Word: waldheim
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...days, Bloch became the most intensely hounded public official since Oliver North. Justice Department sources whispered that the Austrian-born Bloch was not only a Communist spy but also an Austrian lackey: as deputy chief of the American mission in Vienna, he had argued against barring Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from the U.S. A Viennese newspaper chimed in that Bloch was also a skirt chaser: police in Vienna interviewed a call girl with whom he had had a "friendship" for several years. In New York City Ronald Lauder, a former U.S. Ambassador to Austria and now a Republican candidate...
...Presenting the prosecution case is Allan A. Ryan Jr., once the chief Nazi hunter for the U.S. Justice Department; challenging the evidence is Lord Rawlinson, a former British Attorney-General. The international panel of judges -- including Shirley Hufstedler, former U.S. Secretary of Education -- will consider five specific charges against Waldheim. The verdict will not be taped until just prior to the show's telecast...
...surprisingly, Waldheim has refused to cooperate or recognize the trial's validity. Gerold Christian, his official spokesman, dismisses the TV event as a "mock trial with a preconceived outcome and a known bias." That is disputed by the producers, who insist they searched as hard for evidence to exonerate Waldheim as for evidence to implicate him. Among those likely to testify, for example, is Bruce Ogilvie, a former R.A.F. pilot who claims Waldheim helped him escape Nazi execution. "Everyone knows that Waldheim has been accused," says Producer Jack Saltman, "but our program may be the only fair hearing he ever...
...press conference last week, Presiding Judge Frederick Lawton defended the TV inquiry as an important forum for resolving questions surrounding Waldheim's past. "Unless properly investigated," he noted, "these allegations could distort the historical record." Former Nuremberg Prosecutor Telford Taylor, a consultant for the program, also supports the trial. "I see no reason to apologize for the fact that it is taking place on television," he says. "It's better to get a reasoned debate with jurists about the accumulated evidence than what we've been getting...
Whether the trial will have any impact on the Waldheim case is unclear. But it is sure to fuel concerns about TV's growing penchant for inserting itself into news events. "This is a formula that needs to be treated with the greatest care," admits Producer Saltman. If the Waldheim show is a hit, however, it is a formula that will almost certainly be repeated...