Talking to the P.L.O.

In September 1975, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger officially pledged that the U.S. would not recognize or negotiate with the Palestine Liberation Organization until it affirmed Israel's right to exist. While both Ford and Carter Administrations have professed to uphold that pledge, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance is reported to have privately called it "that damned agreement," and interpretations of its exact meaning can vary. Some encounters, direct and indirect between U.S. officials and the P.L.O.:

> U.S. diplomats in Beirut repeatedly met P.L.O. representatives during the Lebanese civil war in 1976, which was considered an extenuating circumstance because American lives were endangered. Kissinger even sent a message of thanks to the P.L.O. for its help in evacuating Americans.

> Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud met P.L.O. officials in June 1977 and urged them to accept a U.N. resolution that would accept Israel's right to exist and also call for a Palestinian homeland. Prince Saud said he was acting at the suggestion of Vance. The P.L.O. rejected the proposal.

> In November 1978, Congressman Paul Findley, an Illinois Republican and a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, carried a message from Carter to a meeting with P.L.O. Chief Yasser Arafat in Damascus. Arafat told him that the P.L.O. would pledge nonviolence if an independent Palestinian state were created in the West Bank and Gaza with a connecting corridor.

> Late this spring, U.S. Ambassador to Austria Milton Wolf met the P.L.O. 's Issam Sartawi at an Austrian government reception, then at an Arab embassy cocktail party. Wolf acted under instructions from Washington to make Sartawi's acquaintance but not to discuss anything substantive. In mid-July, around the time Arafat came to see Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky and former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, Wolf joined Sartawi for a serious meeting on an undisclosed subject. The State Department said last week that Wolf had been officially "reminded" of the U.S. policy against negotiating with the P.L.O., but a U.S. diplomat in Europe said Wolf had been acting on instructions from Washington.

>For the past month, U.S. Ambassador Robert Strauss has been having talks with several Palestinians living in the U.S. Chief among these was Columbia English Professor Edward Said, who was recently in Beirut for a meeting with Arafat.

> Last week, a five-man delegation led by former Attorney General Ramsey Clark met with Arafat in Beirut, saw Palestinian refugee camps, and visited sites of Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon. The visit had been arranged by Congressman Findley.

Indeed, one thing certain about Andy Young's secret meeting with a P.L.O. official is that it was hardly an innovation.

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