Public Spectacle

In the glare of the diplomatic spotlight, Syria played out the painful role of a nation no longer in command of its own soul. The lines which Syria's statesmen mouthed were delivered in Arabic, but the script had clearly been written in Russia.

When, early in the week, Saudi Arabia's King Saud offered to mediate the Turkish-Syrian quarrel, Syria's ailing President Shukri el Kuwatly grabbed at the offer. "We accept your effort with all satisfaction," he said. In the U.N. the other Arab nations, anxious to forestall further Russian meddling in the Middle East, privately urged the Syrians to accept Saud's good offices. (The sole exception: Egypt, whose President Gamal Abdel Nasser regards Saud as a dangerous rival for leadership of the Arab world.) Then the word from Moscow--"An effort to evade U.N. debate of Syria's complaint," snarled Pravda--got through to Intelligence Chief Lieut. Colonel Abdel Hamid Serraj and his fellow leftists in the Syrian government. In an abject turnabout, President Kuwatly hastily got off a message begging Saud to withdraw his offer.

Unknown Incident. All week long, Russia's stooges in the Syrian government obligingly kept up a drumfire of public accusations against Turkey and the U.S. Chief of Staff Afif Bizri charged that Turkish and U.S. planes from the Sixth Fleet were violating Syrian air space, and the Damascus press claimed that the planes had swept in over northern border towns at rooftop level to terrorize the population. Next day newsmen asked the Foreign Ministry's official spokesman if Syria planned a diplomatic protest. Astonished, the official asked who had reported the incident, was told Bizri had. "Well, that's a new one," said the official. The Turkish-Syrian border was sleepily quiet. Turkish forces on the frontier (three armored brigades, three infantry divisions) were in defensive positions, and travelers along the Syrian side of the line saw no evidence at all that the Syrian army was bracing itself for an attack.

Slipped Pretense. But Russia kept the drums of war rolling. Pointedly, the Kremlin named Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, "the hero of Stalingrad" and former Red viceroy of Poland, to command Russian troops on the Turkish frontier, and announced that "atomic maneuvers" had been conducted. (The West retaliated with an announcement that NATO had decided to hold land, sea and air exercises on Turkey's "southwestern coast," i.e., in the direction of Syria, beginning this week.)

In the U.N., Russia all but dropped its pious pretense that its only concern is Arab welfare. Said Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko coldly: "Our attitude ... is prescribed by the interests of the Soviet Union's security." In a series of private conversations, clearly designed to terrify Arab and Asian delegates, Gromyko conveyed the impression that Russia was prepared to intervene militarily even if the present Syrian regime were overthrown by internal revolt.

Counterattack. At week's end, having successfully sabotaged Saud's attempt at mediation, the Russians had the Syrian issue back before the U.N. Assembly, where they hoped to extract a maximum of propaganda mileage from their charges against Turkey. But in one of his best speeches, U.S. Chief Delegate Henry Cabot Lodge launched a biting counterattack that left Gromyko sulking in his chair.

Said Lodge: "Here is a government which has been condemned by the U.N. three times in the past year for its actions in Hungary . . . accusing the overwhelming majority of the human race of wanting war . . . Here is the chronic lawbreaker, not only seeking to be regarded as a good citizen, but actually trying to sit in the judge's seat and sentence the whole law-abiding community to jail. Here is the arsonist, trying his best to start another fire, and demanding the right to lead the fire brigade."

Lodge added a blunt warning: "The U.S. will not be stopped by threats or by defamation from continuing to offer its understanding and support to those nations of the Middle East which are being threatened by the Soviet Union and whose independence the Soviet Union seeks to destroy. Let there be no question about our capacity to offer this support. We are strong and our allies are strong."

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