The President seems to have muffed his most recent move against the Jackson Amendment. Senator Henry Jackson (D., Wash.) wants to amend trade legislation to deny trade concessions to any nation that denies its citizens the right to emigrate. The Jackson Amendment is aimed at the Soviet Union, and especially at Soviet persecution of Jews. The President thinks the Amendment is a threat to the detente, so he summoned a group of Jewish leaders to the White House to say that he had Soviet Premier Brezhnev’s personal word that the impediments to emigration—especially the steep “head tax” that is graded to the education level of the prospective emigrant—have been “suspended.” The President said that, of course, the Soviet government does not keep its word in treaties (an interesting comment, in light of the President’s enthusiasm for strategic arms treaties) but that Soviet leaders keep promises they make personally, man-to-man. According to one person at the meeting, the President criticized Jackson for being too hawkish toward the Soviet Union—for wanting to “push to the brink,” and to risk scores of millions of lives. This comment will not improve relations between the President and his most important supporter on defense matters in the Senate.
Moving in on another front, Jackson has sent a letter to Brezhnev urging the Soviet government to allow the ballet dancer Valeriy Panov to emigrate to Israel. Since he and his wife applied for emigration visas, Panov has been forbidden to perform anywhere in the Soviet Union and has lost his position with the Kirov Ballet Company. The Kirov Company will soon visit the U.S. and the betting in Washington is that high U.S. officials will turn out for its performances.
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