European Maneuvers

The United States has muddled an effort, albeit modest, to relax restrictions on East-West travel--an action that once again isolates Washington from its closest allies while opening propaganda opportunities for the Eastern Europeans.

This latest mistake came at another in a series of meetings of the signatories of the 1975 Helsinki accords on European security and cooperation. Each of these follow-up sessions has been designed to facilitate the original agreement, with the Western Europeans, the United States and Canada focusing in particular on the human-rights elements of that agreement.

A compromise had been negotiated that would have made some improvements in handling East-West exchanges, including simplification of administrative procedures for the reunion of separated families, East-West marriages, visits to see elderly and sick persons, assurances of privacy for both mail and telephone contacts and proposals to increase exchanges of a variety of kinds between the two halves of Europe.

The U.S. delegation had given preliminary approval to the language, as had all other delegations at the meeting in Switzerland, but was awaiting final word from the State Department. That word, a veto, came too late to salvage any agreement. No lame excuse about “loopholes,” no vague muttering about the failure of Moscow to implement faithfully the agreements of the past, can explain away the American response. And the stubbornness of the American government stood out all the more starkly the next day when the Soviet Union diverted attention from its much-blemished record on exchanges to implement its summit promise to President Reagan with the largest release of persons in divided-family cases since the issue was raised 30 years ago.

“We should look for progress wherever it’s possible,” a disappointed West German diplomat commented, unable to conceal his criticism of the U.S. veto. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies, who were unanimous in supporting the compromise at the Bern meeting, know a good deal more about the realities of a divided Europe than those in Washington who so easily threw away an opportunity for progress.

In the absence of a satisfactory explanation for the American veto, analysts assumed that the United States was opposing the proposal because of the failure of Moscow to meet fundamental human-rights standards in handling Jews seeking to leave the Soviet Union. The abuse of Jews seeking emigration is without doubt one of the most blatant violations of basic rights, and inevitably is an obstacle to all efforts to improve East-West relations. But it was a mistake to try to use the leverage of a resolution at the European security conference to attempt to pry, at the 11th hour, some concessions from Moscow on an issue that has clouded relations for years.

There will be an opportunity in Vienna in November, when the consultations are renewed, to repair the damage done by the American veto and at least try to restore the unity of the Western nations--essential to constructive bargaining between East and West.