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The Germans are not the only ones reacting in anger to the puzzling
figure now occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The French press
almost unanimously condemned Carter's neutron bomb decision. The
conservative daily L'Aurore ran the banner headline, "Carter gives in
to Brezhnev" and the Washin�iton correspondent of Le Figaro said
Carter was dancing a "hesitation waltz."
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Rumors are flying that the French government is considering the
development of both the neutron bomb and the cruise missile -- another
weapon which Mr. Carter has decided to restrict (partially) the develop-
ment and deployment of, again in hopes for a more conciliatiory Russian
attitude on SALT. Some French officials are reminding their fellow
Europeans that Charles de Gaulle was right after all in his warning
that the U.S. would someday sacrifice European interests in its pur
suit of what it perceives as its own interests in its superpower
relationship with Russia.
Conservative British politicians and opinion shapers are also gravely
concerned over developments in Washington. At a recent speech at
Cornell University, former British Prime Minister Edward Heath said:
"We in Europe will no longer be able to expect the United States to
take action in any part of the world to put right something which we
don't like. This is a new world into which we have moved. Europe must
be prepared to make a greater contribution to the security of the
Atlantic Alliance as a whole."
Leading Sunda f Telegraph analyst Peregrine Worsthorne was devastating
in his analysis of America's contemporary leadership: He labeled Mr.
Carter a "lightweight" and a "fumbling amateur."
It was time, he said, for Europeans to realize they can no longer sleep
happily at night "secure in the knowledge that a new breed of American
professionals were in charge of the world." Europe's traditional
mistrust of American leadership, the norrn·up until the second world
war, must return!
"The United States has succeeded in arousing distrust about its
leadership across the whole political spectrum in Western Europe,"
said Worsthorne, adding: "There is scarcely a name in the present
American foreign policy set-up which commands respect, and several
Andrew Young, for one -- which do the opposite. As for the President
himself, nothing in his style or manner gives the slightest cause for
confidence."
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Worsthorne's conclusion: "So perhaps the pre-war generation was correct
after all in refusing to rely on the United States. When even pro
American Europeans are compelled to reach this conclusion -- as increas
ingly they are -- then surely the time has come for something to be
done about it. In fact, the obvious reaction, which may well be long
overdue, is for Western Europe to look more and more to.its own defenses
and its own interests, if need
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in def'Iancec>f""'tne U:-s-.
�Such a world
coula°wefr-be intenselyclangerous,lJut even this cciula""'"be a blessing
in disguise. Without the shelter of the American umbrella, Europe
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might once again find the will -- after decades of decadence -- to be
true to its own destiny."