Se First Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party, Janos Kadar An interview with Janos Kadar Hungary putting the Helsinki. accords into a plan of action Hungarian Communist leader Janos Kadar, said at a press con- ference in Viennaat the end of the year, that Hungary is putting into practice the decisions of the Final Act of the 1975 Helsinki confer- ence on Security and Co- operation. Kadar is First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Hunga- rian Socialist Workers’ Party, and a member of the Presidential Council of the ‘Hungarian People’s Republic. He visited Austria on the invitation of Chan- cellor Bruno Kreisky. ; Questioned by journalists from various European countries, Kadar responded to a question about ‘“‘improvement in the rela- tions between the socialist, social democratic and the communist responds to journalists questions at a press conference in Vienna, parties,’ following the Geneva Austria. He is pictured here with members of the Building Workers > Congress of the Socialist Inter- nationale. U.S. plans under way to build military pact in South Atlantic Plans for a new ‘‘South Atlantic Pact,’ to include South Africa, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and possibly Chile, appear to be tak- ing shape. This year will likely see strong efforts by U.S. imperialism to make ‘‘SATO”* (South Atlantic Treaty Organization) a reality, either as an indépendent organi- zation or by extending’ NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organiza- tion) southwards. Admiral James Johnson, com- mander of South Affrica’s Navy, publicly supported the idea of a ‘South Atlantic Pact’’ in a com- mentary given wide publicity in the South African riews media at the end of December. In Brazil, the pro-government newspaper, Jornal do Brasil, commented that ‘‘a guarantee of our external security through ap- plication of our own national re- sources.alone has to be ruled out. “As a security problem, the South Atlantic of necessity involves the application of the power of the U.S. and Western Europe.”’ Great Power Ambitions A flood of statements by Brazil’s military commanders has centered on the same theme. Rear-Adm. I.R. Freitas of Brazil said, “‘Brazil, as the country pos- sessing the largest stretch of South Atlantic coast, and which is striving to attain in the next 30 _ years an ‘outstanding position among the great powers, must wield influence through its naval strength throughout the South At- lantic, upon which the security of. our own territory depends.” The Brazilian Navy comman- der, Rear-Adm. Roberto Mario Monerat, stated that the role of Brazjl’s Navy is ‘“keeping free the shipping routes, including the long-distance international routes running through the South Atlan- tic.’ (The most important such route is the oil tanker route around Africa, from the~-Persian Gulf to Western Europe and North America.) Brig. Gen. Delio Jardim, head. of Brazil’s Air Force, tied the de- mand for a ‘‘South Atlantic Pact’’ to the situation in southern Afri- ca. He said, ‘‘The Brazilian Air Force must be alert to the de- velopments of terisions in Afri- ca.”” In Argentina, Rear-Adm. Cesar Guzzetti, who is the military jun- ta’s Foreign Minister, said at the end of November that changes in Angola, i.e., the defeat of the South African invasion, had caused great concern in Argenti- na. . ‘Preventive Measures’ In a Buenos Aires interview with Walter Logan, foreign editor for United Press International (UPD, Adm. Guzzetti said he thought there was no ‘‘immediate threat’’ from Angola to. the South- Atlantic oil tanker.route. But he added, ‘‘Argentina is ready to consider any joint preventative measures for the protection of the area.”” aS In this respect, the Adiniral said that prior to the March 24, 1976, military seizure of power in Argentina, the country had de- veloped ties with countries with which it never had common in- terests — possibly referring in- correctly to Cuba and the Soviet Union. He said that now, Argen- tina is stressing the need to work together with its immediate neighbors, which are Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile, an interesting lineup. ; Uruguay is the Latin American country with the strongest ties to racist South Africa. When the South African puppet-state of Transkei allegedly became “‘in- dependent’ on October 26, 1976, only one foreign representative was present at the ceremonies: a general from. the Uruguayan Army in full dress uniform. Pre- mier Balthazar John Vorster of South Africa paid an official friendship visit to fascist Uruguay in August, .1975. Naval Maneuvers Last fall’s ‘‘ UNITAS-17"' joint ° naval _ maneuvers under the com- mand of U.S. Adm. James Sagerholm, chief of the South At- lantic Command, brought ‘to- gether the navies of Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay ... and the U.S. The push for a ‘‘South Atlantic - PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 18, 1977—Page 8 Pact’’ can be traced back to the April 25, 1974, overthrow of the fascist regime in Portugal, and the resulting independence of Ango- la, Mozambique and Guinea- Bissau. Prior to the revolution, all these African states had been considered parts of metropolitan Portugal itself. Since Portugal was a NATO state, this in fact established a NATO buffer zone between free’ Africa and racist southern Africa. : The U.S. imperialists today want to guard their oil tanker route around southern Africa. They make billions in profits on selling this oil to Western Europe. There is already a kind of “NATO presence”’ in the South Atlantic: a number of strategically-located islands ‘con- trolled by Britain and Norway. Ascension Island, midway bet- ween Brazil and West Africa, is said to be the site of a large U.S.- run electronic monitoring installa- tion. St. Helena, Napolean’s place of exile, has a largely South African police force. And Bouvet Island (Norway) has been visited by several South African Navy expeditions. — Daily World In addition to Pinochet's Chile, SATO may include South Africa, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. ‘Relations between the com- munist parties and the socialist, social democratic parties, is not — simple. We are partners who are willing to cooperate, and cevper- ate we must with those countries of Europe which have socialist and-social democratic parties in power. All the more so as we rep- resent countries, negotiate state interests, discuss questions re- lated to the interests of nations. (Trib. ‘emphasis) In such in- stances, we ought to rise above narrowly interpreted party con- siderations. Thus, we have to cooperate, by necessity, especial- ly, in the interest of the advance- ment of European security and peaceful co-existence. In this re- spect the cooperation of the communist parties with the social- ist, social democratic parties, has worked out well.’’ Belgrade Meeting Regarding party to party con- tacts, European communist and work- ers parties, at their Berlin Con- gress, declared that they regard as _ their main task the advancement of European peace and security, and of social progress.’’ The socialist, social democratic: par- ties have expressed similar views, he said. The trade unions also feel these needs — for peace, pro- gress, security, and good rela- tions between peoples. The Hungarian Communist leader regarded Helsinki not as an. end, but‘as a start. A similar con- structive attitude to that at Hel- sinki would be needed at the forthcoming Belgrade meeting, he said. (The countries meeting in Helsinki set June 1977 in Belgrade as their next time of meeting.) Kadar said: ‘‘We are opposed to anyone, or any group, trying to turn the Belgrade conference into some sort of ‘day of complaint’. .,. the participants of the. Hel- sinki conference ought to prepare a positive program for Belgrade.” Soviet Troops Another questioner asked:: ‘“‘Hungaty is surrounded by friendly countries, Austria among them. Why then are there Soviet troops stationed in Hungary?”’ Noting that ‘all _Hungary’s neighbors had friendly intentions and were striving for good rela- tions with her, Janos Kadar said that in the military sense, “‘just as the concept of the ‘foot soldier’, in the old sense, is incompatible with present military techniques, it would be naive to assume that a country’s security depends en- tirely on the intentions of her ‘neighbors. The temporary pre- sence of Soviet troops in Hungary is not warranted, therefore, by the _expectation of some kind of an ‘offensive on the part ofa voluntar- . ily neutral Austria. Nor is the is- sue linked with reasons of internal politics, but rather with situation in world politics. And a different assessment of the situation, a changing of the situation, is re- lated to the cause of peace and security.”’ Kadar pointed out that at the recent Warsaw Treaty meeting, **_. we publicly reiterated our readiness to dissolve simultane- ously both the Warsaw Treaty and NATO (North Atlantic .Tre- aty Organization). We proposed that if the time was not yet ripe to undertake such a step, we should i Kadar - recalled: : ‘‘The. at least endeavor not to expand | these two military organizations. | ‘A proposition was also made — that the 35 states which accepted the recommendations at Helsinki, — declare their willingness not to be — the first to use atomic weapons. ‘‘We have made several other practical proposals. We have al ways favored, and we are today jp s favor, of the simultaneous with-— drawal of all troops stationed 11 — foreign, lands. Therefore should we achieve progress in these basic questions, and should the _ general situation further improve — it will likely be unnecessary tO | have Soviet troops stationed i — Hungary.” Hungarian Tourists Responding to the question ofl an Austrian journalist, Janos Kadar said that Hungary is favor of abolition of visa require- ments between the two countries, but ‘‘some work is still to be done — But, on tourism travel in genet-_— al, he stated: ‘‘... the many hun — dreds of thousands of Hungariat — citizens who annually spend theil vacation in western Europe, re-— turn contented, concluding that — the grass is not greener even inthe — highly developed countries of western Europe. They see phenomena that, at home in Hun — gary, had long been forgotten. — They see, for example, unenr ployment, anxiety, insecurity. They can also see products, madé— of plastics, perhaps lacking be-_ fore, but. now also available .i0 Hungary, perhaps for even less than in the stores of westerl — Europe. Small Countries “Our impressions about the — tourists coming from westerf Europe to Hungary are very good. I do’ not quite know what the dialectical link is between press coverage and tourism, but we have noticed two things. One, — that the tourist coming to Hun-— gary from western Europe is usu-~ ally pleasantly surprised. For, however critically he may look at — what he finds, things will appeal — -better than what he expected, having read earlier reports of the western Europe capitalist press. The other thing ... is that the at- titudes of the western European press towards Hungary have also improved. After all, it is scarely possible, even with the worst in-— tentions, to describe the exact opposite of what millions of west- ern European citizens see with their own-eyes in Hungary.”’ Asked about prospects for so-— called small European countries, — based on the Helsinki accords, — Kadar reviewed the fact that both — Austria and Hungary, in World War Two ‘‘had shed a great deal — of blood, and suffered substantial economic losses, and regrettably; not.for a good cause.’” (He was — referring to the fact that in both — countries, the governments of that day supported Hitler fascism.) He said that the desire for peace by the Hungarian and Aust- rian people hardly needed prov- ing. The Hungarians, who have — ‘‘a wonderful program”’ for build- ing a socialist society, need peace — for its success. And, ‘*45% of the national income’ of Hungary — comes through trading, anothet good reason for wanting peace international relations.