CRUCIFIED BY CHRYSLER, wailed one London headline. SCORCHED BY THE FLAMETHROWER, complained another. The object of this pained outrage was a stunning victory won by the Chrysler Corp. and its chairman, John Riccardo, in a high-stakes struggle that promises to have a deep impact on the future of both Chrysler and Britain's Labor government.
Early last November Riccardo presented Britain's Prime Minister Harold Wilson with a prickly problem. Unless the British government agreed to provide massive aid for Chrysler's troubled British subsidiary, Riccardo said, the company would be forced to shut down...