Pax Americana
Nicholas von Hoffman
Washington That portion of the country which takes an interest in foreign affairs has been watching television pictures of our prolix Secretary of State energetically taking his ponderously polysyllabic self on and off planes at distant airports. The watchers' mood is as tentative as Alexander Haig's manner is positive. They wish him well, hope that he will be able to restore British authority to the Falklands, but that's all. He is not to get himself or us into any trou- ble. After four years of complaining about Jimmy Carter's shilly-shallying and as long a time spent wishing for a decisive President who would cut a bold figure in the world, now that America has one, people are scared stiff that Ronald Reagan may act the part.
Mr Haig, however, is as much a source of entertainment as a focal point of hope. Even as he flings himself like a diplomatic shuttlecock to and fro from London to Buenos Aires, we continue to get delectable nuggets concerning the jet aeroplane flap. You may recall that last week I had the honour to report that Mr Haig delayed his initial departure to London because he had been assigned a windowless KC-135 while he wanted a windowed VC-137, a plane that was currently not available when he was scheduled to take off. (All of these planes, with or without windows, are luxuriously appointed by your standards and mine, having bedrooms, private living quarters, bars and galleys with chefs to work them.) Part of the problem, it turns out, is that Secretary of Defence Caspar Weinberger often flies in a KC-135. Inasmuch as the Secretary of State in his person and depart- ment is supposed to be senior to the Secretary of Defence, you can see the peril to public order and wise policy that would ensue should Mr Haig fly in a private jet airliner in no way superior to that of Mr .Weinberger.
This is not the first Administration whose highest officers spend their time quarrelling over who gets to ride in which plane in the White House aviation pool. Robert Strauss, Jimmy Carter's ambassador extraordinary to everybody, refused to 'come on board' (that's government talk for taking the job) until it was explicitly agreed that he would have first call, after Vice-President Walter Mondale, on the plane Lyndon Johnson us- ed to fly. This is an outstandingly lavish sky vehicle that has the famous desk and chair that can be raised and lowered so that the Very Important Person seated at it can tower over, dominate and otherwise humiliate subordinates and other unfor- tunates.
Whilst you, dear English readers,
laboured under the misapprehension that Alexander Haig's every waking thought was directed towards using American influence to settle the Falklands affair justly and equitably, a great deal of attention at the State Department's Foggy Bottom head- quarters was devoted to getting in the last shot in the aeroplane controversy. A high but unnamed Department official gave a background briefing to the New York Times blaming the fracas on James Baker, President Reagan's Chief of Staff. 'This is typical of the sniping the Secretary has had to endure from the beginning of this Ad- ministration,' anonymous spokesman X allowed himself to be quoted saying. It was about that time that the British fleet was reported in the vicinity of Ascension.Island.
That somebody in high places had noted the fact was confirmed by the publication of a transcript of a telephone conversation between the President and his Secretary of State concerning the Argentine affair. It revealed Mr Reagan as being disconcerting- ly neutral in a dispute between America's closest friend and best ally and a nation which, not to put too fine a point on it, would be regarded as slightly fascist even if its army didn't do the goosestep.
Even as some speculated on whether the White House itself had leaked the transcript for domestic political purposes, sentiment became more pro-British, with the proviso that the United States limit itself to cheering for the good guys. Irish Democrats from the North-East, where there is the greatest sympathy for the IRA bomb throwers, could be heard saying: 'As much as I hate to say it, this time I'm on the side of the British.' But no cries for action can be heard anywhere in the land, for never, or at least not since the 1930s, has so broad a 'He's had a hard day — don't offer him Haig on the rocks.'
spectrum of the population made it clear that it is not of a mind to go to war. The anti-nuclear feelings that have been building up for several years across the country are now so strong that politicians and journalists, the two occupations that invariably are the last to know, can't avoid contemplating this swing away from our customary truculence. A public opinion poll released a few days ago showed that, although the President and scores of other authoritative figures have preached and warned against it, no less than 74 per cent of the population now favours an im- mediate, bilateral freeze on the develop' ment or testing of any nuclear devices. To the surprise of those who had come to think only liberals worry about atomic death, the impetus for the freeze is coming from the nation's mainline conservative religious groups — the Methodists, Anglicans, Bar' tists, Lutherans and Roman Catholics.
After having spent his public career sprinking holy water on cannons, evangelist Billy Graham has enlisted in the anti-bomb movement, as has a large chunk of the American Roman Catholic hierarchy which had consistently associated itself with the military. Backed by resolutions voted by his fellow bishops. the chairman of the Na- tional Catholic Conference, the Archbishop of Detroit, has become a public anti-bomb spokesman: A few days ago Archbishop John Cardinal Krol of Philadelphia, a social conservative of Polish extraction, urged thousands at an ecumenical gathering to stop the nuclear arms race. During the last presidential campaign, the Cardinal had posed for photographs with candidate Ronald Reagan. After the election he had his picture taken with Mr Reagan again. It was printed in his diocesan newspaper, 3 journal which a few days ago ran front page headlines proclaiming 'Cardinal Krol To Speak — Faiths Will Unite Against Arras Race.'
Last Sunday a coalition of groups began 'Ground Zero Week,' a seven-day effort t°, draw a vivid picture in the American nand of what the country will look like after the big bang. The governors of North Carolina, Virginia, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arizona and Hawaii have issued proclamations, as have the mayors and city councils in scores of places. In Marshall, Missouri, they are hay' ing a 'bicycle fallout marathon' near a missile site to demonstrate that, regardless of how far you run, there's no place to hide. In Winston-Salem, North Carolina, church is sponsoring a 'Run for your Life race; in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a 'Pup- pets for Peace' show has been organised; at Stanford University, south of San Fran- cisco, it's a 'Dance for Disarmament', while in Portland, Oregon, all the bells of the city will toll for five minutes. Across the conti- nent in Massachusetts, Andre, the pet seal, has jumped into the water for the first ceta- cean 'Swim for Peace'. Andre's destination is Rockport, Maine, a state whose legislature has recently petitioned the Presi- dent in favour of the nuclear freeze. From America this week — Pax.
Previous page
