"You Are Not Alone"

By GEORGE J. CHURCH

At home abroad, Reagan charms and reassures his European hosts

Obviously tired but exuberant, like many another tourist returning from a whirlwind trip to Europe, Ronald Reagan had an inspirational thought for the 15,000 well-wishers who gathered at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington Friday night to welcome him home. In 10,659 miles of travel through five nations in ten days, and meetings with a Pope, a Queen and heads of government of the 15 other NATO countries, the President discovered that "America has a lot of friends." Reagan noted that he had told West Germans, and by extension all of America's allies: "We are with you. You are not alone." He added: "I come home with a message from our allies. We are not alone. They are with us."

It was, of course, not quite as simple as that. On a personal level, Reagan's Grand Tour had indeed gone well. The President nodded, literally, in the Vatican, but from then on moved through an extremely taxing schedule with grace, affability and aplomb. He read his big set speeches to members of the British Parliament and the West German Bundestag with flawless timing and resonance, and drew a laughing cheer from the Bonn politicians with a deft putdown of a solitary heckler. The man in the rue, via or Strasse could hardly help noticing that Reagan neither looked nor sounded like the crude, hip-shooting nuclear cowboy so often drawn by European caricaturists.

But there were shadows on the ceremonial glitter of the tour. Germans who took to the streets to protest against nuclear weapons seemed equally anxious to lambaste the U.S. and ridicule Reagan. Supertight security precautions both annoyed Reagan's European hosts and made the President seem a remote figure. European crowds, who had attended big rallies and waved small American flags for previous touring Presidents, this time had to settle for watching pageantry-filled spectacles on TV or at best catching a brief glimpse of a whizzing motorcade.

The Israeli invasion of Lebanon crowded the carefully staged media events of the tour for headline space and TV time on two continents. Indeed, the fighting conflicted with the image of mastery of foreign policy that Reagan was trying to convey: the U.S. seemed impotent to restrain a close ally from taking an action that the President deplored.

The early verdict on Reagan's trip has to be mixed. To that sizable majority of Europeans already disposed to be pro-American, the President conveyed reassurance that the U.S. remains committed to the NATO alliance and is genuinely seeking peace and arms reduction in negotiations with the Soviets. But Reagan encountered much skepticism from the burgeoning European "peace" movement; Josef Leinen, one of the organizers of an antinuclear rally in Bonn, challenged the President to prove that he was not merely mouthing "empty disarmament slogans." In face-to-face discussions with European political leaders, Reagan reinforced personal rapport but gained little more agreement on policy than had existed before he left Washington.

The President got a foretaste of these inconclusive results at the end of the first leg of his ten-day tour, the economic summit meeting at Versailles, where the heads of the seven strongest non-Communist industrial powers gathered. While Nancy Reagan was off visiting the graves of American servicemen buried at Normandy, the seven leaders were at work on a communique that set up groups to study possible compromises on two key issues: European desire that the U.S. intervene in currency markets to prevent wild fluctuations, and American insistence that European governments curb loans to and trade with the Soviet bloc. French President null Mitterrand, the summit host, described one section of the communique as "ambiguous and permissive." This meant, presumably, that anyone could read into it whatever significance he or she chose. Mitterrand added: "Je suis reste sur ma faim" (I am still hungry). Admitted a White House aide: "Versailles wasn't the smash we felt Ottawa had been in '81."

From Versailles, Reagan set out Monday on the most exhausting day of his trip. The first stop was Rome, where the presidential party helicoptered from Ciampino Airport to the Vatican Gardens. Reagan and Pope John Paul II went into the Vatican Library alone for 50 minutes of private conversation--in English, one of several languages that the Pope speaks fluently. Their official parties then joined them for a ceremony televised live on two continents. Reagan described his journey to Europe as "a pilgrimage for peace"; the Pope remarked that "the horror of all warfare, whether nuclear or not, makes it totally unacceptable as a means of settling differences." As the Pope spoke in the hot Vatican Library, made more stuffy by TV lights, millions of TV viewers watched Reagan's head droop on his chest, bob up and go down again; finally he rubbed his hand across his face and popped to attention. As the Reagans left the Vatican, 250 American priests and seminarians burst into a well-rehearsed and rousing chorus of America the Beautiful, bringing tears to the President's eyes.

The Reagans then sped off to two Renaissance palaces: the Quirinale, for lunch with Italian President Alessandro Pertini, and the Chigi, for a call on Prime Minister Giovanni Spadolini. The ceremonies were a bit rushed, because the President was running late. No matter; the Italians have no serious policy differences with Washington, and they seemed flattered by the attention paid to them.

Aboard Air Force One, flying out of Rome after the 6 1/2-hour visit, aides hung a DO NOT DISTURB sign on the door of Reagan's private compartment. The leader of the free world was taking a nap. Said one adviser: "He snapped back pretty well by the time we hit England."

Queen Elizabeth II greeted Reagan in the magnificent gardens of Windsor Castle, outside London, from which King John in 1215 set forth to promulgate the Magna Carta. The Reagans dined that night at the castle with the Queen and 35 guests, including a very pregnant Diana, Princess of Wales. A formal banquet for the Reagans was held at Windsor the following night. No U.S. President had been entertained before at the castle, much less spent two nights there.

On Tuesday morning, Reagan took a highly publicized horseback ride with Queen Elizabeth through Windsor Home Park. Reagan's chestnut gelding, Centennial, donated to the royal stables by the Canadian Mounties, was certainly no match for the spirited steeds the President rides in the U.S. With stiff upper lip, a palace aide described the horse as "reasonable." Reagan paused to exchange inane but affable banter with reporters. Queen Elizabeth, wearing a yellow scarf, listened for a while, looking distinctly displeased, then began to ride off. A moment later, Reagan followed. British and American accounts of the royal family's reception for Reagan differed considerably. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Deaver said the Reagans "had a wonderful time. We all did." To some British eyes, the Queen often looked tight-lipped and unsmiling.

Queen Elizabeth may have been put off by the extreme security precautions enveloping Reagan's trip. For instance, her aides refused a request that U.S. stewards watch over preparation of the President's food. Other hosts were miffed too. In Rome, Spadolini was kept by U.S. security men from going through the tight cordon outside the Palazzo Chigi until Italian police could finally inform them that the gentleman they were holding up from a meeting with Reagan was the Prime Minister of Italy. In Bonn, U.S. security men annoyed the Germans by insisting on inspecting the carbines of an honor guard welcoming Reagan to make sure the guns were not loaded. The security obsession was not confined to Americans. Outside Bonn, West German security agents searched the cars of the U.S. Secret Service men guarding Reagan, opening hoods and trunks as they looked for hidden explosives.

The highlight of Reagan's visit to London was his speech to 500 members of both Houses of Parliament, government officials and other guests in the Royal Gallery at the Palace of Westminster on Tuesday. The occasion was filled with the pageantry that the British manage better than anyone else. Five Yeomen of the Guard, in Tudor uniforms and carrying halberds, stood behind the President, who was flanked by parliamentary dignitaries in full robes and wigs. At the far end of the gallery, Reagan faced a portrait of George III, as he graciously noted in his speech. The President recalled that on a visit to the British embassy in Washington last year, where he also encountered a portrait of the monarch against whom the American colonists rebelled, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher counseled him to "let bygones be bygones."

Reagan's speech stressed the theme that the Western allies are united by cultural and moral values that stand in sharp contrast to Soviet totalitarianism. The President struck both harsh and conciliatory notes. He summoned the allies to a "crusade for freedom" that would "leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history." He caused a stir in the hall when he invited Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev to speak on American television if Reagan could also address Soviet citizens on TV. At one point, he expounded on the "astounding" economic failures of the U.S.S.R., declaring that "a country which employs one-fifth of its people in agriculture is unable to feed its own people." To some listeners, Reagan sounded as if he were predicting imminent Soviet economic collapse--a view with which many of the most pro-American NATO leaders emphatically disagree.

Though both the President's delivery and the responses were restrained, in keeping with British tradition, Reagan drew rumbles of "hear, hear" and a burst of applause by asserting that in the Falkland Islands British soldiers are fighting not "for lumps of rock and earth" but for the principle that armed aggression must not be allowed to succeed.

At breakfast with Reagan the next day, Prime Minister Thatcher, an ideological soul mate, positively glowed. "This has been a tremendously successful visit," she said. Some other Britons were less pleased. The Guardian, an intellectual left-of-center newspaper, called Reagan "a wonderful old smoothie" but, style aside, viewed his speech as cold war rhetoric. Though the leaders of the opposition Labor Party attended the Royal Gallery speech, many backbenchers boycotted it. Members of a left-wing faction held a simultaneous meeting to protest what they viewed as a simplistic, black-and-white approach to NATO-Soviet relations.

From London, Reagan flew on Wednesday to Bonn, where he faced one of his most difficult tasks. West German politics are rived by an exceptionally wide generation gap. Older Germans, who vividly remember war and foreign occupation, are mostly pro-NATO, though often worried about American commitment to the alliance. Youths under 30 are flocking in growing numbers to an antinuclear movement that tends to consider a missile-armed NATO a greater threat to peace than the Soviet forces across the East German border. Reagan in effect would be addressing two Germanys.

Reagan's first effort, a private meeting with West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, went badly. Schmidt stressed the importance of detente to Germans. Reagan replied that after Soviet actions in Afghanistan and Poland "you can't talk about detente." Reagan pressed for higher West German spending on conventional arms. Schmidt was noncommittal, pointing out that West Germany, unlike the U.S., imposes a draft on military-age youths. Neither leader was sorry to end the prickly talk a few minutes early. This enabled Reagan to rest for ten minutes in the office of Bundestag President Richard Stuecklen before addressing the West German parliament.

The speech to the Bundestag was one of the major successes of Reagan's tour. In a message that he repeated everywhere in Europe, but that had special force in West Germany, the President assured his listeners that the U.S. military buildup was a sign of American determination to live up to its commitments to defend its allies. To his memorable "You are not alone" line, the President added, "Our adversaries would be foolishly mistaken should they gamble that Americans would abandon their alliance responsibilities, no matter how severe the test."

Reagan's speech also addressed the peace movement directly and cogently. Said the President: "To those who march for peace, my heart is with you. I would be at the head of your parade if I believed marching alone could bring about a more secure world ... The question is how to proceed." To previous U.S. proposals for elimination of intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe and reduction of strategic nuclear arms, Reagan added a suggestion for cutbacks in conventional forces. NATO and the Warsaw Pact countries, he said, should reduce their armed forces in Europe to 900,000 each: 700,000 ground troops, 200,000 air force personnel. U.S. officials have made essentially the same proposal before in negotiations that have been dragging on in Vienna for nine years. Agreement has been blocked because the two alliances have different counts for the size of the forces they maintain now. By U.S. figures, the NATO reductions in ground troops would be 91,000; the Warsaw Pact cutback would be 262,000.

The Bundestag Deputies interrupted Reagan with applause 21 times. At one point, Karl-Heinz Hansen, a Deputy who had been expelled from Schmidt's Social Democratic Party because of his anti-NATO views, cried, "El Salvador." Reagan paused and mock-innocently asked, "Is there an echo in here?" The Deputies showed their approval of this skillful handling of a heckler with laughter and cheers.

Leaders of the peace movement showed that they had been listening too when they convened an antinuclear rally the next day. At least 200,000 people from all parts of West Germany poured into the Beuel section of Bonn, across the Rhine from the windowless conference chamber where Reagan was attending a summit meeting of the NATO countries. A widely distributed leaflet for the rally was strongly anti-American and anti-NATO; one placard read HEIL, RONALD REAGAN. But the mood of the crowd was as much pacifist as anti-Reagan, and unexpectedly relaxed. Said retired Dutch General M.H. von Meyenfeldt, who addressed the rally: "There are an awful lot of people out there who are here for the sun." Many speakers referred to Reagan's Bundestag remarks and challenged the President to prove that he is really ready, in Organizer Leinen's words, "to begin a crusade for peace and disarmament."

The NATO summit, the first since 1978, was a cut-and-dried affair. The government leaders welcomed Spain as the 16th member of the alliance, made ten-minute speeches without debate or discussion, and issued a communique that had been drafted by aides long before they arrived in Bonn. The communique endorsed U.S. arms-control proposals but, to American disappointment, pledged the alliance members to increase defense spending only in the most general, nonbinding terms. Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau judged the whole affair to be a waste of time. Said he: "One should expect more than rubber-stamping from heads of government and state who travel thousands of miles. And yet that is what it is. Each head of government makes a speech paraphrasing the communique."

Well, not every head of government. Reagan, just before the end of the ceremonies Thursday afternoon, launched into a ten-minute extemporaneous address that he delivered with deep feeling. Said one State Department official: "That was the real Reagan." The President talked of the Soviet Union's unkept promises of free elections in Eastern Europe after World War II, its crushing of the Hungarian, Czechoslovak and Polish experiments in freedom. He expressed again his belief that the form of detente practiced in the 1970s had been "a one-way street."

For all that, Reagan assured his colleagues, he did not want a return to cold war and had no intention of waging economic warfare against the U.S.S.R. Quite the contrary, he said; the West should be ready to trade with and help the Soviet Union, provided that the U.S.S.R. signaled "in deeds" that "it was prepared to be a responsible member of the international community." Beyond that, he said, he wanted to do away with the armed camps into which the world is divided. He even expressed hope that Soviet leaders would some day be sitting at the table with his NATO colleagues, talking not about East-West relations but about how to lift the developing world out of its poverty.

The shortest stop on Reagan's trip was a 3-hr. 10-min. visit to West Berlin on Friday. There, the only really hostile demonstrators of the week had gathered. Upwards of 2,000 collected for an illegal rally some miles from the airport where Reagan landed and hurled cobblestones at police who tried to disperse them with tear gas. Some 200 rioters were injured, and 271 were arrested. The protesters set 15 fires, burning cars, police barricades and a furniture shop. Said one demonstrator: "We thought Reagan would see the fires from the air."

The President, however, had already landed at Tempelhof Airport, now a U.S. military installation. There, for the only time on his European tour, he plunged into a crowd -- of "G.I. Joes and Jills," as he put it. The President seemed tired and moved stiffly because of his bulletproof vest. There was one touching note: a little girl slipped between the legs of a Secret Service man and thrust a bouquet at Rea gan as he was reviewing troops. Without breaking stride, the President grasped the flowers in his left hand while continuing to salute with his right. Quite unintentionally, the incident symbolized the image he was trying to convey to Europe: military determination on the one hand, offers of negotiation and arms control on the other.

After a visit to the Berlin Wall, where for a fleeting moment he mischievously put one foot over a line marking a no man's land between the two zones, the President pursued what had become a full-fledged peace offensive in a speech at the Charlottenburg Palace. His audience consisted of 25,000 West Berliners who had written for free tickets weeks in advance. Said Reagan: "We shortly will approach the Soviet Union with proposals in such areas as notification of strategic exercises, of missile launches, and expanded exchange of strategic-forces data." The aim would be to prevent nuclear war from starting by accident. Aides said the President will expand on these ideas in a speech to a U.N. session on disarmament in New York City this week.

One last ceremony remained before the President flew home: a formal farewell back in Bonn. Chancellor Schmidt, for all the testiness of his private meeting with Reagan two days earlier, was gracious and complimentary. Quoting from Reagan's speeches to the Bundestag and in Berlin, Schmidt asserted, "When the President of the United States says that the shores of Europe are our shores, and that the borders of Europe are our borders, and that the freedom of Berlin is our freedom -- it was important for people here and for the people of Europe to hear this. Thank you, Mr. President."

Reagan replied: "Diplomacy is important, but friendship leaves an even more lasting impression. Your friendship for us has been an especially moving experience." It was an effective parting note. The President's trip was not exactly a triumphal tour, and his diplomacy did not heal the divisions in NATO. But he and his hosts gave a needed reminder to both Europeans and Americans that the their differences, are just that--allies.

-- By George J. Church. Reported by Laurence I. Barrett with Reagan, and European bureaus

With reporting by Laurence I. Barrett

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