THE TASK IS EASIER

Until recently, few democratic nations other than the U.S. have provided elaborate security arrangements for heads of state and government, and most still do not. The fashion of "pressing the flesh" U.S.-style has spread to other countries. But the traditional reserve and respect toward leaders in cultures older than that of the U.S. still often hold sway, as do moral and social restraints on aberrant individual behavior. Besides, foreign laws' often permit authorities to be tougher, locking suspects up arbitrarily when they think trouble may be brewing.

When an assassination attempt is made, it is usually the work of a dissident political faction and not the outburst of a sociopath. In Greece, for example, where political passions still foam fiercely in the wake of the restoration of democracy after seven years of military rule, at least five times last fall Prime Minister Constantine Caramanlis moved out of his official residence onto a yacht that was never anchored in the same harbor for more than one night. It was suspected that plotters out to restore another right-wing dictatorship were trying to kill him. Authoritarian regimes are no proof against violence. Political terrorists in Spain dynamited a car carrying Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco in 1973, killing him, and only painstaking security has permitted General Francisco Franco to reach his 82nd year. Franco always rides in bulletproof cars along unannounced routes at top speed. During his rare public appearances, the security guards sometimes outnumber the audience.

The Communist countries of Eastern Europe as well as the Soviet Union keep their leaders' public appearances to a minimum--and at a safe removal from uncontrolled crowds. When leaders do mix with the masses, they are surrounded by obviously armed bodyguards. The carefully screened crowds are usually made up of selected party and government workers. But assassination attempts are not unknown. In January 1969 a Soviet army lieutenant disguised as a policeman opened fire on Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev as he was being driven to the Kremlin. Brezhnev escaped unharmed, and the would-be assassin was declared deranged and confined to a mental ward.

In small and tranquilly homogeneous nations like Sweden and Austria, life for leaders can still be uncomplicated. Sweden has only one bulletproof limousine, and it is trundled out only when controversial foreign dignitaries pay a visit. One or two plainclothesmen are assigned to Prime Minister Olof Palme on his sojourns about the country, and King Carl XVI Gustaf often goes about his duties with only one security man at his side. Austria's Chancellor Bruno Kreisky has grudgingly permitted one security man to accompany him during his current re-election campaign.

In no major free nation, even where the problem of political dissidence is serious, are handguns as readily obtainable as in the U.S.--one explanation for the relatively lax security arrangements of many nations. Regulations of ownership and licensing tend to be strict. In four of the largest democratic nations, defenses against rash acts of violence vary.

GREAT BRITAIN. In a nation where the Prime Minister is open to public exposure whenever he debates in Parliament, the attitude toward security remains low-key, if cautious. The Special Branch of Scotland Yard provides one plainclothes security officer for the Prime Minister and each member of the royal family. Similar protection is available to any Cabinet officer and to the leader of the opposition party. Travel routes within the country are never announced in advance, except for walkabouts during campaigns or royal processions, and in those instances unarmed local police officers augment a small, discreetly armed security force.

After an abortive attempt to kidnap Princess Anne last year, bulletproof limousine windows and armed drivers were urged upon the royal family--and quietly turned down. Northern Ireland, which seethes with religious civil war, presents the major security nightmare. No member of the royal family has visited the province since 1966, and on the rare occasions when a Prime Minister or Cabinet officer travels to Ulster, security is essentially military, provided by legions of armed, uniformed troops.

FRANCE. When Charles de Gaulle survived one of the most spectacularly bungled of the 30 assassination attempts made against him during the Algerian war, he swept aside the question of his security with his customary biting imperiousness: "There is no point in taking special precautions when those who want to kill me are as incompetent as those who are supposed to protect me."

President Valery Giscard d'Estaing shuns a large security force, once walked a foreign visitor back to his hotel late at night, and enjoys driving himself about in his silver Peugeot 504 with a car of security men in tow. He has of late given up an initial penchant for trying to lose the back-up car in the whirls of Paris traffic. On routine trips into the countryside, four or five agents of the Service of Official Trips accompany the President, a force that grows to 25 when he is confronted with large holiday crowds. As in most European countries, local forces are expected to provide additional security forces as needed. At Elysee Palace, a small unit of seven to nine men guard the gate, while the rest of the palace is watched over by a dozen or so city policemen. Files are kept on potential assassins and all threats are investigated, but, says one senior ministry official with a shrug, "The danger here, like everywhere, is the nut--and that we can't protect against."

WEST GERMANY. The greatest fear at the moment in Bonn comes not from assassins but anarchist-terrorist bands of kidnapers, who might try to spirit off Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. Both Schmidt and senior Cabinet officers could be held for release of some of the more than 100 hard-core anarchists in prison around the country. To prevent that from happening, a special security group provides 300 bodyguards for leading federal officials, their offices and homes. Trained in the use of firearms and hand-to-hand combat as well as criminal psychology and identification, officers sit outside the door to Schmidt's office, precede and follow his car in security vehicles, and see that he travels frequently by helicopter, making security considerably easier.

JAPAN. Where the traditional greeting is a bow rather than physical contact, politicians maintain almost total aloofness. During election tours, the Prime Minister and other leaders are constantly surrounded by police, making their open-air speeches from sound trucks and never mixing with the crowd. They wave to the crowds from inside, and when a stop is made, a corridor of police forms for the politician to move from vehicle to building. Breaking through such lines to shake hands is all but unheard of.

At the public funeral for former Prime Minister Eisaku Sato in June of this year, a right-wing extremist slipped through the lines and punched Prime Minister Takeo Miki in the face, knocking him down. That prompted formation of a new security force modeled on the U.S. Secret Service and made up of crack recruits trained in judo, marksmanship and detection of movement within a 90 vision field. The greatest threat of violence in recent years has come from new-left radicals, some 6,000 of whom have vowed to stop Emperor Hirohito from boarding his plane this week for a state visit to the U.S. Japanese officials will station 19,000 police at the airport to see that the departure goes as planned.

Many leaders tend to be fatalistic.

There have been at least four attempts on the life of Cyprus President Archbishop Makarios since 1970; and prior to the coup that temporarily ousted him in July of last year, he increased his security force dramatically. But since his return from exile last December, he has reduced the force, and continues his prelate's practice of permitting any member of a crowd to kiss his hand--while nervous security men look on. "He puts more faith in God for his protection than in men," says one resigned senior bodyguard. "And so far his survival record has proved him right."

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