Why Italy Worries About the U.S.
SENIGALLIA, SILVIO F.
FROM GRENADA TO LEBANON Why Italy Worries About the U.S. BY SILVIO F. SENIGALLIA Rome Italian Prime Minister Craxi had just come back from his cozy" Dear Bettino-Dear Ron" visit with President...
...Marines last month...
...Craxi, Andreotti and Defense Minister Giovanni Spadolini are obviously not appeasers...
...After all, he had unhesitatingly supported Washington on the installation of cruise and Pershing II missiles in Sicily, and despite fierce opposition from the Communists (PCI), he had shipped Italian soldiers to bolster the international peacekeeping force in Beirut...
...Craxi had reason to be distressed...
...Lavish praise had been heaped on him at the White House as the sagacious leader of a steadfast ally, but such homage, it became apparent, is cheap...
...They also look upon Reagan's willingness to exercise America's power with far less restraint than his immediate predecessors as a regrettable indication that the lessons of the Vietnam War have been forgotten...
...Anxiety over "our poor boys" has been mounting since the suicide car-bomb that killed over 230 U.S...
...they are committed to the U.S...
...Their soldiers, whether by luck or skill, have so far escaped casualties, but there can be no certainty that they will not be the targets of the next insane act of terrorism...
...forces return home soon, he will easily forget about the whole affair...
...The departure from the Taranto pier of the first units bound for Beirut was marked by sobbing mothers, grandmothers and wives denouncing the inaccuracy of official communiques claiming that only volunteers were being shipped out...
...the Rome daily Repubblica lamented the U.S...
...It was not so much his pride that was hurt as his confidence in the straightforwardness of America's approach to its nato partners...
...Christian Democratic Foreign Minister Giulio Andreotti, who backed Italy's voting in favor of the General Assembly resolution condemning the American invasion (while Great Britain and West Germany abstained...
...Marines still harder, would adversely affect U.S.-Italian relations...
...The primary feeling is one of impotence...
...It was tangible evidence that the Italian government appreciates the gravity of the situation...
...Craxi would then face a difficult dilemma...
...Western Europe is viewed as merely a potential bloc, at present totally incapable of joining together to influence American actions in the international arena...
...The President spoke of gratitude, pride, splendid performance and so on...
...It went on to observe, though, that they might play a much more meaningful role if they were able to form a political and cultural entity not hampered by the squalid squabbles of the European Economic Community...
...He could hardly tell the men that with no way to control the tempestuous violence around them, they find themselves in a hopeless predicament...
...The following week, the Italian ambassador in Moscow was instructed to attend the annual Red Square Revolution Day Parade for the first timesinceSoviet troopsentered Afghanistan in 1979...
...Nonetheless, they reject as dangerously simplistic the notion that a network of terrorism and espionage commanded from Moscow is responsible for all of the world's political unrest...
...muscle-flexing in Grenada...
...The Italian people are neither imperialistic nor militaristic...
...Moreover, should a terrorist strike be directed at the Italian troops, public opinion, fanned by the Communists, would almost surely become stormy and nasty...
...And Reagan's awareness of this weakness, it is believed, allows him to launch such adventures as the one in Grenada without any worry about his allies' disapproval...
...That is, at least, what diplomats and correspondents report from Washington and New York...
...missile deployment if the Kremlin continues in what they see as its adamant refusal to negotiate seriously on arms reduction...
...A second sourceof concern in of ficial Silvio F. Senigallia regularly reports for The New Leader from Italy...
...But if the Prime Minister resolved to stand fast after the death of some of his troops, especially in the light of his treatment in Washington, the decision would be attacked as complete subservience to the U.S...
...and would threaten his fragile coalition government...
...In contrast to the rumblings in the media and the government, however, the Italian man-in-the-street took Grenada in stride...
...In short, at this point it is certainly not only the Communists who complain that the notion of restoring order to Lebanon through the presence of European and American troops was empty from the outset...
...Regardless of how unwise the original commitment was, most people seem to feel, a precipitous pullout would reward the terrorists, whoever they are and whatever they want...
...There is powerful sentiment, on the other hand, in favor of quick, concerted diplomatic action to facilitate the phasing-out of the multinational force -hence Andreotti's recent trip to Damascus...
...For a unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon, making the task of the U.S...
...The Socialist Prime Minister's irritation was shared by strongly pro-U.S...
...Nor is he much alarmed by allegations that international law has been violated...
...A Rome newspaper that reflects the views of Craxi's Socialist Party, Mes-saggero, praised the "autonomous criticism of Western Europe's credible allies...
...It is a Mediterranean country, and a fairly large Italian contingent is serving there in a multinational force whose proclaimed aim is to keep the peace until the various battling factions can achieve some sort of reconciliation...
...BY SILVIO F. SENIGALLIA Rome Italian Prime Minister Craxi had just come back from his cozy" Dear Bettino-Dear Ron" visit with President Reagan in Washington when he learned about the U.S...
...Given the persistent fighting that appears to lack any visible logic or strategy, and involves a minimum of 16 separate Lebanese militias, Italians consider the peacekeeping mission both impossible and highly perilous...
...Trap" is the recurrent word in the press, which has been particularly fearful of late about the possibility of a new clash between Syrian and Israeli forces...
...If the U.S...
...He probably does not know where the fly-speck island is, and does not care so long as the ruckus stays several thousand miles away from the Italian coastline...
...circles is the growing conviction that opposition in the United States to Reagan's "firmness" is limited to a few prominent newspapers read mostly by East Coast liberals, with the average American strongly supporting his Chief Executive...
...President's evident belief that "the security of the United States requires the 'symbolic' use of force to give credibility to the purposes of political firmness...
...Lebanon, though, is an altogether different kettle of fish...
...Yet oddly enough, barring the PCI, there is no pressure for an immediate Italian withdrawal from Beirut...
...Press commentary on Grenada has similarly decried the Reagan Administration's flagrant disregard of the nato governments...
...In a typical editorial entitled "And the Wound Will Remain...
...President of the Republic Sandra Pertini's visit to the troops in Beirut on Armed Forces Day, November4, was far from the kind of formality that ordinarily fills the days of this country's constitutional chief of state...
...Bitter and apprehensive government officials here tend to agree...
...He was not amused...
...Actually, he had been carefully kept in the dark at a time when a major decision was being taken...
...Finally, both politicians and professional observers worry that the Grenada episode, and the world view it reflects, can only further the already severe deterioration of relations between the United States and the Soviet Union...
Vol. 66 • November 1983 • No. 22
