Stag Party Canceled

Soviet Ambassador Andrei Smirnov kept pleading, with anyone who would listen, for separate negotiations between Russia and West Germany. Breaking precedent, Smirnov even showed up at a U.S. newsman's cocktail party in Bonn to buttonhole guests with his persistent questions: "Why are you afraid to let the West Germans talk to us?"

In fact, the U.S. has little objection to Moscow-Bonn talks so long as they are coordinated with the U.S., Britain and France in advance. But this is not what Moscow has in mind at all: it wants to huddle with the West Germans in complete isolation, split the Western allies. To plug the idea further, Smirnov issued informal invitations to a Herrenabend (stag evening) at the Soviet embassy, where he hoped to persuade key members of the parliament over caviar and vodka. Back in his office after a two-week bout with flu, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer got wind of Smirnov's projected party, ordered his lieutenants not to accept the invitation. The Russians canceled the Herrenabend.

So far, it has been easy for the West Germans to turn their backs on the Soviet proposal, for Smirnov has offered not the slightest hint of what political price Moscow might be prepared to offer in any negotiations. But in their pitch, the Russians have firm backing from all their allies--even Marshal Tito has stopped Yugoslavia's hate-Germany campaign to sweeten the atmosphere--and the Smirnov line still has some appeal in West Germany. Particularly interested: Erich Mende, leader of Adenauer's little Free Democratic coalition partners, who has long sought closer contact with Moscow to spur chances of German reunification, also wants to show German voters that he has ideas of his own, and is not just following Adenauer's line. Said Mende: "There must be an answer [to the Soviet moves], because if there is not, it will sound bad in the universities and other places when research is done ten years from now. People might say we missed an opportunity here."

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