The Beauty of Freedom

By Hugh Sidey

There are only two important forces in the affairs of men, Napoleon once said. One is the sword and the other the spirit, and "in the long run, the sword will always be conquered by the spirit." A diplomat recalled that observation after watching the Soviets in Vienna. Old, wondering men, slow of body and even of wit, moved through the ceremonial rituals, letting everyone know without meaning to that their search for legitimacy is based on brute force. They seem worried about their position, far more than we appreciate.

No hard data from the Vienna summit will prove that, but one could feel it in those ancient streets. Quiet crowds watched the laborious and cloaked comings and goings of Leonid Brezhnev at the Hofburg Palace. The grand patrons of the Vienna Opera stealthily turned their proud profiles when the lights dimmed and in the middle of Mozart raised their opera glasses for furtive study of the Brezhnev mask. Soviet proposals at the negotiating table were from old chapters. Their speeches were uninspired. They seemed oddly fearful of the future, even with their massive arsenal.

Wherever one caught a glimpse in Vienna of the American and Soviet systems displayed side by side, the beauty of freedom showed through. That is not to diminish the danger from the Russians or to ignore the problems of America, but along the Danube, far from gas lines and the catcalls of presidential candidates, one appreciates an open system that renews itself.

The U.S. team appeared young, lean and flavored with humor. The Soviets were heavy, suspicious, and of the 16 who lined up for the treaty signing, twelve had mouths that swooped dourly down. So did their minds. All the new thoughts for disarmament were from Carter, the prodding to move along was his. One could feel the flexibility in the Americans, the license to think almost anything. "It was like seeing Brezhnev in slow motion," said one American, who had watched him pound the table and bound around rooms in earlier years.

Among the more candid Russians who came along, the worries drifted to the surface in their private talk. Brezhnev had flown over Eastern Europe, and the tremors from Pope John Paul II's visit were still in the air. The Soviet economy was in stress, nationalities more assertive. The old men seemed to have only one answer: more missiles, more tanks.

Leonid Mitrofanovich Zamyatin, their chief press secretary, leaned back in his nighttime encounters with Jody Powell and spouted the Soviet line with a certain disdain. After all, he had regularly chewed up past U.S. press secretaries: Pierre Salinger, Ron Ziegler, Ron Nessen. Powell, the Vienna (say Vye-an-uh), Ga., debater, was clearly superior. His voice and manner were more forceful, he refuted the Soviet charges with facts and a down-home touch of nastiness, zinged his adversary with some humor. The thought crossed several minds that Zamyatin, like the other Soviets, had been too long in his iron cocoon.

One member of the U.S. delegation looked around the table on the night that the four top negotiators of each nation dined. The youngest Soviet was six years older than the oldest American. The U.S. team voted Brezhnev himself to be the warmest and wittiest man in the group, which is devastating flattery. Talking across the table about the Cubans in Africa, Carter may have been tougher than at any other time in his presidency; yet, in public, he showed almost the concern of a son watching a doddering father. In the American scheme, personal concern does live alongside political disagreement. Not so in the Kremlin.

There is an equation in world power. The more you get, the more it costs; the greater the influence, the greater the trouble in keeping it. Along with their creaking bones, the Soviet leaders were obviously feeling burdened by demands from their extended ambitions. In the old days, when they did not have the power and reach they have today, it was easier to be an irresponsible bully. Nothing happened at Vienna to suggest that they are going to stop making either trouble or weapons, but the overtones from this summit were a needed reminder at a nervous time in the U.S. that our most precious resource remains freedom.

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