Piping Up from the NSC

The Secretary of State's stern talk about the Soviet Union sounded like the cooing of a turtledove compared with comments from National Security Council Senior Staffer Richard Pipes. In a briefing last week with a Reuters reporter, the hawkish Harvard professor explained his theory that mounting economic problems would either force Moscow to make domestic reforms or provoke it into dangerous foreign adventurism. Reuters simplified this by quoting him as saying that Soviet leaders would have to choose between changing their Communist system in the direction followed by the West or "going to war." Pipes also was reported to have expressed concerns about West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher's upcoming trip to Moscow.

The Administration quickly labeled the comments as "not authorized," and Haig sent a note to Genscher assuring him that he was "outraged" at any implication that the West German was susceptible to Soviet pressure. The fact is, however, that Pipes' views coincide with those of the Administration in most respects. He headed the 1976 "Team B" task force to assess Soviet strategy, which argued that Soviet leaders are pursuing a course of nuclear superiority. The Administration's many voices are all reinforcing the same tough anti-Soviet line.

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