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But Bonn's rosy vision is not shared by everybody. In Washington and London and at NATO headquarters in Brussels, critics fret that even if the West scrambled to prop up perestroika, Gorbachev could change direction or lose control of the sweeping process he has started. More ominously, the Kremlin could turn newly acquired economic strength against the West. Countries like West Germany are already clamoring to ease NATO restrictions on high- technology exports. And even as West European bankers are arranging $7 billion in credits for Moscow, the Soviet government continues to pour enormous sums into its mighty military machine. The London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies reports there has been no slowdown in Moscow's arms- modernization program.
Diplomats are concerned that the debate over how the West should respond to Gorbachev could split the alliance. While the Italians, and now the West Germans, seem bent on moving full speed ahead to support Gorbachev's "new thinking," the U.S. and Britain, more distrusting of Moscow, refuse to be swept off their feet. The skeptics warn that the West's ability to alter events inside the Soviet Union is minimal. In the competition to become Moscow's "most favored nation," they add, reckless policymakers might open their purses in return for very little in the way of Soviet internal political reforms or external concessions on arms. One NATO diplomat fears a "battle is looming between those who believe we should use our economic instruments to help Gorbachev and perestroika, and those who believe the Soviets have yet to earn Western assistance."
Britain's Margaret Thatcher speaks for the American attitude as well with her calls for a wait-and-see approach. Yet she has permitted London bankers to extend $1.7 billion in government-backed credits to Moscow. Thatcher and her European counterparts want each economic deal to pay dividends in such Western interests as reduced conventional arms and nuclear limits. "I had to decide whether I thought it was in the Western interest that Gorbachev succeed," Thatcher told the New York Times, "and I think it is."
To deal wisely with Gorbachev, advises Thierry de Montbrial, director of France's Institute of International Relations, the West should take a tough line. "If they really need our help," he says, "then we should at least get them to pay the very highest price possible." Concedes a NATO diplomat: "Judging how far we can go to help the Soviets without hurting ourselves is a very tricky business. Some countries have clearly decided that the rewards are worth the risks."
Helmut Kohl last week seemed to be including himself in that group. But he was treated to a taste of just how tough it will be for the West to collect the sort of rewards it wants most from Moscow. Before he left Bonn, Kohl had said he would tax Gorbachev on Germany's most enduring sore point: the Berlin Wall and the prospects, however distant, for reunifying Germany. But Soviet spokesman Gennadi Gerasimov sharply dismissed the subject, adding, "Who can tell what will happen in 50 or 100 years?" Kohl had to content himself with a vague and unconfirmed announcement that "all people considered in the West to be political prisoners" in the U.S.S.R. would be freed by the end of this year. Even the number was left vague.