U.S.-Europe Split Worst Since Vietnam

The U.S. raid on Libya created a tense and troublesome split Tuesday between the United States and most of its allies, pushing the United States more out of step with Europe than at any time since the war in Vietnam.

In West Germany, left-wing militants rioted in West Berlin and Hamburg, and orderly anti-American demonstrations were reported in Frankfurt, Bonn, Mannheim, Stuttgart and other West German cities.

There were also violent anti-American demonstrations in London and Vienna and peaceful protests in Athens and a number of other world capitals.

In Europe, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain stood alone in supporting the raid, and the Italian government was most outspoken in denouncing it. The governments of Spain and France had refused to let the American F-111 fighter-bombers fly over their territories after leaving bases in England.

Only Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany joined Thatcher in expressing understanding of Washington’s motivation, but even he deplored the escalation of violence.

Some European leaders were irritated that the raid came only hours after the foreign ministers of the European Communities met in The Hague in hopes of preventing an American strike. At that meeting, the ministers obviously offered President Reagan too few curbs on Libya to induce him to call off the attack.

A Friend of Kadafi

The Greek government of Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, who regards himself as a personal friend of Libya’s Col. Moammar Kadafi, called for another emergency meeting of the foreign ministers. They are expected to agree to a session in Paris on Thursday to discuss the raid and its possible repercussions.

Just as Thatcher’s decision to allow American bombers to mount the attack from their British bases was the surest sign of support for the United States in Europe, the refusal by both France and Spain to allow the U.S. planes to cross their airspace amounted to the rudest rejections of American policy. This forced the bombers to detour into a circuitous, 2,800-mile route on their mission to Tripoli.

In a statement approved both by President Francois Mitterrand and Premier Jacques Chirac, the French government confirmed Tuesday that it had turned down the American request for approval to fly over France. While condemning the original terrorism that prompted Reagan to act, the French found nothing praiseworthy in his response. France, the statement said, “deplored that the intolerable escalation of violence has led to an act of reprisal that by itself sets off another chain of violence.”

Damage to French Embassy

Relations between the United States and France were not made any easier by damages to the French Embassy in Tripoli during the raid. A spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry said that he did not know the extent of the damages but that no one was hurt in the attack.

Secretary of Defense Casper W. Weinberger had said it was virtually impossible that the embassy had been hit. But a member of the embassy staff in Tripoli told the Associated Press that the building was damaged by the effect of a blast in a nearby building.

Spain gave a few details about its refusal to let the planes fly over its territory. At a Madrid news conference in which both he and Danish Prime Minister Poul Schlueter criticized the raid, Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez of Spain said that U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Vernon A. Walters, while on a tour of European capitals, had posed two hypothetical questions to Gonzalez on Saturday: whether, in the event of an American attack on Libya, U.S. military planes could fly over Spanish territory and whether the Americans could use the four U.S.-Spanish military bases in Spain in such an operation.

No to Both Questions

Gonzalez said he replied no to both questions. A spokesman for the Spanish Foreign Ministry said the Spanish government opposes any military solution to the problem of Libya.

Although he criticized the raid, Gonzalez, like many other European leaders, coupled this criticism with an attack on Kadafi for his loud and daily threats of retaliation. Kadafi, for example, has threatened to attack all U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization bases in Southern Europe. “I think threats such as the ones recently uttered by the Libyan leader are not tolerable,” Gonzalez said.

While Thatcher defended her support of the United States to a jeering House of Commons, the most vociferous criticism of the raid by a European leader came in Rome when Prime Minister Bettino Craxi spoke to the Italian Parliament.

“I declare the disagreement of the Italian government with the initiative and responsibility assumed by the United States,” Craxi told the Chamber of Deputies. “Far from weakening terrorism, this military action risks provoking explosive reactions of fanaticism and criminal and suicide acts.”

Exposed to Risks

Craxi said that Italians in Libya have been exposed to grave risks by the American raid. “America had ignored the fact that it was the European countries which were threatened by terrorism,” he said.

In Bonn, Chancellor Kohl, who regards himself as a staunch ally of President Reagan, tried hard to show sympathy for American frustration over international terrorism. “Those who practice and preach violence like Col. Kadafi must consider that those threatened will protect themselves,” Kohl said.

“I have understanding for the growing exasperation of the American people,” he told a news conference. “On the other hand, we have always said a violent solution will not be successful and is not very promising.”

Statements of disapproval also came from Greek Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias, Norwegian Foreign Minister Svenn Stray, Belgian Foreign Minister Leo Tindemans and the Dutch Foreign Ministry.

Nonaligned Nations Meet

In New Delhi, meanwhile, an emergency session of the nonaligned movement led by Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi condemned the U.S. attack as a “dastardly, blatant and unprovoked act of aggression.”

“India and the entire nonaligned movement are profoundly shocked and strongly deplore the U.S. bombings,” Gandhi said in a separate statement.

Gandhi is chairman of the 101-nation nonaligned movement, an organization representing most of the world’s poorest nations. Fifty-two of the member nations are represented at the New Delhi conference, which was meeting before the attack occurred and which then went into emergency session.

In an even more strongly worded statement, approved unanimously by the delegates, the United States was urged to “put an immediate halt to its military operations,” and the nonaligned countries extended “heartfelt sympathies” to the Libyan people “for the losses they have suffered.”

Antagonistic to U.S.

Speakers at the emergency session here included several countries openly antagonistic to the United States, including Libya, Nicaragua, Iran, Uganda, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Cuba.

The Nicaraguan government also condemned the U.S. attack, saying it “endangers world peace.”

“The U.S. government, on the pretext of combatting terrorism, has launched this aggression exercising the most indiscriminate international terrorism in ordering the bombing of objectives in populated zones of Tripoli,” the leftist Sandinista government said.

In a statement read over national radio Monday night and published in the official newspaper Barricada on Tuesday, Nicaragua called the attack “irresponsible” and said Reagan had no evidence to back up his accusations against Libya.

“In the face of this new act of aggression, Nicaragua . . . expresses its solidarity with the people of Libya and calls to the international community to make all necessary efforts to demand that the United States behave in accordance with the basic norms of international law,” the statement said.

Also contributing to this story were Times staff writers Rone Tempest in New Delhi and Marjorie Miller in Managua, Nicaragua.