The Week

■ Mao Tse Who?

■ George Ball takes a look at the Yamal gas pipeline in a recent issue of the New York Times Magazine and decides he dislikes the Reagan Administration’s position. Dislikes it rather intensely, in fact. It is “crude,” “compulsive,” “cavalier,” “harebrained,” “vindictive,” and “frantic.” It is a “stupidity” and a “neurosis” concocted by “Manichaeans” who “mutter” and “sputter.” On the level of dialectics, Mr. Ball wheels out five arguments: bad for the Alliance (a newish trope, popular ever since it was conclusively established that Europeans can be counted on to be wimpier than we are); discouraging to Soviet doves (an old favorite, the tacit premise of which is that the Soviet Union is bursting with frustrated peacemongers); exacerbating Russian fears of encirclement (those pitiful Russians, still brooding about the Mongols. How did the Brits ever live down Hastings?); Russia is a huge and rich nation (and therefore, in this case, invulnerable to economic harassment—though the real psychological meaning for diplomats like Ball is that anything large has to be walked around politely); and finally, the illusion of equivalence (the old detente policy, doncha see, recognized that “changes are subtly occurring on both sides”; like, the Soviets picked up three new satellites during the Carter Administration alone). George Ball would like to be the next Democratic Secretary of State.

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■ Mao Tse Who?

■ George Ball takes a look at the Yamal gas pipeline in a recent issue of the New York Times Magazine and decides he dislikes the Reagan Administration’s position. Dislikes it rather intensely, in fact. It is “crude,” “compulsive,” “cavalier,” “harebrained,” “vindictive,” and “frantic.” It is a “stupidity” and a “neurosis” concocted by “Manichaeans” who “mutter” and “sputter.” On the level of dialectics, Mr. Ball wheels out five arguments: bad for the Alliance (a newish trope, popular ever since it was conclusively established that Europeans can be counted on to be wimpier than we are); discouraging to Soviet doves (an old favorite, the tacit premise of which is that the Soviet Union is bursting with frustrated peacemongers); exacerbating Russian fears of encirclement (those pitiful Russians, still brooding about the Mongols. How did the Brits ever live down Hastings?); Russia is a huge and rich nation (and therefore, in this case, invulnerable to economic harassment—though the real psychological meaning for diplomats like Ball is that anything large has to be walked around politely); and finally, the illusion of equivalence (the old detente policy, doncha see, recognized that “changes are subtly occurring on both sides”; like, the Soviets picked up three new satellites during the Carter Administration alone). George Ball would like to be the next Democratic Secretary of State.