Selling ‘Success’ At The Helsinki Summit: Extolling The Emperor’s New Clothes?

The Center for Security Policy today released an analysis of the just-concluded Bush-Gorbachev summit in Helsinki which sharply challenged up-beat assessments of the meeting’s results.

This analysis, entitled Post-Mortem on the Helsinki Summit: Soviet ‘Cooperation’ Like This We Can’t Afford, discloses that, beneath a patina of highly publicized superpower solidarity, Soviet interests and policies concerning the Middle East continue to diverge significantly from those of the United States. In part, at least, "success" was achieved by the United States’ refusal to be disagreeable, for example, by demanding the withdrawal of Soviet advisers from Iraq.

"President Gorbachev made one thing perfectly clear at Helsinki: He has no intention of jeopardizing Saddam Hussein’s control on power or his arsenal of genocidal weapons," said Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., the Center’s director. "Despite the two presidents’ much-ballyhooed joint statement to the effect that — if the U.N. sanctions do not work — other steps will be considered, Gorbachev manifestly will not contemplate the use of force among such steps."

Gaffney added, "It is no accident that Gorbachev is insisting that the Persian Gulf crisis be settled without force, that an Arab solution be found, and that an international conference be held to expand the scope of the current diplomatic discussions beyond Iraqi aggression to include Israel. These demands are calculated to check U.S. latitude for unilateral action and to curry favor with Arab and other audiences at American expense."

"We ignore the obvious import of these initiatives at great peril to U.S. and allied interests in the region; worse yet, we would be world-class fools if we undertake to reward Gorbachev financially for undertaking them," Gaffney concluded.

Of particular concern to the Center is the prospect of large scale U.S. infusions of technology and capital into the Soviet Union’s energy sector. Post-Mortem provides a detailed critique of the numerous unsound strategic, economic, and environmental factors arguing against such an initiative.

Copies of Post-Mortem may be obtained by contacting the Center.