THE BALTICS : Native Ties Can’t Save Job for U.S. Leader of Estonian Army : Dismissal of American commander follows 2 years of tirades against former Soviets, such as calling officer corps ‘rabble.’

Fifty years after he and his family escaped advancing Soviet troops, Alexander Einseln returned to his native Estonia with a lifelong mission: to lead its army out of the Soviet era.

A tall, retired U.S. Army colonel with the authoritative air of an H. Norman Schwarzkopf or a George Patton, he had the experience to do it. He was a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars and had been a staffer with the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

But after two years as this Baltic nation’s top military commander, the 64-year-old Einseln was dismissed last week amid growing criticism that he was too brash and, for a soldier, too outspoken.

Charges that another officer was running an arms-smuggling ring from army headquarters led to his downfall. No one suggested Einseln’s involvement, but longtime detractors said he should be held responsible.

In an interview after his dismissal, the gruff-talking Einseln spoke emotionally about his struggle to instill democratic values here. He said he was appalled by the incompetence and dishonesty he confronted on his return.

“This was not the way Estonia was 50 years ago,” he said. “I was old enough to remember. What surprised me most was how little I understood the impact of totalitarian, Communist rule here.”

He didn’t keep it to himself.

Within a year, he had fired over half of the nation’s officer corps, arguing that their Red Army training had rendered them useless. “I will not be the leader of rabble or some damned totalitarian Marxist-Leninist-thinking group of officers,” he said last year.

Many in this Vermont-size country, which prides itself as the most Westernized of the 15 former Soviet republics, found Einseln’s tirades insulting. When they suggested he tone it down, Einseln just cranked it up.

He raised the ire of Estonia’s all-male leadership last month by boycotting a reception for U.S. Defense Secretary William J. Perry on the grounds that Estonia’s Defense Ministry had failed to invite its top female officers.

The tension came to a head with a bitter public feud with Defense Minister Andrus Oovel, who accused Einseln of mismanagement and a tendency “to see himself as God.” The Estonian American commander retorted by threatening to throw Oovel out a window.

There was also criticism of Einseln’s suggestion that the campaign to oust him may have been orchestrated by Moscow, which has expressed uneasiness about the only retired U.S. officer to head the military of an ex-Soviet republic.

Estonian President Lennart Meri, a longtime friend who recruited Einseln for the job, finally turned against him.

Meri promoted Einseln from lieutenant general to general--the first member of the Estonian military to hold that rank since World War II--then fired him as commander.

Even critics agreed that Einseln had boosted standards in the armed forces. Many believed that he could win NATO membership for Estonia.

Einseln said he plans to go home to Mountain View, Calif., and put his finances in order.

But he is leaving Estonia with the same pledge he made 50 years ago: to return. Next time, he said, he may start a political party or run for president.

“You never get rid of a fellow like me by attacking me,” Einseln said, flashing his blue eyes under a crop of thick, neatly combed white hair. “When someone unjustly accuses me, that brings out the fight in me.”