Editorial / French Socialism At Work
Tyrrell, R. Emmett Jr.
E D I T a R I A L : FRENCH SOCIALISM AT WORK l It this very moment, somewhere exploiters carrying off the wealth of in France, you can be sure that Pres- France. 'dent Francois Mitterrand has...
...etJ 1 wonder what the optimists thought when one of Dr...
...dent Francois Mitterrand has his What is the reason for this radical mind on a cemetery...
...the French social ists are simply complying with the actually making one of his lugubrious processions through one, Possibly he is just returning from one...
...Mitterrand were nor lost in the socialist legend, he would see that France already is a powerful industrial nation...
...Gelb's exclusive characterization of the man...
...Mitterrand was elected president of France in May optimists on both sides of the Atlantic have been assuring us that there would be only modest reforms...
...glorious legend of French socialism...
...Here are some of the attributions in the story: "Diplomats from Eastern and Western Europe," "Soviet officials," "diplomats here and private visitors to Moscow," "Administration officials who specialize in Soviet affairs," "non governmental experts," "Soviet experts" (meaning "expert Soviets" I wonder...
...Is the French economy undergoing a staggering crisis...
...But the socialists always want to play Robin Hood to the yokels...
...Lost in the romance and fantasy of French socialism, Dr...
...This of course is understandable...
...Ever since Dr...
...Its rate of GNP growth has been nearly twice that of the United States...
...as with so many converts Mitterrand will be fervent and dogmatic...
...For them reality is an inconvenience: ignored when they are our of power, rendered illegal when they attain it and their whoopwhoop is actually put to the test...
...Gelb is one of those people who have been circulating about Washington for years, moving in and out of government as the opportunity arises or the vagaries of electoral politics dictate...
...Vast nationalization projects...
...The Times always calls him a leader...
...For over a decade the growth of its gross national product has outpaced that of West Germany...
...They will give them the good things of life: free medical care, free counseling, lots of therapists and leisure-all the necessities of modernity...
...This property does not belong to the government, and the government has no right to rake it over or to force shareholders to sell it...
...Mitterrand's first gestures from the Elysee Palace was to send a letter of camaraderie to Dr...
...cannot be justified on moral grounds...
...The story managed to convey a sense of Soviet distaste for the Reagan administration's foreign policy...
...Not from the anti-Soviet Mitterrand...
...Well if Dr...
...That the French socialists would be like this should have been expected...
...They are succoring the woebegone proletariat...
...predicted moderation from Mitterrand, Wajsman says, have ignored that Dr...
...then on again to the State Department under Cyrus Vance, and from there to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and then back again to the Neu York Times...
...His position may be said to be anti-anti Communist...
...Not at all...
...Along with the socialist paradise there invariably follows inflation, economic stagnation, and the diminution of freedom as erstwhile harmless liberties begin to clash with the noble causes of the welfare state...
...Moreover, even if he yearned to be sober, sobriety would not be possible...
...They are smiting the wicked capitalists...
...But Gelb also managed to convey the idea that he shared in this distaste...
...Mitterrand is a late convert to socialism...
...It is simply There, one of the great unalterable facts of life, as it were a great historical, inevitable Force-implacable and dangerous, very dangerous to oppose (as we found in Vietnam...
...some diplomats," "Soviet officials and diplomats," "other experts," and "a number of Administration officials.'' We also hear from Professor Seweryn Bialer of Columbia University, and former Kissinger aide Helmut Sonnenfeldt, who have a number of comments directly or indirectly attributed to them...
...They are turning the franc into confetti...
...foreign policy positions are going to be congenial to him, they must first of all be congenial to the Kremlin...
...Castro...
...his pen ever at the ready, turning out a stream of articles about the "diverse realities," the complexities, and sometimes even the simplicities (on the Right) of foreign policy and diplomacy, and usually managing to convey the impressionwithout of course ever saying any such thing-that if U.S...
...Mitterrand's The optimists who so wrongly have new economic program...
...As with other Gelb stories, the first Tom Bethell, The American Spectator's Washington correspondent, holds the DeWitt Wallace Chair in Communications at the American Enterprise Institute...
...As far as I can detect, Communism in Gelbese is something that is neither characterized nor deplored...
...Mitterrand speaks fondly of his intention to wrest France from the capitalists and to turn it into, as he says, "a powerful industrial nation...
...Unfortunately, however, one cannot play at being Robin Hood without becoming a thief, and though President Mitterrand promises only to steal from the rich, anyone familiar with the dynamics of socialism knows that in time the socialist government will begin stealing from the middle class too, and even from the poor...
...Let us take a look at Gelb's most recent effort-an article published on by Tom Bethell July 27 on the front page of the New York Times under the headline: "Soviet Is Said To Wait And Watch As Reagan's Policies Take Shape...
...Then too he could be closeted with aides, receiving a briefing on which cemeteries are to be visited tomorrow, which legendary eminences of French socialism remain to be solemnized and wept over...
...His party abounds with dogmatists lost in the lore and the abstractions of their great cause...
...It has one of the world's most vibrant, balanced, and resilient economies right now...
...Had Gelb called Brezhnev "the Soviet dictator" his editors undoubtedly would have changed it back to "leader," no THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 1981 5...
...E D I T a R I A L : FRENCH SOCIALISM AT WORK l It this very moment, somewhere exploiters carrying off the wealth of in France, you can be sure that Pres- France...
...Lovey-dovey approaches to Dr...
...thing you notice is that it is terribly difficult to tell (except for a couple of brief interludes of explicitness) whose opinions are being quoted and whether or not these are the opinions of people who have the best interest of the United States at heart...
...As with all ideologues-left or right --they dwell in a realm filled with lore and legend...
...In foreign policy and in domestic policy, the French government is going to pursue the absurd...
...Castro's island prison camp, and what their thoughts were after last month's speech by the Socialist Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy to the National Assembly...
...The Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev" also puts in a dignified appearance-we learn that he "continues to let it be known that he would be prepared to meet with Mr...
...Perhaps he is' economic program...
...moving from the Department of Defense to the Brookings Institution (he was one of the authors of the Pentagon Papers), to the New York Times...
...what has been ignored in all the commentary over the new French 4 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 1981 government is the nature of Francois of socialist economic and foreign Mitterrand and of French socialism, policy delusions will mean disaster From Paris last month Patrick Wajs- for France and great problems for the man, the brilliant columnist for Western alliance.' Figaro, scoffed at Dr...
...C A P I T O L I D E A S ANOTHER VENTRILOQUIST'S DOLL For the student of rhetoric, it is always a pleasure to come across one of Leslie Gelb's articles on the front page of the New York Times...
...Moreover, its present inflation and unemployment remain relatively low by world standards...
...Wajsman, who also edits the respected foreign policy quarterly Politique Internattonale, believes that the combination 'See Wajsman's "Surviving Together," published as the European Document in the February 1981 American .Spectator...
...Wajsman calls the new regime the Republic of Professors, and last month's economic message made his pessimism more credible than the blab of the optimists...
...Of course the nationalization of banks and publicly held corporations by R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr...
...There on July S he outlined President Mitterrand's plan to conjure out of mere nothingness 210,000 jobs, to tax enterprise until it how's, and to nationalize major French corporations-treating them as though they were foreign Adapted from RET's weekly column syndicated by King Features...
...Mitterr and is not so foolish...
...Nor is the nationalization of French industry economically justified...
...Reagan at any time"-but this is hardly Mr...
Vol. 14 • September 1981 • No. 9
