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Brzezinski and other U.S. policymakers are acutely aware of the danger that the Soviets might react swiftly and brutally, as they did in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968, if their control were to be seriously subverted in Eastern Europe. But at the same time, the Soviet Union is finding it harder than ever to meet its satellites' need for better living standards. The U.S. policy is predicated on the belief that Moscow is more afraid of riots by Polish workers over low wages and high food prices than of Brzezinski's "mischiefmaking" in Poland, and therefore the Kremlin has little choice but to allow the East Europeans to turn westward for trade. That economic fact of life leads Washington to calculate that it has enough latitude to continue—and perhaps expand—its new East Europe policy.