18
PARTISAN REVIEW
To thi s day, the Communist panies of Western Europe, with
very, very minor excepti on s, still argue th a t what has happened in
the Soviet Uni on are tempora ry aberra ti ons which will be put right,
that the Soviet system, with a ll its imperfecti on s, is grea tl y superior
to
any o ther socia l-political system. I don 't know if they beli eve it,
but they profess to beli eve it. Until the unbili cal cord has been cut ,
these pa ni es canno t be regarded as potential o r gen uine a llies for an y
democra ti c parties. My criti cism in a way is much mo re in sorrow
than in anger. I genuinely hope tha t there will be somethin g a kin to
Euro-communi sm, because I hope that all splits of th e Left will be
overcome. However, today, I do no t yet see it. I see people of good
will wh o have been misled in assuming tha t such fo rces a lready exi st.
I canno t be sure as fa r as the future is concerned. I am reasona bl y
certa in tha t it will no t happen in the near future. Wha t will happen
in the more distant future no one knows.
William Phill ips:
I think you have a few minutes to comment on what
Walter Laqueur has been saying. Go ahead , No rma n .
Norman B irnbaum:
It
seems to me, Walter, tha t you have raised the
iss ue of th e Communists coming to power. That is a seri ous iss ue,
but if in fact we look a t the present situa ti on in France, they appea r,
for reasons of their ideological preoccupation, or per haps o f their
long-term strategy, to have refu sed the chance to elller government,
because they did not get the right terms. And it is difficult to beli eve
tha t the French Communist pany will get much mo re than twenty
percent of the votes. It is diffi cu ll to see how a pa n y like thi s ca n
come to power.
It could have entered government in a coa litio n with o th er
panies, the Socialists and the so-ca ll ed Left Rad icals. But we know
tha t in pa rliamentary systems pa rti es tha t enter government don't
necessaril y come to power. In Ita ly, where the Communi st party gets
over a third of the vote, it is the Communist party itself tha t has
insi sted tha t if it comes into offi ce in the nea r futur e, it wishes to do
so in coa lition with the Demo-Chri stian s, the Ameri can-backed
party in Ita ly. And if the Communists come with a coa liti o n in either
of these pl aces, it seems clear th a t they will no t get the ministri es o f
defense o r of the interi o r.
I think we also have to place a cert a in amount o f reli ance on the
Europeans. Walter spoke of since re people who have been "de–
luded ," o r mi sled.
If
in fact thi s is true of a considerabl e po rti on o f
the European electora te, there a re o thers , such as the French Gaul–
lists, who are prepared to g ive the Communists a chance to play
accordin g to the rul es of the parliamenlary game.
