On Condition

"What then is Mr. Stalin's price, Mr. Ambassador ... for what you people call East-West coexistence?"

According to United Nations World (not officially connected with U.N.), the question was asked a year ago of Andrei Gromyko by a "top-ranking" U.S. businessman. Gromyko's reply pictured Stalin as deeply hurt because the U.S. had cut off Lend-Lease after war's end. But Stalin was ready to be friends again if the U.S. 1) abandoned Britain and signed a treaty with Russia reaffirming the Yalta and Potsdam deals, 2) agreed to return all of Germany to four-power control (i.e., a Soviet veto), 3) granted "generous" reparations to Russia, 4) resumed normal trade with Russia and sparked it off with a $2 billion loan.

In short, no change. What seemed to have been forgotten by Stalin and Gromyko (and United Nations World which devotes itself to breathless inside stories about U.S.-Russian relations) was that there was no longer a seller's market for Russian favor.

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