Ford in Russia's Future?

Amid an air of mystery, Henry Ford II arrived in Moscow last week with an impressive entourage--several Ford Motor executives, his wife Christina and daughter Charlotte Ford Niarchos. They were greeted and feted in a way that would have pleased a Czar. The Soviets put the party up in mansions and rolled out an 80-passenger jet to fly the Fords privately to Leningrad. Most of the time, however, while the smashingly dressed women turned Russian heads on sightseeing tours, Ford closeted himself with high Soviet officials for talks held ostensibly "to discuss East-West trade." In fact, the Communists, their economy in trouble, want Ford's help in building trucks and perhaps cars.

Memories of Model A. Henry Ford would like to break into the small but growing Communist automotive market. His company's subsidiaries in Europe already sell cars and trucks to Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Poland, Rumania and Bulgaria. For their part, the Russians need more Western help in developing their car-and-truck industry. Fiat is putting up a huge auto plant in the Soviet city of Togliatti--which Ford toured last week--but production is two years behind schedule.

The Russians still remember the life-saving performance of the 362,000 American trucks that they received during World War II under Lend-Lease. Oldtimers also recall that in 1930, under the original Henry Ford, the company helped the Soviets build a plant that for a while turned out the Model A. The Soviets now are getting ready to build a $2.2 billion automotive plant in the Tatar Republic between Moscow and the Urals; they say that it may become the world's largest truck factory (the biggest so far was opened by Ford Motor last August in Louisville). The Russians previously had approached Sweden's Volvo and West Germany's Daimler-Benz for assistance. It is believed that they asked Ford last week to help build at least part of the Tatar plant-possibly an assembly line or two.

Politically Touchy. Ford Motor executives checked in advance with State and Commerce Department officials to see if they had any objections to the boss's mission to Moscow. The reply was that he might as well see what the Russians would propose. Some U.S. industrialists have heard that President Nixon's foreign policy advisers are split on whether to approve any deal unless Moscow also makes some political concessions. The Soviet troops that invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968 were so short of trucks that they had to press some milk trucks from Kiev into service. Despite that shortage, the Russians have been sending some trucks to North Viet Nam. If Henry Ford comes back home with a proposed deal, Washington's reaction will be an important litmus of just how willing the U.S. is to liberalize trade with the East.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.