The Lesson of Romania

...Yet on the other, the Romanian regime's repressiveness at home-intense even by Communist standards-certainly appears to justify the President's decision to cease lending it indirect economic support...

...It seemed pragmatic and sensible to do our utmost to bolster Bucharest's "defection"and, indeed, this was a logical extension of the course pursued with respect to Yugoslavia in the late '40s and '50s...

...No Soviet troops have been stationed in the country since 1957...

...The overall tone was one of being proud to represent a Latin, Western island in a "sea of Slavs...

...The first sign of a warming association between the two countries was given in August 1968, when the Soviets marched into Czechoslovakia...

...There is a certain irony in the fact that Ronald Reagan, an unabashed hard-liner where the USSR is concerned, was the one to finally punish a country that is in its own way no less anti-Soviet...

...The notion that Washington should be open to the possibility of improving relations with Warsaw Pact nations on an individual basis, rather than treating the alliance as a monolithic, antagonistic whole was first officially promulgated by Lyndon B. Johnson in his 1964 "bridge-building" speech...

...Thus the paradox that in evaluating Eastern European countries solely by their ostensible willingness to stand up to the Kremlin, we actually were perpetuating the rather primitive approach that had earlier held us to the self-defeating doctrine of automatically treating most of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union as a unified bloc...

...For on the one hand, the extension of MFN privileges to Bucharest in the mid-1970s seemed a well-merited reward for a foreign policy that has long been the most independent in the Soviet bloc...

...In the early years of his rule, Ceausescu displayed his heretical bent by maintaining diplomatic relations with Israel following the June 1967 War, as well as by successfully resisting pressure to hold Warsaw Pact maneuvers on Romanian soil...

...Still, the President's move has added a sense of reality to a somewhat mono-maniacal Eastern European policy...

...Most recently, Bucharest has defied Moscow by abstaining on the UN General Assembly resolution condemning the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (all the other satellites opposed it), and-more sharply still by withholding recognition from the Vietnamese-sponsored Heng Samrin regime in Cambodia...

...Nevertheless, Ceausescu-who all along denounced such conditions as an "unacceptable" interference in Romania's domestic affairs-last November imposed a new "education tax" on would-be emigrants: $4,000-$5,000 in hard currency for each year of higher education they received in Romania...

...revised official versions of the events of World War II stressed the role Romanians themselves had played in driving out the Nazis...

...When Treasury Secretary W. Michael Blumenthal visited Bucharest in 1978 to convey continued approval of its international positions, the regime had lately renewed its persecution of ethnic Hungarians living in Romania, cut back substantially on Jewish emigration, and begun a program of imprisoning major religious figures...

...President Johnson warned Moscow to go no further in letting loose "the dogs of war" in Eastern Europe, a none-too-obscure reference to rumors that another police action was in the works against deviant Romania...

...Simultaneously, a strong new nationalist emphasis became evident in the Romanian Party line: The teaching of Russian was downplayed in the schools...

...This, in Washington's eyes, was the last straw, and the tariff privileges were withdrawn...

...The consequences for Romania will not be minor: It stands to lose some $200 million a year-half its export business to the U.S.-at a time when it is desperately struggling to repay a heavy foreign debt to Western nations...

...Romania's present leader, Nicolae Ceausescu, expanded these initiatives after Gheorgiu-Dej's death in 1965, and has been playing a cautiously maverick role ever since...

...Gerald R. Ford returned the courtesy in mid-1975, and it was then.that the granting of MFN status was declared...

...The country's Baptist and other minority Protestant sects have traditionally been a favorite target for harassment...

...By the end of the decade, Romania was sending about 4 per cent of its exports to the United States, only slightly less than Yugoslavia and Poland, the countries that led Eastern Europe in trading with the U.S...

...They also declined to back Moscow in its increasingly vituperative quarrel with the People's Republic of China...

...Ceausescu came to Washington four times during the '70s...

...The Romanians refused to be integrated into comecon , the Eastern equivalent of the Common Market, according to a Kremlin plan that would have relegated them to supplying agricultural and other primary products to their more industrialized neighbors...

...Because Ceausescu's rule has grown more severe over the years, an especially blind eye was required of the Carter Administration in maintaining Romanian-American ties...

...Even before Reagan took office, Romania was already in danger of being charged with violating the Jackson-Vanik Amendment to the Trade Act of 1974, which requires the Administration to assure Congress that a country seeking MFN status does not have any arbitrary restrictions against the emigration of its citizens (the reason the designation has never been extended to the Soviet Union, the original target of the legislation...

...and heroes who had unified the Romanian nation in past centuries were resurrected-including the notorious Prince Vlad, the alleged model for the Dracula legend...

...American exports to Romania, meanwhile, exceeded $500 million annually...

...Romania emerged almost immediately as an inviting initial target of the new policy, because about that time Bucharest Party Leader Georghe Gheorghiu-Dej began broadcasting his differences with the Soviet Union on a range of issues...

...At the same time the MFN classification was bestowed on Romania, however, it was denied to Hungary, a state demonstrably more liberal at home, but acquiescent to Moscow's wishes in the world arena...

...Evidently it was Ceausescu's increasing determination to block emigration that convinced President Reagan and his advisers to give up any pretense about Romania's internal policies...

...The United States has of course appreciated Romania's spunky behavior...

...During the '70s, Romania acted with a great deal of autonomy at the negotiations on the Helsinki Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, and again at the subsequent review conference in Belgrade...

...Johnson was responding to pressures that had been gathering for years, both from businessmen anxious to explore Eastern European markets, and from strategic thinkers who saw opportunities for loosening the bonds between the USSR and its satellites...

...A year later, Richard M. Nixon demonstrated that Bucharest could count on the support of Republicans as well as Democrats by becoming the first U.S...

...Other human rights violations perpetrated over the past five years or so include the brutal suppression of a 1977 strike by miners in the Jiu Valley-its leaders being imprisoned or dispersed to other regions-and the more recent campaign of official anti-Semitism, thinly masked behind appeals to "nationalist" sentiments...

...Romania's egregious domestic order was not considered an obstacle to any of these developments...

...NO LONGER FAVORED The Lesson of Romania By Stephen A. Garrett President Reagan's announcement last March 4 that the United States would withdraw most-favored-nation (MFN) tariff status from Romania has refocused attention on a basic American dilemma in dealing with Eastern Europe...

...President to pay a state visit there since the War...

...Perhaps now that we have removed our blinkers in the case of Romania, we will recognize the need for developing a diplomatic formula that fosters greater independence among the Soviet bloc nations without condoning their pursuit of domestic practices that trample on the values American foreign policy is supposed to defend...

...Stephen A. Garrett, a new contributor to these pages, is director of the Policy Studies program at the Monterey Institute of International Studies...

...A 10-year trade agreement was drawn up in November 1976, further spurring economic interaction...