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The men who rule Russia today make a much more realistic assessment of American power than their predecessors, but they are divided over just how to deal with it—Brezhnev and Suslov being more militant than Kosygin and Podgorny. The Viet Nam war, of course, poisons U.S.-Soviet relationships. The Russians were originally willing to consider South Viet Nam as more or less within the U.S. sphere of influence, even though they regularly aided Hanoi. When the U.S. began intensive bombing of North Viet Nam in 1965, the Kremlin's line on the war swerved noticeably; Russia had to get mad or suffer the disdain of the rest of the Communist world. It not only vastly increased aid to the North but stiffened its attitude toward contacts with the U.S.
Despite its menacing tone, the Kremlin seems anxious to avoid any serious confrontation with the U.S. Instead, it is working for the breakup of the Western Alliance and aiming at the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Europe. It finds Charles de Gaulle an invaluable if unintentional ally in its endeavor, and is striving to divide the U.S. from its European allies, particularly the Germans. The Russians are also thinking more and more of establishing themselves as a Mediterranean power, an old dream of the Czars that shows how firmly Communism in Russia has become wedded to traditional national interests. To furbish its image in the so-called "third world," Russia has floated nearly $6 billion in loans and credits to other countries since 1954, but it is learning, as the U.S. has, that these nations are usually greedy for more aid and ungrateful when they get it. As a result, a debate is going on in the Kremlin, as it is on Capitol Hill, about the value and aim of foreign aid.
One of the Kremlin's biggest worries is the disintegration of Communist unity. Of the 14 Communist states, five are not represented by their top leaders at this week's celebration. Albania rejected the invitation, and China did not stoop to reply, while Cuba's Fidel Castro, North Viet Nam's Ho Chi Minh and North Korea's Kim II Sung sent others in their place. The schisms are all the more serious because they come at a time when Russia's rulers lack the imagination and daring to formulate a policy to deal with them.
The Kremlin merely drifts and demurs, absorbing in stoic silence both the gibes of the Chinese and such steady irritants as Castro, whom it continues to give $1,000,000 a day in aid. Moreover, the world's revolutionaries no longer look to Russia or its leaders for inspiration or recall its once-stirring exhortation: "Workers of the World, Unite!" As Communism and advancing technology have learned to coexist, Russia has lost its role as a revolutionary beacon.