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Ray Kosanke
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Plain Trvth
THE BERLAYMONT,
European Community headquarters, Brussels, Belgium.
whether conditions in the States are
that much better after all. From
France carne the reaction that
Frenchmen were not at all envious
of life in the United States. l t was
seen as too mechanized and too ur–
banized. The French, in fact, are
trying to escape a similar fate occur–
ring to their own big cities.
Watergate, too, has very defi–
nitely made its impression on Euro–
peans. Belgium, England, France,
Germany and Italy have aii had
govemmental scandals in recent
months. Scandal is not a totally new
thing to them by any means.
Rather, it's a question of degree -
most feel the U. S. scandal is more
important because the United States
plays a significantly greater role in
world atfairs than any of the Euro–
pean
nations involved, and a U. S.
scandal can have much more serious
intemational overtones.
A Gallup poli in England re–
vealed that 90 percent of those
questioned had heard of Watergate.
In contrast, showing how much
more closely Europeans follow
events in the United States tban vice
14
versa, a recent poli in the United
· States revealed that fuUy
55
percent
of all Americans polled had never
even heard of the European Com–
munity or Common Market!
To the French, Watergate itself
was not particularly surprising, only
the magnitude of the problem and
the high-level circles implicated.
The French have their own scandals
to worry about - recurrent rumors
and charges about government in–
volvement in iUegal dealings with
construction circles. And reports of
widespread tax frauds are almost an
annual atfair in the French press.
Nevertheless, the American image
of high crime rates, the Mafia and
now Watergate, lead the French to
feel tbat "it's simply worse there
than here."
In West Germany, U. S. prestige
has indeed suffered, and moral con–
fidence in America is considerably
lower. This despite the fact that the
Germans too have a domestic sean–
da! on their hands with their own
..Steiner Affair."
One German interviewed in Loo–
don, however, held a high opinion
of the United States "in spite of
everything." He felt Americans
"were an agreeable, hardworking
and efficient people." A Belgian
commented that the Watergate af–
fair showed the strong and positive
role played by a free press in the
United States.
Asked whether the United States
as a nation has lost its credibility, a
significant number replied that the
country as a whole has not, but that
President Nixon himself has indeed.
In
any event, it was stressed, Europe
has no choice but to deal with the
United States, for it is a world
power and European nations are
not. Dependency on the United
States is one reality Europe cannot
do without.
What concems many thoughtful
Germans now is whether or not
President Nixon will be able to
maintain the formidable U. S. con–
tribution to NATO, at a time when
American senators, taking advan–
tage of the Watergate crisis, want to
drasticaUy reduce the U. S. com–
mitment.
To the Swiss, Watergate appeared
unbelievable. "How could such a
scandal take place?'' Of real concem
to the pragmatic Swiss is the fate of
the pummeled dollar and the insta–
bility it creates in the money mar–
kets of Europe. Swiss reaction to the
American image of violence, which
reaches back to the assassinations of
the Kennedys and Martín Luther
King, Vietnam, widespread crime
and now a nationwide política!
scandal was simply: " It's crazy!"
Our survey in Switzerland brought
out the fact that much of the news
the Swiss received about the United
States was negative.
The English news media has cov–
ered the Watergate scandal very
closely, as the poll mentioned above
clearly indicates. The Brítish have
recently had another sex scandal in
government circles, but again, the
scale of the problem is felt to be
considerably less than the impact of
the Watergate affair.
European opinion of the United
States is declining markedly. With
PLAIN TRUTH October 1973