EUROPE: Threat From the Southern Tier

Southern Europe has long been an area of extremes—in poverty, in religion and in politics—as well as an occasional source of anxiety to its more affluent neighbors in the north. That anxiety has been notably increased by exceptional changes that have shaken countries of the south in recent months. There is a notable fear that these nations, in some cases after decades of right-wing rule, will veer sharply to the left, perhaps to the point of embracing Communist, or at least Communist-dominated governments (see following stories).

In Portugal, the Communist Party of Alvaro Cunhal, backed by leftist-minded officers of the...