The World: The Madison Avenue Maoists

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Grave Concern. The Chinese and U.S. delegations may well clash head-on rather earlier than expected, and on an issue in which the Americans will be on difficult diplomatic ground. Last week the U.S. House of Representatives, following an earlier move by the Senate, passed the military procurement bill with an amendment that removes the President's authority to ban the import of chrome from the breakaway British colony of Rhodesia. Such imports would directly violate a 1966 Security Council resolution—supported by the U.S.—that imposed economic sanctions against the Salisbury regime. Last week the U.N. Committee for Trusteeship and Non-Self-Governing Territories overwhelmingly (93 to 2, with 12 abstentions) passed a draft resolution expressing "grave concern" over the congressional move and reminding the U.S. of its pledge. The U.S. would certainly not be alone in buying Rhodesian chrome. The Soviets, while professing to obey the sanction, in fact import chrome from Rhodesia themselves and resell it to the U.S. at a markup. Now, however, the issue gives the Chinese an early opportunity to cast both the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the role of villains, while presenting themselves as the champions of the black African nations that they hope to lead in the General Assembly.

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