A Counterpoint to cooperation

Some notes of discord and dissent could be heard amid the music of detente emanating from Washington and Moscow on the eve of the Apollo-Soyuz spectacular. As his six-week-long orbit of the U.S. continued last week, Russian Author Alexander Solzhenitsyn once again voiced his fears about hidden dangers in Soviet-American cooperation.

The occasion was an AFL-CIO banquet in Manhattan. As the celebrated exile prepared to speak, a dance band hired for the occasion tootled La Vie en Rose. Then Solzhenitsyn stood up. He appealed to Washington not to allow Moscow greater access to American technology, arguing that it will only strengthen Soviet military power. He ridiculed those who say that detente is necessary if the world is to avoid atomic holocaust: "I can set your minds at ease. There will be no nuclear war. Why do the Soviets need war when they can break off nation after nation, piece by piece, from the West?"

Solzhenitsyn's passionately stated doubts about detente are clearly being heard in the Administration. Two weeks ago, the mere suggestion by a conservative Senator that President Ford should meet the Nobel-prizewinning novelist was enough to throw the White House into a tizzy. The National Security Council solemnly advised against a presidential invitation, on grounds that Moscow would take offense. White House staffers subsequently passed the word that there would be no meeting because the author was just crassly promoting his books. Other aides suggested that Solzhenitsyn was "emotionally unstable." Washington Post Columnist George F. Will argued indignantly that detente had given Soviet Party Chief Leonid Brezhnev "veto power over the appointments calendar of the President." But last Saturday White House sources reported that Ford had changed his mind and was willing to meet with Solzhenitsyn. They stressed, however, that this did not mean an official endorsement of his views.

Solzhenitsyn has seemed to be delighted by his tour, which has so far brought him through Alaska, California,

Oregon, several Midwest states and Washington and New York City. As one of his companions tells it, Solzhenitsyn is "in love" with the country and overwhelmed by its vitality. Americans, he believes, have not grasped the extent of their own untapped strength. Visiting the reconstructed colonial town of Williamsburg, Va., the author signed a guest book, adding: "With great respect and admiration for the tradition here preserved ... Woe to those nations that cut off those traditions by severing them with an ax."

As it happens, when the Apollo and Soyuz spacemen blast off on Tuesday, Solzhenitsyn will be the guest of honor at a reception given by 24 Senators. In his speech, Solzhenitsyn plans to talk about his first impressions of America. Mindful of the Bicentennial, he may well repeat an observation he made in New York: "I was born a slave while you were born free. Why do you then help our slaveowners?" The timing of Solzhenitsyn's Senate appearance is pure coincidence, but it will stand as one man's dissent to the show going on the same day at Cape Canaveral and Baikonur.

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