked with an American press officer about their belief that the Chinese communist leadership was taking a role increasingly independent from that of the Soviets. The cable quotes “well-versed observers such as Edmund Stevens of the Christian Science Monitor, Ed Korry (then with Un ited Press and later U.S. ambassador to Chile) and Joe Fromm of U.S. News & World Report.” The Johnson cable says it was the consen- The Johnson cable ends with a diplomatic cop-out: “I do not entirely share these views but pass them on as of possible in terest. ” Ironically, another 1954 cable, this one from Secretary of State John Foster Dulles at Geneva, gives the official U.S. line: “There has been nothing to date indicating any differences of opinion between the Soviet Union and communist China.” Dulles flatly ordered that no official U.S. source should even hint that there were major Sino-Sovet differences. But six years later, when Russian advisers were pulled out of China, the State Department official ly recognized what had been apparent to a small group of reporters in Geneva: There were real differences between Moscow and Peking. Another memo from Johnson recounts in detail a dinner table conversation between J. Kingsbury Smith of International News Service and a man named Zhukov, a Soviet correspondent from Pravda. Zhukov, who apparently was more than just a Soviet newspaper reporter, laid out for Smith (who then passed it on to Johnson, who was head of the American delegation) much of the communist strategy in the In dochina conference. Smith, now national editor of Hearst Newspapers, says he had already written for INS what he passed on to the American delegation about the Zhukov conversation, and he had no idea that Johnson was meti culously passing on his dinner table chit chat to the State Department. The moral seems to be: Diplomats have big ears, and reporters should be careful when talking to them. 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Questions or comments concerning any editorial matter Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein reserved. should be directed to the editor. Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. Clouds gathering over GOF El By DAVID S. BRODER WASHINGTON — So many things are going so well for the Republicans these days that it seems almost churlish to suggest that there are a few clouds on the horizon. But there they are — and they may as well be acknowledged. First, though, the good news for the GOP. Ronald Reagan has reached his six- month anniversary in the presidency in re markable fine political fettle. That is attri butable to two interlocking accomplish ments. ternationally. The Ottawa economic talks, focusing on the overseas effects of Reagan’s unique mixture of high interest rates, budget stringency and tax cuts, is putting on display the tensions within the alliance 'over his fundamental economic policy. When the president comes home, he will face a series of decisions on major de- fesne weapons systems and the export of American arms to the Middle East, on all of which his own party in Congress is divided. He and his senior aides have done an extraordinary job of focusing public and congressional attention on their chosen agenda of budget and tax cuts. They have dominated the debate on those issues. Second, they have benefitted from thr re markable display of cohesiveness and acu men by the congressional Repulicans under Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker and House Minority Leader Bob Michel. Social Security looks like a political tar- baby for Reagan and the Republicans; in all the optimistic polling, the one jarring ele ment is the suspicion by large majorities that those now in power may jeopardize or cut back the most widely supported part of the social safety net. The administrations’s mishandling of the Social Security issue is worrisome — very worrisome — to Reagan loyalists on Capitol Hill. And that raises the third nagfe Despite the record of achieve® old Inc first six months, there is still slit: 0 rder are Washington about how deeplyaive, says s tively Reagan is engaged in thewB re m * > tendency to skate lightly over lit j-) r of many policy discussions. Itv. se( j amon to learn that for five days after ft e n referr staff had been briefed on tin anded do> Reagan was shielded from knowsually can a major scandal was about to bre3pl° rers a spymaster Hugel. Kimber „ , jent mon Soon, the President will depan^joug m0( vacation, and the questions al)(!. m ts from really minding the store are ak^ to rise in volume. Kimber vo groups Finally, for all their publicizecf exitail ' Al the Democrats are showing signs 011 ? , . c order folk mg one lesson from their morcsfe The teamwork of the White House and the GOP senators and representatives has been awesome to behold. The public is plainly impressed; each succeeding set of polls measures further progress by the Re publican Party toward majority status in the country and a highly competitive position in the 1982 congressional race. Second, there is a growing awareness in Washington that the Reagan White House is thinly staffed and perhaps stretched too far for the demands of the expanding agen da. The triumvirate of Ed Meese, Jime Bak er and Mike Deaver gets very high marks, as does budget chief Dave Stockman, con gressional liaison Max Friedersdorf, and public relations counselor Dave Gergen. past. They are saying with some : "Among on both the tax bill and Soc >day of fol issues that they are the party tkte vitality for the wage-earners, the vjjvHillCoui orphans and the Republicans a. r i ^ exas ^ e: of the affluent. uropean-i aence and It is not a subtle or elevatingi|^ ex ’ can but it has worked in the past. Mississippi special election sho^^ ^ j And yet ... and yet. There are at least four reasons to belive that the next few months may see some bumpy passages for the Reagan bandwagon and test the GOP in ways it has not been tested so far. First, the tightly controlled agenda is about to expand, both domestically and in- But there are conspicuous weaknesses in the non-budget domestic issues area and in all of foreign policy — weaknesses that the insiders acknowledge and whose consequ ences the public will soon enough come to see. The Max Hugel fiasco at the CIA was a warning sign that other national security disasters are waiting to happen. In that area, Reagan is in a race against time to shore up a sagging policymaking stucture. in the full flower of Reagan’s po offers the potential for unifying class constituency across racial; gical lines, and producing a vict Democrats now and then. None of this suggests that Reai political revolution are about to r j tracks. My own guess is that the: Robert N will come through this shakeout d wine-m ably good shape. But I’d be surp He was k quite the cakewalk or the triumpl ,sc hoolat’ sion these first six months have 3 Texas o tactly hon ;ars in Fn