The New Danube Waltz

By Marguerite Johnson

Thatcher puts her best foot forward to improve East-West ties

It was the first time a British Prime Minister had ever visited Hungary, and Margaret Thatcher was determined to make the most of it. Wearing a sable hat and her warmest smile, she set out to thaw the relationship between Britain and the Communist bloc that she had helped to freeze. She called her two-day visit to wintry Budapest last week "the first step of quite a long journey" toward the goal of linking East and West.

Was this the "Iron Lady"--so christened by Leonid Brezhnev--who used to rival her good friend Ronald Reagan in anti-Soviet sentiments and rhetoric? Only four months ago, while on a visit to Washington, Thatcher had delivered some of her harshest invective ever against the U.S.S.R., accusing Moscow of conducting "a modern version of the early tyrannies of history." Yet things soon changed. Reagan's invasion, against Thatcher's advice, of the former British colony of Grenada and his heavy counterattacks in Lebanon prompted the British Prime Minister's decision to put more distance between herself and the U.S. President. As early as last summer, Thatcher's aides now admit, she had begun to reconsider her stance on dealing with the Soviets.

Thatcher's decision was reinforced by growing European concern about the cold war attitude emanating from Washington and the concurrent rise of the peace movement at home. She saw public opinion changing over the past year as a result of U.S. missile deployment in Western Europe, the breakdown in U.S.-Soviet arms talks, skepticism over American policies in Central America and Lebanon, and the U.S. move into Grenada. The U.S. presidential election and uncertainty about Soviet Leader Yuri Andropov's health were further reasons for her "deep concerns about relations between East and West," she observed. After four years devoted almost entirely to domestic and economic matters, Thatcher, who has been in office longer than any other leader of a major nation in Western Europe, sees herself as the person best equipped to serve as a link between Moscow and Washington. "I believe passionately that we share the same planet with other people who have different systems," she said before her departure for Budapest. "We really should try to cooperate in the interests of both our peoples." Associates acknowledge that she is realistic about any role she might play; she knows the real dialogue has to be between the two superpowers. "But we can help," she says. "Or at least not hinder." Her efforts to ease tensions may eventually lead her to Moscow, she observed last week, but only if the groundwork is well prepared.

As the least orthodox member of the East bloc, Hungary was the natural starting point for Thatcher's diplomatic opening. From the moment her Royal Air Force VC-10 touched down in Budapest, the Prime Minister sought to find and build on shared moments in history to strengthen the connections between the two countries. At a gala banquet in her honor, she noted that the Magna Carta of 1215 had been an influence on the Golden Bull, a similar document drawn up by a King of Hungary seven years later. She also noted that the bridge across the Danube near the Orszaghaz (parliament) was a copy of the Hammersmith Bridge over the Thames. (The Hungarian parliament, in fact, is an architectural cousin of Westminster.) In her own bridge-building exercise, Thatcher declared, "We must not allow ourselves to be prisoners of events, still less to be deflected by plausible half-truths or empty panaceas. We must wrestle with the world as it is."

The centerpiece of Thatcher's visit was a two-hour talk with Hungary's durable and popular leader, Communist Party First Secretary Janos Kadar, who has ruled the country since the 1956 revolution. The jovial Kadar, 71, arrived early for their meeting, along with ample supplies of roses, cigarettes and mineral water. He later confessed to Thatcher that he had been concerned that her plane might not be able to land because of Budapest's "London fog." Then the small talk gave way to more serious matters: East-West relations, disarmament, the possibility of increased trade between the two countries, Kadar's experiments with free enterprise within a state socialist economy.

Noting that "uncertainty is dangerous and you really just have to start to talk," Thatcher made her pitch to influential Hungarians both in and out of government in a series of informal meetings. Said one guest after listening to a 20-minute Thatcher homily on the improving British economy: "I almost became a capitalist."

The Prime Minister may have wished that she were receiving so warm a reaction back home. There, despite a comfortable 144-vote majority in Parliament, Thatcher has encountered an unaccountably bumpy stretch. Her Labor foes in the House of Commons have sharpened their claws under their new leader, Neil Kinnock, and Thatcher's Tory backbenchers have risen up in mini-rebellions. The government's recent decision to ban union members from employment at the super-secret Government Communications Headquarters in Cheltenham, because of the fear of work stoppages that could affect security, was vigorously attacked. Not only Labor and the unions but civil libertarians and many other Britons expressed opposition to the policy as fundamentally unfair. Thatcher has also been subjected to hostile grilling in the Commons about the business dealings of her son Mark, 30. He is consultant to a construction firm that was awarded a $420 million contract in Oman shortly after Thatcher visited the sultanate. She has angrily denied any impropriety.

These difficulties aside, Thatcher does not seem to have any real political worries. She can point to an approval rating of 49% and a new sense of confidence supporting the upturn in the economy. In the meantime, attempting an opening to the East hardly seemed a bad idea, although it is still uncertain as a long-range tactic. "While I'm known as the Iron Lady," Thatcher declared before leaving Budapest, "I also have a firm resolve to work on easing of tensions."

-- By Marguerite Johnson.

Reported by Bonnie Angelo/ Budapest

With reporting by Bonnie Angelo