For the Record

Brezhnev’s reaction to President Reagan’s nuclear missile proposal was predictable, a big, fat “nyet,” but what wasn’t was other Iron Curtain reaction. Rumania’s Nicolae Ceausescu says the Reagan plan for a mutual ban on European-based medium-range missiles deserves consideration. In East Germany five (of the eight) Lutheran synods have called for stop to increased militarization of East Germany (Lutherans are particularly upset by training of 11-year-olds to use hand grenades). . . . Other anti-Soviet rumblings in Eastern Europe: The Finns have refused to nominate Moscow’s candidate for President. … In Estonia, nationalists have called a half-hour work stoppage on the first day of every month to protest food shortages and political persecution. … In Western Europe, reaction to Reagan’s initiative was generally favorable. Even Michael Foot, leader of the British Labor Party and longtime campaigner for nuclear disarmament, said Reagan plan improves the chances for success of the Geneva arms talks, soon to start. . . . But Bruce Kent of the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) was unconvinced. “A propaganda trick,” he called it. “The CND,” he said, “will answer them [Reagan’s proposals] by redoubling our efforts aimed at achieving genuine nuclear disarmament,” i.e., U.S. disarmament. Kent, a Roman Catholic priest, says churches are hampered by “profound anti-Communist feelings.” Daily Telegraph claims a quarter of the CND council are CP members.

Despite wave of anti-nuclear propeace protests in Europe, sentiment there is not uniformly pacifist and anti-American. Latest Allensbach Institute poll in West Germany shows that 80 per cent of West Germans want to stay in NATO; 50 per cent approve of NATO nuclear deployments (as against 23 per cent who don’t); 56 per cent like Americans (only 6 per cent don’t). . . . In Dodewaard, Holland recently, a would-be demonstration against a local nuclear power station was called off when angry local residents threatened to flatten the demonstrators’ tent city with bulldozers. . . . Although François Mitterrand’s government has canceled a number of projected nuclear plants, France is now getting 43.9 per cent of her electricity from nuclear plants (as against 12 per cent for U.S.). . . . All in all, however, the anti-nukers seem to be getting the best of it. Arne Sigvard Eklund, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, says scientists had believed 50 per cent of world’s electricity would be generated by nuclear power by the year 2000. Now their figure is down to 25 per cent as a result of “unfounded fears.”

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Brezhnev’s reaction to President Reagan’s nuclear missile proposal was predictable, a big, fat “nyet,” but what wasn’t was other Iron Curtain reaction. Rumania’s Nicolae Ceausescu says the Reagan plan for a mutual ban on European-based medium-range missiles deserves consideration. In East Germany five (of the eight) Lutheran synods have called for stop to increased militarization of East Germany (Lutherans are particularly upset by training of 11-year-olds to use hand grenades). . . . Other anti-Soviet rumblings in Eastern Europe: The Finns have refused to nominate Moscow’s candidate for President. … In Estonia, nationalists have called a half-hour work stoppage on the first day of every month to protest food shortages and political persecution. … In Western Europe, reaction to Reagan’s initiative was generally favorable. Even Michael Foot, leader of the British Labor Party and longtime campaigner for nuclear disarmament, said Reagan plan improves the chances for success of the Geneva arms talks, soon to start. . . . But Bruce Kent of the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) was unconvinced. “A propaganda trick,” he called it. “The CND,” he said, “will answer them [Reagan’s proposals] by redoubling our efforts aimed at achieving genuine nuclear disarmament,” i.e., U.S. disarmament. Kent, a Roman Catholic priest, says churches are hampered by “profound anti-Communist feelings.” Daily Telegraph claims a quarter of the CND council are CP members.

Despite wave of anti-nuclear propeace protests in Europe, sentiment there is not uniformly pacifist and anti-American. Latest Allensbach Institute poll in West Germany shows that 80 per cent of West Germans want to stay in NATO; 50 per cent approve of NATO nuclear deployments (as against 23 per cent who don’t); 56 per cent like Americans (only 6 per cent don’t). . . . In Dodewaard, Holland recently, a would-be demonstration against a local nuclear power station was called off when angry local residents threatened to flatten the demonstrators’ tent city with bulldozers. . . . Although François Mitterrand’s government has canceled a number of projected nuclear plants, France is now getting 43.9 per cent of her electricity from nuclear plants (as against 12 per cent for U.S.). . . . All in all, however, the anti-nukers seem to be getting the best of it. Arne Sigvard Eklund, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, says scientists had believed 50 per cent of world’s electricity would be generated by nuclear power by the year 2000. Now their figure is down to 25 per cent as a result of “unfounded fears.”