Blusterers and Brinkmen

Even though Syria's invasion of Jordan was one of the prime reasons for the Arab summit, when President Noureddine Atassi showed up in Cairo to represent the Damascus government he seemed surprised that anyone was upset. "You said you would never permit the Palestine resistance movement to be liquidated," he told a furious Gamal Nasser. "Well, they were being liquidated and we tried to save them. What can be wrong with that?"

The Syrian force was pulled back quickly and with reportedly heavy losses. But it stayed around long enough to remind the world that the Syrians are still the biggest blusterers and brinkmen in the Middle East. When Richard Nixon dubbed them the "crazies" of the Arab world during a recent briefing for Midwestern newspapermen, it was one of those rare assessments with which both Israeli and Arab leaders could agree.

Renaissance Party. The fanatical leaders of the Baath Party who run the Damascus regime have long been Nasser's hair shirt. The Baath (literally, Renaissance) originated in Syria during World War II, blending socialism with Arab nationalism. In 1961, they supported Syria's pullout from the three-year-old United Arab Republic, thus ending Nasser's dream of an Egyptian-led Arab bloc. Currently controlled by a minority Moslem faction under General Salah Jadid, who wields the real power over the party, Syria has been rocked by no fewer than 16 coups in the past 21 years, many resulting from intraparty feuds.

When the Russians started pouring vast amounts of aid into the Arab world, Syria drifted quickly into the orbit of Soviet influence. Moscow is footing half the bill for a $400 million high dam on the Euphrates, and has agreed to build oil-storage tanks at the Horns refinery and lay 500 miles of pipeline. In return, the Russians have been granted full bunkering, refueling and repair facilities at the Syrian port of Latakia. Syria's radical rulers affect a style closer to Peking's brand of Communism than Moscow's, however, and they have never hesitated to play the two giants off against one another. When Soviet arms deliveries to replace weapons destroyed in the 1967 war fell behind schedule, Army Chief of Staff Mustafa Tlas journeyed to Peking. The Soviets caught up on their back orders.

Delirious Policy. Scarcely a year has passed in the last two decades without a public demonstration of savagery by the men who hold power, or covet it, in Syria. Prime Ministers have been shot and opponents of the regime have been killed in mass executions; two Jews, labeled Israeli spies, have been hanged--and their bodies left on display for the delectation of the bazaar crowds.

Arab rhetoric is acknowledged to be overblown, but Syria's is sometimes in a class by itself. In their campaign of frenzied anti-Western propaganda, the Baathists once actually issued an official warning to the populace to beware of CIA "vampires," who were plotting to collect Syrian blood for wounded American G.I.s in Viet Nam.

Its foreign policy has been scarcely less delirious. Syria was one of the first Arab nations to supply Palestinian guerrillas with aid and training camps. They are perpetually threatening war against Israel. Last fall they sent tanks to seal off their border with Lebanon in an attempt to support Palestinian commandos there against the moderate Beirut regime. Nothing but scorn is reserved for the kingdom of Jordan; Atassi is fond of saying that "the liberation of Palestine passes through Amman," presumably along with Syrian tanks. Nor is neighboring Iraq counted as a friend though it, too, has a Baathist regime. The Iraqi branch of the party has been too independent to suit the Damascene Baathists.

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