OCR Text |
Show sible little "vydvizhenets" (pusher). The Communist Party bigwigs, Brezhnev among them, felt strongly that Khrushchev had committed five cardinal sins all of which in Russian begin with the letter "K": (1) Kuba (the Cuban crisis with the United States), (2) Kitai (China, the Chinese crisis with Mao ), (3) Kult Leechnosti (the cult of personality), (4) Kukkuruza (which means corn and signified the failure of Khrushchev's farm policy), and (5) Kumovstvo (nepotism involving Khrushchev's Adzubei). Tse-tung- son-in-la- w No quotes According to one knowledgeable source, Brezhnev agreed with Khrushchev's detractors "not so much by joining them in verbal criticism of his patron but by nodding, shrugging his shoulders, using his hands eloquently, by almost saying something without actually saying anything which later could be quoted or used against him.'' Despite temporary setbacks, Brezhnev has always managed to come out on the winning side. Which is why it will come as no surprise to any of jthe world's Kremlinologists if within the next few years he usurps the position of Prime Minister from the incumbent Aleksei Kosygin, with whom he supposedly shares the Soviet collective leadership. It is expected that if he continues to survive, Brezhnev, an inwho suffered a veterate chain-smokmild heart attack in 1968, will one day like Lenin, Stalin, and Khrushchev before him, become not only head of the Soviet Unions Communist Party which he is today, but also Prime Minister which he is not. According to many accounts, there are two wings of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union the liberal wing headed by Kosygin, who believes in more consumer goods and a higher standard of living for the people, and the conservative wing headed by Brezhnev, whose priorities favor the military (Marshal Grechko, the Soviet Defense Minister, is an old wartime buddy of his) and defense spending. Over the past eight years, by expanding various Communist Party branches to include his appointments, Brezhnev has wrested power away from Kosygin, who, incidentally, is far more popular with the Russians than Brezhnev is. er the Soviet Union Survive Until 1984?, and the incarceration of Soviet intellectuals in insane asylums. He believes in trying to maintain things and cannot understand why China wanted to break out of the Soviet Communist orbit, why the y Czechs wanted to restore a system. In the Politburo discussions of whether or not to invade Czechoslovakia in 1968, Brezhnev advocated a two-part- middle-of-the-roa- d, position until the Soviet generals told him that they were about to lose control over the Czech armed forces. Whereupon he voted for military intervention and established the Brezhnev Doctrine which holds that no Socialist country can revise its own government if such revision is considered a danger to and by the Soviet Union. What do Nixon and Brezhnev want from each other? Their agenda will probably consist of the following: (a) Vietnam, (b) the Middle East, (c) China, (d) the strategic arms limitations talks (SALT), (e) increased trade, (f) Berlin, and undoubtedly other subjects. Dull speeches At the 24th Congress of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union in April of 1971, in which he droned on for six hours, Brezhnev, a dull speaker, conference on proposed a nuclear disarmament, a conclave for abolishing NATO and Warsaw Pact military alliances, a normalization of relations between all countries, a broad . ban on nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. What he probably wants most of all from Nixon, however, is a trade agreement on extended credit terms. The five-pow- er Russians lag behind the United States in all creature comforts and agricultural products. They need and want grain, pipelines, and computers, broad-gaugknow-hoGherman technological Gvishiani, Premier Aleksei Kosygin's in charge of Soviet technology, has discussed these needs with a dozen U.S. government officials and businessmen in the past year, anxiously sounding them out on what they can offer. e son-in-la- w Nixon's offerings Nixon can offer pretty nearly everything in the way of goods and knowhow, since he knows that the Soviets are able now to obtain most of what they want from France, West Germany, and japan, or steal the rest through their intelligence service. But what he would like to do is to tie in trade with a Soviet promise to halt arms shipments to North Vietnam. He may even offer to halt U.S. arms to South Vietnam if the Soviets will halt their arms flow to North Vietnam and institute a peace conference. Brezhnev, who represents the "hardliners" and the Soviet "hawks," will not be party to such a deal. He knows that if he loses the support of the military and their friends in the Politburo he can be forced out of power as Khrushchev was after he insisted that Eisenhower was potentially a and good friend of the Soviet Union, only to have Eisenhower send a U-- 2 reconnaissance plane over the Soviet Union a few days before the 1960 summit. That was the beginning of the end for Khrushchev in the Soviet Union, and Brezhnev is not about to follow suit. He is Captain Cautious. He plays everything safe. There is nothing creative, daring, intellectual, or imaginative in his makeup. His idea of a good time is a rubdown by a hefty masseuse. His favorite is named Olga. According to one Eastern European diplomat, "The Soviet military have convinced Brezhnev, if he needed any convincing, that the war in Vietnam is a war the United States cannot win. "In the opinion- - of the Soviets," this diplomat explained to me, "the United States is backing a loser in a cause which is not truly vital to the interests of the United States. The South Vietnamese simply do not have the will to fight and win. Ho Chi Minh built the North Vietnamese into a cohesive people willing to die if necessary for their beliefs. The South Vietnamese lack such dedication. Each of their soldiers is loyal only to himself. "Brezhnev, Kosygin, Podgorny, Polyansky, Suslov, Shelest, Kunayev, the whole Politburo group are sure they are backing the winner. They are not going to make things easier for Nixon them tougher for the North by maki.-'Vietnamese. I think Nixon will come back to Washington with no substantial agreement on Vietnam. Perhaps at some horrendous price he and Kisr. But singer can wrangle out a Brezhnev is not going to let the North Vietnamese down. He simply cannot afford to. Brezhnev is a very tough cookie. Ask Pompidou. He spent eight hours with Brezhnev, just the two of them talking privately in Paris last October. What came out of it? An agreement for Renault to build a diesel engine plant in the Soviet Union. face-save- CONTINUED He's a Marxist Like Nixon, Brezhnev is basically a conservative and so are his priorities. He believes in Marxist orthodoxy. He does not believe in rocking the boat nor in having others rock it. He is the man responsible for the wave of disaffection among the dissident Soviet intellectuals and creative artists, the man responsible for the Sinyavsky-Danitrial of 1966, the Ginsburg trial of the of 1968, the the imprisonSolzhenitzyn writings, ment of Andrei Amalrik, author of Will el Before Brezhnev and his physician-wif- e Victoria flew to Paris last fall, each was given a course in Western etiquette. country. It was their first visit to a Western European Here Mrs. Brezhnev greets Frenchwoman. 5 |