Sparring for Positions

Charles de Gaulle and his 14 North Atlantic Treaty Organization "partners" were still sparring for positions before the bargaining sessions begin over the timetable for the withdrawal of NATO forces from France and France's future logistical arrangements with the Atlantic Alliance.

As usual, the French President last week got in the sharpest jabs. In answer to West Germany's insistence that France may keep its 27,000 troops and airmen in Germany only if they accept a role in common-defense planning, De Gaulle had his Secretary of Information pass the word that "France does not want to keep her troops in Germany anyhow." Actually, France does--if for no other reason than the prestige of maintaining a watch east of the Rhine. What concessions De Gaulle might make in exchange were still an open question. But it was clear that he was preparing a hard bargain to ensure France's continued access to NATO's early-warning radar system. His bargaining point: a threat to close French air space to NATO flights.

Civil Side. There was also the question of where NATO's military and political headquarters should be located. The French, blithely explaining that they plan to withdraw only from the military side of the Alliance, would like the NATO Council to remain in Paris. Some members agree, hoping that leaving the civil side of NATO in Paris would make it easier for France to rejoin the military side at some later date. But the British have not given up hope of getting the Council moved to London.

Not surprisingly, the Soviets thought they saw in the shadow-boxing an opportunity to score a major diplomatic victory. De Gaulle is due in Moscow in June, and a report raced through Eastern European capitals last week that the Soviets intended to call a major conference of their satellites after De Gaulle leaves, in order to plan a joint diplomatic offensive against Western Europe. Obviously the Russians would like to use De Gaulle's abiding fear of a resurgent Germany and his desire to banish Anglo-Saxon influence from the Continent to achieve the old goals of Soviet policy: 1) a settlement in Central Europe along lines of a neutralized, disarmed Germany, and 2) withdrawal of the U.S. from Europe. Complains Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko: "The United States believes for some reason or other that Europe cannot do without its presence and trusteeship. But the people of Europe have and will yet have their say on this score."

Eastern Hopes. Maybe so. But the people who were happy last week about the new Soviet diplomatic offensive were not the Western Europeans but rather the Eastern Europeans. The reason was not at all flattering to the Russians. The main thing that the people of the East saw in a relaxation of tensions between East and West was a mutual pullback of U.S. and Soviet troops from Central Europe that would rid their countries for the first time in 21 years of the unwanted presence of the Red army.

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