Spectator's Journal/Projection
Breindel, Eric M.
I n April, as a huge, albeit brief, hue and cry was raised about the use of chemical weapons in the Iran-lraq war, the United States formally asked the Soviet Union to begin talks on a...
...Vote by using the special opinion ballots found in each booklet, and the FPA will make sure our leaders know where you stand...
...Initially, Communists in America and elsewhere turned their backs on the Rosenbergs, two public Party members engaged in espionage and caught red-handed...
...by rejecting mere talks out of hand...
...That Moscow hasn't yet learned, from the West German elections, and from the readily apparent American popular response to the various Soviet "anti-Reagan" initiatives, that the result of such tactics has been to strengthen Reagan (or, previously, Helmut Kohl) is, in and of itself, curious--a noteworthy comment on Soviet perspicacity vis-t)-vis Western electoral politics...
...These would-be skeptics are part of what the Wall Street Journal has aptly termed a "cult of denial," a cult which also embraces those who refuse to recognize the KGB role in the plot to kill the Pope, and some who adamantly resist acknowledging Soviet cheating on existing arms control treaties...
...Still, it remains that Moscow will not endeavor seriously to negotiate a chemical weapons t r e a t y with Washington during the course of this year...
...Great Decisions '84 is a lively briefing that lets you be a political insider...
...A decision was taken to endeavor to focus international scrutiny on the Rosenberg case in New York (hitherto ignored by the Communist movement)--even though the trial was long over...
...Recently, an article in the London Observer purported to provide new evidence, none of which was either logical or compelling...
...But most important with regard to a treaty like that which President Reagan is proposing is that it is sheer folly to expect Moscow to behave as we did in the " e r a " defined by a now infrequently utilized term: d~tente...
...You'll learn about U.S.-Soviet relations, the nuclear arms ~ race, the world debt crisis, and five other vital questions confronting our nation...
...It was possible to see the syndrome at work this past fall, with the shooting down of Korean Air Lines flight 007...
...the base was in use, at that precise moment, for exercises involving state-of-the-art naval vessels, including France's first nuclear attack submarine...
...If this phenomenon is removed from the realm of interpersonal relations, and is applied to world politics, it quickly becomes apparent that the Soviets present a textbook case...
...I t is instructive here to consider a concept in psychology known as "projection...
...In any event, on-site inspection---the only remotely feasible means of policing a ban--is regularly denounced by the Soviets, most recently in May, by the Novosti agency, as a "ploy to gain access to intelligence materials...
...But now, suddenly, due to the crass anti-Semitic show-trial in Prague, the plight of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg had come in handy...
...Immediately following its muchbelated acknowledgement of responsibility for the actual deed, Moscow unleashed a barrage of accusations...
...It is therefore natural to wonder when the Soviets began to do SO...
...President Reagan may not get anywhere with his proposed ban on chemical weapons...
...Save for one thing: In recent years, Soviet defectors have confirmed to Western intelligence that shortly after the Second World War, an entire German chemical weapons factory was transported from the Russian zone of occupation back to the USSR...
...Whatever drove Stalin, by then, apparently, entirely mad, and his henchmen to purge devoted Stalinists, such as Rudolf Siansky and the other Czechs in the dock, is, of course, another matter...
...The United States, according to the Soviet charges, regularly uses commercial airplanes--with civilian passengers on board--for espionage purposes...
...Arguably, the Vice President needn't even have made the trip...
...Jacques Duclos, the leader of the French Communist party, defended the Moscow-orchestrated trial in Prague--noting that the defendants had all confessed--and branded the Rosenberg case "a statesponsored anti-Semitic farce...
...Moscow's noisy rejection of the American ban as proposed is a reminder to us: In this field, the Soviets have the edge...
...The World Peace Council president, Frederick Joliot-Curie, a prominent French Communist and the bearer of a uniquely illustrious name in the Here's your chance to find out what our policy makers know about this year's major foreign policy issues.., and to tell them what you would do if the decisions were in your hands...
...Today, the 1952 propaganda onslaught is all but forgotten...
...The plane seemed to have found itself in absolutely prohibited air space, directly over a highly sensitive French naval base...
...Beyond electoral matters, the Soviets manifest no intention to reverse their traditional opposition to treaty verification by means of "on-site" inspection...
...No evidence in support of these allegations was initially brought forth...
...American officials reasoned that Moscow doesn't want to cede a propaganda advantage to the U.S...
...Not particularly complicated, it involves projecting onto others-attributing or ascribing to them---one's own impulses, motives, and patterns of behavior...
...But the Soviets have been anything but silent...
...The Soviets, it seems clear--from the Olympic boycott to the Geneva missile talks--aren't likely to seek any sort of agreement with Washington this year, regarding chemical weapons or anything else, lest Moscow wind up bolstering President Reagan's reelection chances...
...special session on disarmament in Geneva, his ears still ringing with crass Soviet denunciations of the American plan...
...The Aeroflot jet returned to the USSR before it could be searched for espionage-related equipment...
...To order your copy of Great Decisions '84 now, send your check for $6.70 (includes postage and handling) payable to Foreign Policy Association, Dept...
...They may be projecting...
...This feeler was put out, despite the fact that Vice President Bush had just returned from a 40-nation U.N...
...And Foggy Bottom's assessment was on the mark...
...world of science, took command of the anti-American propaganda campaign...
...Looking back at the KAL 007 case, could it be that the Soviets were "projecting...
...The point, again: The United States was conducting anti-Semitic trials in the early 1950s, at the time of the Slansky trial in Prague and that of Laszlo Raijk and his confederates in Budapest (also a crassly anti-Semitic display...
...Interestingly, senior State Department officials continued to expect an affirmative response to the invitation to enter into discussions...
...Eleven of the fourteen accused are Jews, denounced in court--and in the state-run press--as "rootless Jewish-Zionist cosmopolitans...
...In the past, many men and women of similar disposition refused to accept contemporaneous reports of Stalin's purges, or of Hitler's effort to annihilate European Jewry...
...With regard to chemical weapons, appearing in the form of tiny cannisters, such methods of ensuring compliance are all but useless...
...And just a few months ago--in March--another Aeroflot passenger jet wandered off course, this time in France...
...Soon others, in America and Europe, Party members and fellow travelers, joined the chorus...
...In any event, the international Communist movement recognized the need to divert world attention from the anti-Semitic barbarism taking place in the courtroom in Prague...
...A, 205 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10016 or call 212-48143453 for additional information...
...It should be noted that in the scientific community, there are still a handful of people--a group rapidly decreasing in size--who continue to profess doubt, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that Iranian soldiers (and child-age civilian/ soldiers), Afghan rebels, and Hmong tribesmen in Laos, are all victims of the Soviet-manufactured chemical weapon known as "yellow rain...
...Kenneth L. Adelman, director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, told Congress in late June that Moscow had indeed indicated its willingness to begin negotiations...
...What, after all, are Georgi Arbatov and his USA Eric M. Breindel, a consultant to the Republican National Committee, has written for Commentary, the New Republic, the Wall Street Journal, and other publications...
...I n April, as a huge, albeit brief, hue and cry was raised about the use of chemical weapons in the Iran-lraq war, the United States formally asked the Soviet Union to begin talks on a U.S.proposed plan for a global ban on chemical weapons...
...Institute doing with all their time and KGB money...
...They fact that the judge and prosecuting attorneys were, like the Rosenbergs and their lawyers, also Jews, merely proved the point, according to the analysis of the pro-Communist National Guardian in New York...
...It was so termed by the Hmong due to the yellowish color of the poison gas it creates upon release...
...Once again, not a shred of evidence in support of the "germ warfare" propaganda charges was ever produced...
...The Nazis, too, it was noted, had appointed a Judenrat (or Jewish Council) in each Polish ghetto, and then charged these Judenriite with responsibility for delivering the Jews for "resettlement...
...Aerial photography, radar surveillance--and the various other verification techniques, generally termed, in Pentagon parlance, "national technical means" --are of doubtful efficacy in supervising already-negotiated limitations on missiles, bombers, and other weaponry...
...And "open-invitation" onsite inspection is the essential ingredient in the American plan...
...Why should the Soviets negotiate a ban--and destruction of existing stocks--in a realm of weaponry in which they enjoy undisputed superiority...
...Indeed the silence of "peace groups," "peace candidates," and churches devoted to "disarmament" is--with respect to this issue--truly deafening...
...Some months earlier, Moscow, using a frontgroup still alive and well today--the World Peace Council--accused the U.S...
...For an even clearer example of the phenomenon, go back in history to Prague: November 1952...
...Still, virtually no one denies that Moscow has developed a significant, highly advanced chemical warfare capability...
...Moscow then began, in earnest, to develop a chemical warfare capability --which was probably ready just about the time the "germ warfare" campaign got underway...
...Huge international petitions were gathered...
...Sad to say, KAL 007's diversion from its flight plan appears to have been entirely accidental--a not altogether unusual, rather simple, pilot error...
...Earlier last year, on the other hand, an Aeroflot flight, on an Atlantic route, "strayed" inexplicably over sensitive U.S...
...and, of course, the plot by Jewish physicians (also "exposed" in 1952) to murder Stalin...
...A l l of which leads back to chemical weapons, which first became an issue between Washington and the Soviets at about the same time as the showtrial in Prague--late 1952...
...Former leaders of the Czechoslovak Communist party are suddenly defendants in a Soviet-style "show-trial," charged with treason...
...Published by the Foreign Policy Association, a nonpartisan educational organization, this booklet gives you unique insight into this year's most important issues...
...In addition, the next time they accuse us of some major misdeed, we would do well to remember that they may be telling us something about themselves...
...The official Soviet news agency, Tass, had assailed President Reagan's call for a global ban as a "propaganda t r i c k " - - b e f o r e the specific terms of the proposed treaty were even unveiled...
...naval installations in Connecticut...
...A major concern of the American Communist party, at that precise juncture, the time of the Smith Act trials, was to distance Communism--the political creed--from even the remotest semblance of disloyalty...
...protests were lodged...
...of waging "germ warfare" in Korea...
...Projection...
...An actual treaty, needless to say, is quite another matter...
Vol. 17 • September 1984 • No. 9
