For the Record

Biggest bomb of the week, bar none, was Nobel Peace Prize award to Dr. Yevgeny I. Chazov (with Dr. Bernard Lown, another awardee), co-founder of the International Association of Physicians for the Prevention of Atomic War. L’Express, the French news weekly, reveals that the association is what amounts to a Soviet front: I.e., of the 135,000 members it claims in forty countries, nearly half—sixty thousand —are in the USSR. But who are they? There seems to be no list, no place even to go for a list. Dr. Chazov himself, L’Express reports, is not only a member of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party, but head of Department Four of the Ministry of Health, which is the department that the KGB controls, the department that handles Andrei Sakharov when he needs hospitalization. . . . The Soviets didn’t get away with this one. Jakob Sverdrup, director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, admits the institute hadn’t known that Chazov had signed a letter attacking Sakharov in 1973. . . Chancellor Helmut Kohl and ten other prominent Western European Christian Democratic leaders urged the Nobel Committee to rescind the award; the U.S. and the West German ambassadors boycotted the award ceremony; while, on the streets outside, a group of Norwegians awarded an “alternative Nobel Prize” to Soviet dissident psychiatrist Anatoly Koryagin, serving a seven-year term in a labor camp for refusing to classify 16 dissidents as insane.

President Reagan’s approval ratings, upon his return from Geneva, ranged from a low of 65 per cent (CBS/New York Times) to a high of 71 per cent (Harris; Los Angeles Times), a record level for a post-WWII President at this point in a second term. . . . Although GOP strategists are worried about sinking approval ratings in economic matters, overall, party leaders are optimistic. At Republican Governors Association meeting in Wilmington, Delaware, last week, Gov. Dick Thornburgh of Pennsylvania predicted the GOP would pick up eight to ten statehouses next year. 1986 is a big year: 27 Democratic governors will face re-election. There are only 16 GOP governors today. . . . However, Republican National Chairman Frank Fahrenkopf warned against complacency. Pointing to Virginia, where Democrats made a clean sweep in elections last month, Fahrenkopf said Democratic Party there, under direction of retiring Gov. Charles Robb, raced “unfettered to the center,” taking it, and throwing the Republicans to the extreme right. “They out-Republicaned us,” he said. … In the Senate, Jack Heinz (Pa.), chairman of Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, points to five vulnerable GOP seats: in Maryland and North Carolina, where incumbents Charles Mathias and John East are retiring; in Florida, where freshman Sen. Paula Hawkins faces tough fight against popular Gov. Robert Graham; in South Dakota and Idaho, where the farm vote is pivotal. In South Dakota, however, Sen. Jim Abdnor is looking lots better than he was nine months ago against expected Democratic opponent Rep. Tom Daschle. Recent polls show Abdnor leading 49 to 44; nine months ago he trailed 39 to 54. In Idaho (Steve Symms), it’s a toss-up, says Heinz.

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Biggest bomb of the week, bar none, was Nobel Peace Prize award to Dr. Yevgeny I. Chazov (with Dr. Bernard Lown, another awardee), co-founder of the International Association of Physicians for the Prevention of Atomic War. L’Express, the French news weekly, reveals that the association is what amounts to a Soviet front: I.e., of the 135,000 members it claims in forty countries, nearly half—sixty thousand —are in the USSR. But who are they? There seems to be no list, no place even to go for a list. Dr. Chazov himself, L’Express reports, is not only a member of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party, but head of Department Four of the Ministry of Health, which is the department that the KGB controls, the department that handles Andrei Sakharov when he needs hospitalization. . . . The Soviets didn’t get away with this one. Jakob Sverdrup, director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, admits the institute hadn’t known that Chazov had signed a letter attacking Sakharov in 1973. . . Chancellor Helmut Kohl and ten other prominent Western European Christian Democratic leaders urged the Nobel Committee to rescind the award; the U.S. and the West German ambassadors boycotted the award ceremony; while, on the streets outside, a group of Norwegians awarded an “alternative Nobel Prize” to Soviet dissident psychiatrist Anatoly Koryagin, serving a seven-year term in a labor camp for refusing to classify 16 dissidents as insane.

President Reagan’s approval ratings, upon his return from Geneva, ranged from a low of 65 per cent (CBS/New York Times) to a high of 71 per cent (Harris; Los Angeles Times), a record level for a post-WWII President at this point in a second term. . . . Although GOP strategists are worried about sinking approval ratings in economic matters, overall, party leaders are optimistic. At Republican Governors Association meeting in Wilmington, Delaware, last week, Gov. Dick Thornburgh of Pennsylvania predicted the GOP would pick up eight to ten statehouses next year. 1986 is a big year: 27 Democratic governors will face re-election. There are only 16 GOP governors today. . . . However, Republican National Chairman Frank Fahrenkopf warned against complacency. Pointing to Virginia, where Democrats made a clean sweep in elections last month, Fahrenkopf said Democratic Party there, under direction of retiring Gov. Charles Robb, raced “unfettered to the center,” taking it, and throwing the Republicans to the extreme right. “They out-Republicaned us,” he said. … In the Senate, Jack Heinz (Pa.), chairman of Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, points to five vulnerable GOP seats: in Maryland and North Carolina, where incumbents Charles Mathias and John East are retiring; in Florida, where freshman Sen. Paula Hawkins faces tough fight against popular Gov. Robert Graham; in South Dakota and Idaho, where the farm vote is pivotal. In South Dakota, however, Sen. Jim Abdnor is looking lots better than he was nine months ago against expected Democratic opponent Rep. Tom Daschle. Recent polls show Abdnor leading 49 to 44; nine months ago he trailed 39 to 54. In Idaho (Steve Symms), it’s a toss-up, says Heinz.