Turn of the Screw

The age of missile warfare arrived in Western Europe last week, unheralded and unannounced, but not unnoticed. The first to notice it, understandably enough, were the Russians.

During the Anglo-French invasion of Suez, Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin had pointedly reminded Britain that it was within range of Russian missiles ("There are countries now which need not have sent a navy or air force to the coasts of Britain, but could have used other means, such as rocket technique"). The same warning may soon be made to Russia itself. The Eisenhower-Macmillan Bermuda agreement to provide Britain with U.S.-supplied missiles (TIME, April 1) did not represent a basic shift in the East-West power balance relationship, but it did represent something that the Russians could by no means ignore: a major eastward shift in the West's center of gravity--a shift to the East, to the borders of Mother Russia herself.

Answer in Kind. Now, with the prospect of NATO missile bases in Britain and West Germany--and perhaps in Turkey, Italy and Norway as well--the Soviets could no longer threaten clear and present danger to Western Europe with short-range nuclear missiles without fear of retaliation in kind. Neither the U.S. nor Russia will be equipped with a long-range nuclear missile force-in-being for some years, and both sides know it. But the imminent arrival of U.S. nuclear missiles at British and other NATO bases represents a turn of the screw that tightens still further the ring of containment around Russia, from Murmansk in the north to satellite bases as far south as the Bulgarian border.

Reacting angrily, the Russians first delivered a diplomatic attack on the Norwegians. Wrote Premier Bulganin:

"Let us speak quite openly, Mr. Premier. The Norwegian people . . . might have to pay dearly for the bases which are built in Norway with foreign money, if the NATO strategists' plans are carried out. It is, of course, a natural right and duty for any state exposed to attack to make sure that the bases which are set up for the purpose of attack be liquidated at once. No one can expect anything else. The blow which would be directed toward destroying the aggressor's bases would inevitably hit much greater areas. One hydrogen bomb [can destroy] a radius of up to several hundred kilometers. One might ask what would happen if several such bombs were used.''

From Norway, which was united in indignation, Bulganin switched his diplomatic drumfire to Denmark and Sweden. Sweden, neutral since 1814, was outraged by the Russian intervention in Hungary, and recently shaken by a succession of espionage cases involving the Russians. Sweden was advised to quiet the anti-Russian tone of its press. Denmark, which like Norway has bases but forbids NATO planes to occupy them except under threat of imminent attack, got a Bulganin note eight days after Norway's. It was just as blunt: "If war is opened against the U.S.S.R., the annihilating power of modern weapons is so great it would be tantamount to suicide for foreign countries the size of Denmark."

Truculent Face. The Russians are undoubtedly genuinely concerned by the West's advancing of the missile frontier. If they really feel as strongly as their notes to the Scandinavian nations would indicate, however, they can demonstrate their concern at the one forum which is specifically designed to deal with it: the U.N. Disarmament Commission meeting now in session in London. But the Russian notes suggest that more is involved than a prudent looking to their defenses. Russia, on the diplomatic defensive since Hungary, is apparently trying to go over to the attack. It has decided, said Bulganin, to "strengthen most decisively the Warsaw Pact, whether the imperialists like it or not." The Soviet news agency Tass warned that "a new aggression against Egypt" would create "the direct threat of a broad military conflict." In Moscow last week, Hungarian Puppet Premier Janos Kadar reached an agreement to "strengthen the punitive side of the proletarian dictatorship" in Hungary. It was a decidedly truculent face the Russians had turned to the rest of the world.

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