Marketing America in Europe

...The project was nothing spectacular or ominous...

...So that brouhaha soon fizzled out as well...

...Angry charges of European to a dying to the Soviets prompted counter charges of American financial bullying...

...policies and the constant criticism of Washington's attitudes cannot disguise a fundamental truth: Western Europe has no option besides the alliance, with America as the acknowledged senior partner...

...Europeans do not really think the United States is bent on pushing the Soviet Union into a corner from which war would be the only escape...

...Too often, they feel, the U.S...

...The Secretary had barely sat down at the nato foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels, intent on dazzling his colleagues with the calm savoir-faire for which he is suddenly world famous, when the Washington correspondent of the London Guardian rocked the boat...

...Then several government spokesmen here publicly recalled that American intelligence and hardware had been very helpful to the British during their Falklands adventure, and that as a result Washington had to worry about patching up relations with Latin America...

...One London newspaper columnist accounted for the blind spot by saying, "It's more fun chiding the Americans...

...Rather, it is because the U.S...

...military umbrella, for all that some Europeans find it overprotective and even intimidating, is still the only one they have...

...The pattern is familiar...

...James some years ago, he told Queen Elizabeth in front of TV cameras that the ambassadorial residence was untidy because of "elements of refurbishment...

...The circumlocution provoked much mirth in England...

...In sum, the recurring bouts of nervousness about U.S...

...Today, America's image among its allies could use some fixing up, too...

...Selling America" to its allies should not be a difficult task...

...The base would simply be a fallback position in case one was ever needed, not a replacement...

...provides a stability to East-West relations that would be dangerously lacking without its presence...

...isauthorofTheBritish, recently published by Everest House...

...ging persistence of such discussions has made it clear by now that an element of tension is virtually built into the relationship between the United States and Western Europe...

...But that ado also was settled amicably, and in a way that seemed to lend greater coherence to Western attitudes toward trading with the USSR...

...Otherwise, warned the Times, the cohesion of nato might be endangered...

...The European Community was supposed to develop into a politically united, economically strong, militarily independent entity, capable of standing on an equal footing with the superpowers...

...As the foreign editor of the London Financial Times observed recently, "Most people in the West earnestly desire American leadership...

...When that happens, questions will again be asked about thedurability of the alliance...

...Sober European journals gravely debated whether basic transatlantic interests were really the same in the long run...

...The fuss over the command center, quiet for the moment, will no doubt revive as the British Peace Movement steps up its campaign to block the stationing of cruise missiles on British soil in the coming months...

...Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher called the American vote "incomprehensible"-tough talk from President Ronald Reagan's closest friend in Europe...

...The disagreements can turn nasty, as several over the last year have demonstrated...

...Left-wing Labor Party MP David Winnick declared that the report would intensify his faction's campaign to remove American nuclear bases from Britain...

...The flap was a great nuisance, for after the turbulent tenure of General Alexander M. Haig Jr., Shultz' acceptance of the top post at Foggy Bottom has been almost as well received in Western Europe as in the White House...

...and its allies on a variety of issues, ranging from how to deal with the USSR to how not to deal with the world's current economic troubles...

...When Walter Annenberg was U.S...

...Some officials privately described his dispatch less charitably...

...To reassure West Germans that the U nited States was not about to concede any of their territory to the Russians, war or no war, and to soothe rattled nerves in other Western capitals, Shultz asserted flatly, "The command center remains where it is...

...Other newspapers wrote of deteriorating British trust in the Atlantic Alliance...

...To a large extent this is due to the differing views of the U.S...

...In fact, the nagNorman Gelb, the NL'.v London cor-correspondent...

...Many Europeans who accept the existing situation and are reassured by the alliance regret that America does not project a more agreeable personality...

...No less striking is the complacency of some West Europeans about the Soviet SS-20 dense pack in East Germany aimed at them, and their simultaneous dismay at the prospect of having American cruise missiles based on the allied side of the East-West divide...

...IMAGE TROUBLE Marketing America in Europe by norman gelb London No sooner had George P. Shultz begun his maiden tour of European countries as Secretary of State earlier this month than a new imbroglio ruffled the Western alliance...

...needlessly winds up coming across as a hectoring Big Brother...

...This is not because of admiration for things American...

...Similarly, the U.S...

...ability to handle the world's problems wisely...

...The London Times, while seeing nothing untoward in the establishment of a backup command base, nevertheless scolded: "It is necessary for the United States to explain with the utmost care, and as much detail as security will permit, precisely what their [sic] thinking is...

...The row set off by American penalties on European companies helping to supply equipment for the Soviet gas pipeline was bitter, too...

...Her discontent was echoed in a London Sunday Telegraph poll showing that 69 per cent of the English population had little, very little or no confidence in U .S...

...The steel controversy was nonetheless resolved through negotiation, ultimately reflecting the profound links between the allies' economies...

...The ham-fisted failure of the American government to put across its policies persuasively is a more likely explanation...

...One was the snarling dispute between America and West European steel producers over importing subsidized steel...

...A nation that glories in its public relations skills, that has seen some of its best brains turn advertising into a massive industry capable of selling people what they didn't know they wanted, ought to be able to do a better job of bolstering confidence in its reliability...

...The British were furious when the United States recently backed a pro-Argentine UN resolution for reopening talks on the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands...

...Washington must take some of the blame for the present combination of fear and annoyance in Western Europe...

...Denials came thick and fast...

...It hasn't come close to that goal, and won't in the foreseeable future...

...A sign that deep down Western Europeans know this, and worry about it, appears whenever the most obscure American congressman on a vote-catching meander through his district hints that U.S...

...It is indeed remarkable that a contingency plan for thedefense of Europe required apologies and reassurances from Washington when at bottom the plan disclosed how profound America's commitment to its friends is...

...troops might be withdrawn from Germany to save money: Instantly there follows a spate of fretting in nato countries about American reliability...

...Ask any European pundit about his country's chances for emerging from the present economic gloom, and he will automatically refer to the American economy as a guide to what lies ahead...

...Accurate or not, the story was an embarrassment to the American, British and West German governments as well as grist for advocates of unilateral disarmament...

...In a four-column lead story labeled "exclusive," the correspondent reported: "The Reagan Administration, apparently convinced that nato forces will not be able to hold West Germany in a European war, has ordered the Pentagon to move its European headquarters from Stuttgart to Britain within four years...

...It was pointed out that although America did indeed plan to build a command base in Britain, the Guardian's man had misunderstood its purpose...

...Ambassador to the Court of St...

...No storms from the East may be threatening at the moment, but the international weather remains distinctly uncertain...