The U.S.S.R. - France - Germany

Abstract

SOVIET attitudes toward the Western powers fluctuate principally, though not exclusively, according to these powers' policies regarding Germany. The reason is obvious to any reader of the Soviet press, which regularly devotes much of its space to the German problem. Even now, Vietnam and the related question of competition with the Chinese party within the Communist movement have not relegated the German question to a secondary place. The most one may say is that the post-Khrushchev Soviet leaders look in two directions: at the German question insofar as Europe is concerned, and at the competition with the Chinese party for primacy among the non-European Communist parties and among the radical nationalists in the undeveloped countries. Vietnam is the most spectacular battleground of that Soviet-Chinese competition in the eyes of non-European Communists and radical nationalists. The Twenty-Third Congress of the C.P.S.U. marked the moment, perhaps only fleeting, of Soviet resounding triumph over the Chinese rivals. Except for the Chinese, Japanese, Albanian, one or two small and insignificant parties such as that of New Zealand, and, of course, the routed Indonesian party, all Communist parties were represented at that Congress and all paid dutiful homage to Moscow. The antiWestern oriented non-Communist parties such as those of the United Arab Republic, Mali and Guinea, joined the chorus of praise. The highlight of the Congress came with the enthusiastic exclamation by the chief Vietnamese delegate who declared that every one of his countrymen had two Fatherlands: Vietnam and the Soviet Union!