EDITH KURZWEIL
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tions. This is not to say that Italians are friendly to the Soviet Union.
On the contrary, even their Communists allege to fear its repression.
But President Reagan's declarations of military might and of pro–
jected armaments that are aimed to reach behind the Iron Curtain
are listened to and magnified. Inevitably, local Communists make
the most of understandable fears, as they organize meetings for the
Salvadorean insurgents, which then turn into general attacks against
"American imperialism," into denunciations of warmongering, and
into recollections of our role in Vietnam.
If
the word is mightier than the sword, then our representatives
have used it badly. For it is being turned against us, not only by
"enemies," but by those friends who would "want to live in America
to escape the neutron bomb," and by those who listen to
Reaganomics. I am not at all addressing America's need for defense,
but the fact that pompous, excessive, and exaggerated public
statements about it are countereffective. Such statements, in fact,
will make it more difficult for President Pertini to convince Italian
voters to support NATO, or to be in "the first line of defense." In
addition, Americans underestimate the importance Italians and
other Central Europeans attribute to their emergence as a "third
force" - even though at the twenty-fifth anniversary celebrations of
the European Economic Community only the weaknesses of the
alliance managed to be highlighted. This third force, however
illusory it might be, is perceived by some as another capitalist
coali tion, and by others as a means of constructing a Eurosocialism.
But the hope that a strong Europe will act as a buffer, or rather as a
way out, between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. is greater than ever.
This is a given. So whether we like it or not, we must remember that
while all the European countries continue to depend on us to protect
them, their first allegiance is to each other- no matter how much
they may quarrel.
April 3, 1982
