LITHUANIA OTHER COMMENTARY : Gorbachev’s Survival Isn’t What Matters

Even Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s idolaters must concede that his handling of the Lithuania crisis makes George III look deft. How the new Soviet dictator can extricate himself from this confrontation of his own creation, without humiliation or disaster, is not easy to see.

For, George Bush, too, this is a great test.

Thus far, his Soviet policy has been to wish perestroika well and not rub Gorbachev’s nose in his disasters in the streets of Central Europe and at the ballot box in the Soviet Union.

The policy has succeeded, because, as Gorbachev held back the tanks, he advanced America’s goals. But now, Soviet policy and U.S. principles are in collision.

Since 1940, we have recognized Lithuania; we always regarded its incorporation into the Soviet Union as an act of abduction, whose sole sanction lay in secret protocols of a Hitler-Stalin pact that even Moscow concedes to be illicit. Since Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points, we have been the global champions of self-determination.

A posture of even-handedness will not do.

A square-off between a small republic of 3.9 million and the greatest military power on Earth is not one in which America can credibly urge both sides to exercise “restraint.” Moreover, Vilnius is in the right, Moscow is in the wrong, and we all know it. Bush may sympathize with Gorbachev; he must support Lithuania.

While the President is entitled to play this hand, and his desire not to destroy his relationship with the Soviet leader is understandable, there is no doubt where U.S. interests lie.

Gorbachev’s survival is inconsequential, when placed alongside our vital interest in seeing to it that the prison house of nations, the Soviet Union, with its 10,000 warheads aimed at the United States, is opened up, and Moscow ends its Cold War against the West.

Before there can be real peace, Lenin’s ruling party must be replaced by a regime that looks to Russian national interests, none of which are threatened by the United States.

If losing Gorbachev is the price of freedom for the Baltic states, Americans don’t even have a choice.