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Show James Heston abc Salt Lake Sri burn1 Friday Morning, January Vance Asks Foreign Poliey Equity New York Times Serv ice The main problem of U.S. WASHINGTON foreign policy in 1979. as Secretary of State Vance sees it, is to hold a fair balance in 12, 1979 . t Washingtons relations, and particu larly to hold the Western alliance together and somehow maintain an East-Wes- Page Section A I Washington policy toward both China and the Soviet Union. even-hande- Available Utah Pax Cutting Doesnt Need Drastic Action Obviously, tax relief is going to be one of the major issues as Utah's legislature struggles through its cursession But the state and rent y its residents will not be well served by this emphasis if political expediency gets in the way of clear thinking. Gov. Scott Matheson, in his budget message to the convened legislators, 60-da- an impressive tax-cu- t package. But he was preaching to presented a House and Senate controlled firmly by the opposition Republicans. A majority which responded with its own ideas. The result is an instant, fearful conflict. The governors preferences still seem the more suitable. They are based substantially on recommendations from a special committee, a legislator-citize- n group assembled during the interim between legislative sessions to examine Utah's tax structure. In the largest departure from the committees findings. Gov. Matheson has endorsed eliminating the states four percent sales tax from all food items by next tax-trimmi- Too Secret Nov. 1. His expanded circuit-breake- r relief initiative, legislative Republicans are promoting rather drastic notions either un welcomed or rejected by the tax study committee. Principal among these is eventual repeal of all property taxes on homes, with state government revenues fill- ing the local gap. Its an obvious reaction to distress caused by a statewide property reappraisal program which hit full force last year in Salt Lake County. But it also bids to fundamentally alter Utahs taxing structure. The immediate question is. how-caone class of property-owner- s be excused from home buyers paying property taxes while others commercial, rental unit, utility-owner- s be kept on the assessment So rolls? far. the legislative GOP leaderships answer is: a quick constitutional change will legalize it. Almost unanimously, analysts have concluded that Utah has a taxing sysreasonably tem. It may contain inequities and periodically uneven loads, but authority already exists to self-correcti- knows only that the management of the Utah Transit Authority offered a wage and benefit settlement to its unionized workers that they overwhelmingly rejected. The public, however, doesn't know how much of its tax money was offered to the workers because the union. Amalgamated Transit Workers, Local 328. and LIT A management have refused to tell the taxpayers any details of the proposed contract, which was worked out in very hush-husbehind the doors negotiations. This blatant example of conducting public business in secret must be condemned. There is no justification for both parties refusal to supply the public with at least minimal information of offers and counter offers at regular intervals during the course of the talks that have been underway since October. The Utah Transit Authority is a creature of the Utah Legislature, it is dependent for the greater share of its operating revenues on a quarter-cen- t sales tax approved by voters, and its board of directors are people appointed by elected county commissioners in the counties it serves. In short, it is a public body, created by public law and financed by public funds. UTA, and its employees, are responsible and accountable to the public at large. The contract negotiations, conducted in secrecy, are a deliberate disregard of that public responsibility and accountability. It is time both parties to those negotiations let the public know what is going on. Vance concedes that this will not be easy He is eager to establish normal diplomatic and torn Mr. Reton mereial relations with China, but he is concerned about the rising mood in the Congress and in American public opinion, and is trying to puzzle out how to compose these foreign domestic and public relations problems in the coming year Vance is the quiet and cautious member of the Carter cabinet skeptical of big splashy concepts of world affairs. He is a lawyer, who deals with one problem at a time, always trying to mediate and compromise between the contesting forces at home and abroad infinitely patient and courteous, with a shrew d sense of what he can and cannot do Iran Crisis For example, right or w rong. Vance doesnt think Washington can do very much about the crisis in Iran. As he sees it, this is not -- thought this w as the way things were going lxoking forward to the new year, therefore. Vance is arguing for some balance ill Washing tons relations with both the Soviet Union and China He wants to see the second strategic-armtreaty with the Soviet Union signed, and ratified by the Senate .And particularly, he wants to see President Brezhnev come to the United States, not only to sign that agreement, but to discuss with Carter, before it is too late, why these two major nuclear powers cannot s restore necessary fairness. We are not convinced that the situation is such that drastic action, swiftly amending Utah's constitution or massively shifting tax collection and distribution away from local governments to the state, is justified. Increasingly large state surpluses, now estimated at around $60 million, indicate the state is collecting more taxes than it needs. Relief for the taxpayer is possible. In providing that relief, however, the legislature should avoid playing politics creating more complexities and public problems than already exist. So far. the best blueprint is in the Tax Revision Study Committee report. If Democrats and Republicans stick to that, responsible, helpful tax relief will be possible. "1 think we're getting somewhere . . both sides want the peace treaty so much, theyre willing to fight each other for it! essentially a political government-to-govemmen- t problem, but a social and even religious problem Washington cannot resolve. It has troubling military strategic problems at the source of Iran's petroleum power, which affects the industrial and even the developing world but Vance doesnt think the United States can determine the outcome, whether it recom mends that the shah of Iran stays in Tehran or leaves. Likewise. Vance is sad and even pessimistic about the stalemate between Israel and Egy pt, about the possibilities of a compromise in the Middle East. As he sees it. the longer Sadat and Begin fuss over the details of Article IV or Article VI of the Camp David compromise, the more Vance thinks they will miss the chance of a compromise over the Sinai, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. Accordingly, Washington is turning away from the puzzles of Sadat and Begin, which have preoccupied this city for so long, and It is even turning away from the struggles in Iran, which seem beyond Washington's control Officials here are now turning back to their relations with the NATO alliance. Moscow. Peking and Tokyo. Support Carter At the Western summit meeting in Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, Prime Minister James Callaghan of Britain. Chancellor Hel mut Schmidt of West Germany and President Valery Giscard d'Estaing of France all of U.S supported Carter's normalization relations with the Chinese government in Peking. But at the same time, they told Carter that they were worried about the growing propaganda in the United States, and asked him what would happen in the United States and Western Europe if this led to the rejection of a U.S. Soviet second strategic arms agreement and a revival of the arms race and the Cold War. It was for this reason that the leaders of Britain. West Germany and France, who had little to say to the press at Guadeloupe, nevertheless went on television to make clear that they wanted a SALT II agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union, and thought this was in the security interests of the Western European nations. Same Concession Vance is not only worried about getting a second strategic arms agreement with the Soviet Union through the Senate of the United States, but also that the Congress can be persuaded to give the Soviet Union the same commercial and trade concessions it is likely to give to China. This is likely to be one of the most critical issues in the new' Congress, now about to assemble in Washington. It is clear that the new regime in Peking is looking for modern technology from the United States. Already, Peking has made spectacular deals for steel mills of over $1 billion with U.S. Steel, and for vast electronic and equipment, in competition with Japanese, German, French and British companies. One of the major disputes between the Western leaders in Guadeloupe was the British decision to sell modem military fighter planes to Peking. The West German chancellor was worried about the effect of all this on Western political relations with Moscow. Why provoke the Russian bear, he asked All this has had some effect on Carter's foreign policy aides, particularly on Vance. He is privately worried about the tendency in this country to poke the stick at the Soviet bear. anti-Sovi- Anthony Lewis Are Nixon & Co. Responsible For Cambodias Cruel Fate? New York Times Service The instant transformation of Prince Norodom Sihanouk from prisoner to international spokesman is one of the most amazing events on the world scene in a long time. There he suddenly was, in Peking, as voluble and candid as ever, speaking for the collapsed Pol Pot rer gime at a press conference but condemning the cruelties it had visited on his people. Cambodians had had no right to communicate with each other, he said, or to travel or practice their religion. And beyond that, the Pol Pot Communists had denied the basic rights of humanity: the right to be loved, to choose your wife freely and to be with your wife and children all the time, to have courts, with lawyers, to be judged publicly. Sihanouk has always been an extraordinary figure, a man of surprises But his reminds us that he is something much more than an eccentric statesman. To a profound degree, Cambodias fate has been identified with him. While he was in power, Cambodia avoided the worst of the misery that afflicted the rest of Indochina. Sihanouks position was inconsistent. his maneuvering inglorious. At one time or another he infuriated all parties to the five-hou- Kraft Chinese Weaknesses Show Paper Lion Flas No Bite Field Newspaper Syndicate Events in Cambodia finger a potentially fatal flaw in the emerging balance of world power The flaw lies with China. For that nation is great enough to dream dreams of undoing Russia. but so weak it cannot even help its protege, Cambodia, against Russias Asian ally, Vietnam So the visit of the Chinese leader, Teng Hsiao-pinto Washington this month should provide occasion for dealing with that dicey not a circumstance vehicle fur snowing the American people on the wondrous virtues of the Chinese connection Weakness of China Chinas weakness declares itself in everyway. Tile population of one billion strains to feed itself. Its industry, agriculture and education have lagged way behind the rest of the world in modern technology The Chinese military forces, well over 4 million strong, are governed by an outmoded doctrine of people's war and equipped with the light weapons appropriate for long, drawn- g, come to terms in keeping the peace elsewhere in the world. Carter was trying in private messuges to Brezhnev to raise this question Why are Washington and Moscow at odds over Iran. Cambodia, the Middle East, and southern Africa? Can we not. he asked, at least talk about these things Vance, the mediator ui this view city, has been promoting this theme His is that whatever we do in Cuba, or in Namibia, or even in China important as these things are cannot be more important than trying to compose the difterences between the two who major powers, in M ashing! on and Moscow could blow up the world. (Copy right) anti-Sovi- and homestead exemption proposals to lighten local property tax loads were both approved by the Tax Revision Study Committee. In trying to recapture the tax well-balanc- The public, whose taxes support it. d He goes even further, and says that he didn't become secretary of state in order to revive the vicious conflict of the old U.S. Soviet cold and would war, resign tomorrow if he out defensive struggle in the country side. As to the political situation, while Mr. Teng has asserted primacy, he is 74 and faces pockets of resistance in Peking and a country side never easy to run from the center. Precisely because of these problems, Teng has hud to insert his country into world politics in an active way. To mobilize domestic energy, he has intensified the Maoist policy of hostility to Russia. Peking now competes aggressively with Moscow for favor in the rest of the Communist world, and in the poorer countries of the southern continents, sometimes known as the Third World. Modernize Quickly To modernize China quickly, and as a defensive bulwark against Moscow, Teng has turned to the advanced industrial countries. He played the American card with the announcement, on Dec 15, of the normalization of relations He played a Japanese card in a visit to Tokyo in the fall and the signing of a peace and friendship treaty. Even before that he was working up a brisk trade with Britain, France and West Germany. The web woven by Teng inevitably looked like less than an innocent game to Moscow Rightly or wrongly, the Russians perceived that there was being developed one of the gang-up- s the U S., worlds biggest Western Europe, Japan and China against the Soviet Union So the Russians hit back hard it hurts. Against the worlds second and Communist power, China, the world's first Communist power, Russia, called up the worlds third Communist power. Vietnam Tension Already The Vietnamese and Chinese w ere already in border incidents, tension on many counts treatment of the ethnic Chinese in Vietnam, and above all Cambodia, where a regime headed by Prime Minister Pol Pot and backed by China was resisting Hanois dream of unifying all of what used to be Indochina. On Nov. 3, in Moscow, Russian and Vietnam ese leaders signed a treaty of friendship and security. On Dec. 25, Vietnamese units associated with Cambodian insurgents moved against the regime of Pol Pot. On Jan 7 they took the capital, Phnom Penh, and drove the regime to exile in the hills. The Chinese have sent troops to the frontier and made some noises. But Vice Premier Teng said flatly Peking would leave the Cambodians to defend themselves in a peoples war. That feeble reaction is in keeping w ith the dispatch of a former Cambodian ruler. Prince Sihanouk, to argue the case for his country at the United Nations. all-tim- e The message implicit in those events has not been lost on the rest of the world. At the Guadeloupe summit the British, French and West German leaders told President Carter they would like to trade with China but counted on him to maintain detente with Russia. Paper Tiger other words, China is too much of a paper tiger to sustain a balance of power based on a In world gang-uagainst the Russians. That fact ought to lie at the center of the conversations between Teng and President Carter later this month The administration had been hoping to use the Teng visit for a soeko public relations spectacular. The idea was that the Chinese leader would dazzle business with contacts, and hard-liner- s with talk, and the rest of us with his sharp wit. In that way the bitter sting could be drawn from the ending of relations with Taiwan. Now a more serious purpose asserts itself. The Chinese have to be told about this country's strong interest in another arms limitation treaty with Russia. They need to be gentled into a less hostile position toward Moscow For world order demands that the U.S.. Russia and China move simultaneously toward accommodation. p anti-Sovi- (Copyright) Vietnam War. But he managed somehow to protect Cambodia Since his fall, nearly nine years ago. Cambodia has suffered worse calamities than just about any country on earth a vicious civil war, massive American bombing, government by a band of remorseless zealots, by its ancient enemy, Vietnam. And the suffering is almost certainly not ended The terrible thing about that history is that it might have been avoided. There was a chance, indeed more than one chance, to save Cambodia the only way it could be saved: Sihanouk to some effective role. The responsibility for missing those chances lies in good part with two Americans Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. The first chance came immediately after the right-win- g coup that overthrew Sihanouk on March 18, 1970 He was abroad at the time, visiting Peking and Moscow with the aim so of getting help in ironic in retrospect persuading the Vietnamese Communists to leave Cambodia alone. Popular Support There was a real possibility then of bringing Sihanouk back to Phnom Penh, where he stiil had great popular support. But the Nixon administration was not interested in restoring Sihanouk. It thought relations would be easier with the new regime under Lon Nol. And it saw a golden opportunity to attack the Vietnamese Communists in the Cambodian border areas they used as On April 30, 1970. American forces invaded Cambodia. U.S. experts had warned Kissinger that the invasion would have disastrous effects on Cambodia and widen the Indochina war Nixon said the United States would not "expand the war into Cambodia or become involved in the internal Cambodian struggle It was one of his most brazen lies. Over the next three years until Congress American legislated an end on Aug 15, 1973 planes dropped 442.735 tons of bombs on Cambodia The bombing reduced much of what had been a rich agricultural countryside to charred wasteland, and half the population became refugees. The Khmer Rouge rebels grew in strength Regrets. Henry ? The reappearance of Sihanouk makes Any WGiidct whetliei 1 one 1cm y Kiasuifcel admits, even to himself, any regrets about a Cambodian policy that brought political defeat for the West and human disaster for Cambodia The next time Kissinger is on NBC, which pays him to appear, might someone be brave enough to ask him how he justifies the results of his manly policy on Cambodia? But Sihanouk should be a reminder to the Vietnamese, too. They have removed the bestial Pol Pot government, and they are the effective military power now, but can they really hope to rule Cambodia without paying a heavy, continuing price Sihanouk says he is finished with politics. But I think no govern ment in Phnom Penh can have legitimacy without his support. (Copyright) |