Word: schmidts
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...West Germany, Chancellor Helmut Schmidt denounced the U.S.S.R.'s continued occupation of Afghanistan but stopped short of endorsing a boycott. A top French leader said privately, however, that if West Germany stays home, France will...
Continuity indeed is vital in all international relations. U.S, lack of consistency is a chief complaint of such puzzled allies as Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of West Germany, who went to Washington last week to convey some of his grievances. Says William Kintner, former U.S. Ambassador to Thailand and now a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania: "It sounds as if Carter never heard of the basic axiom that the art of diplomacy is consistency. His is a policy of flip-flops and zigzags...
...summitry and shuttle diplomacy have pretty much ended the traditional role of the ambassador as a decision maker and formulator of policy. "Not such a long time ago, instructions came by couriers on horseback or by ship," says a West German diplomat. "Now," says a Bonn Chancellery colleague, "if Schmidt wants to talk to Giscard, he picks up the phone...
...Carter's unpredictable and seemingly capricious approach to foreign policy. Although fully briefed on the U.S.'s proposed response to the Soviet invasion, the West Germans were stung by the President's handling of the Olympic boycott. Administration officials had first told West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt that a boycott was not being considered. Carter changed his mind, and Bonn was given only two hours' notice before the boycott was announced. Said a West German diplomat of last week's Security Council debacle: "The U.N. flip-flop is just one more piece of evidence...
...Schmidt and French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing share Washington's view that the Soviets must withdraw their troops from Afghanistan. The two leaders also believe that Carter overreacted to the invasion, largely because of domestic political considerations. Bonn has tried to play down the transatlantic differences, stressing that they involve approach rather than objectives. Nonetheless, the result has been a closer relationship between Bonn and Paris, culminating in the Schmidt-Giscard summit in the French capital last month. As a Bonn official put it, both men "felt strongly that they had to protect Western Europe...