Democratic Palestine : 11 (ص 28)
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- Democratic Palestine : 11 (ص 28)
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The Helsinki Accords
Viewed in Retrospect
Ten years ago, the heads of 35 eastern and western states, including
the US, Canada and the USSR, gathered in Helsinki, Finland, to
deliberate unresolved issues that had arisen in the aftermath of
World War II and the ensuing cold war era. The signing of the final
document at the Helsinki conference marked the beginning of
detente. The signatories solemnly pledged to exert all efforts to make
detente a steadily growing process.
ideological premises
To put things in perspective and
grasp the motives for the signing of the
Helsinki accord, we ought to examine
the ideological theses from which the
signatories proceeded. The US had
started to review its conflict with the
socialist countries in terms of the
ideological, military and propaganda
aspects, in the light of the new interna-
tional developments. As of the late fif-
ties, the socialist community had
emerged as a force to be reckoned with;
the global balance of forces had
changed; the colonial system had col-
apsed and the role of the national libera-
tion movements increased. Moreover,
starting in the early seventies, the US
had been unable to attain its goals and
had suffered heavy blows, especially the
defeat in Vietnam.and the failure of Viet-
namization. These changes created a
situation conducive to detente.
The new conditions forced
Washington to reassess its political
strategies in international relations.
However, there was first a heated
debate among US theorists. The debate
raged between two political lines. The
first was that of ultraright hardliners who
opted for continuation of the cold war:
maintaining acute international tension
and encouraging the outbreak of reg-
ional and local wars. This school of
thought refused to acknowledge the
existing reality, for this was considered a
betrayal of the vital national interests of
the US and western Europe.
The second political line proceeded
from the necessity of acknowledging the
new reality at least partially. Proponents
of this line called for seeking a fresh line
of reasoning for waging the ideological
conflict.
28
For the US, detente equals
interference
When the US ostensibly acknow-
ledged detente, it was not due to convic-
tion in the policy of peaceful coexis-
tence. The US had no choice but to sign
the Helsinki accords. Having done so, it
attempted to capitalize on detente by
turning it into a weapon in its hands.
Thus, the US proceeded to try to foment
internal disputes in the countries of the
socialist community. The goal of this
campaign was curbing these countries’
influence, halting their economic growth,
diverting them from the principle of pro-
letarian internationalism, and forcing
them towards further armament, con-
sequently diverting economic resources
from meeting humans’ needs under
socialism to meeting defense require-
ments.
Detente and socialism
Lenin developed the thesis of
peaceful coexistence in accordance
with socialist theory. In 1915, he called
for doing away with war, bringing about
peace between nations and curtailing
plunder and exploitation. According to
this theory, detente is a combination of
cooperation and struggle. Countries
with opposing social systems preserve
their respective principled, class stands
on economic, political and ideological
questions. At the same time, it is incum-
bent on these countries to join efforts to
eliminate «hot spots» on the interna-
tional scene and seek a halt to arma-
ment, leading to digarmament, in the
common interest of international peace
and security. Countries, across the
board, should strive to avert the threat of
nuclear war.
US opposes European coop-
eration
Even before the dust of World War II
had settled, the US opted for strengthen-
ing capitalism in western Europe
through the Marshall Plan of 1949. The
US initiated the establishment of NATO
to form these countries into a block
against the Soviet Union. The Soviet
Union, in line with socialist policy, did not
hesitate to call for close cooperation bet-
ween the western and eastern Euro-
pean countries, despite the US moves.
As early as 1954, the Soviet Union cal-
led for facilitating the entire continent's
cooperation and security by holding a
conference of the heads of all European
states. The US looked upon this call with
suspicion and did everything in its power
to block such a conference. It distorted
the Soviet intentions, claiming that they
aimed at driving a wedge between the
NATO countries.
Eventually the US did agree to
attend the Helsinki conference due to
the objective changes in the global
scene, but it did so only after inventing
the thesis of human rights, interpreted in
a bourgeois, individualist manner. The
US insisted that this idea merited a place
on the conference agenda. This was a
malicious maneuver, intended to inter-
fere in the socialist countries’ internal
affairs and weaken socialism, on the
pretext that the European people have a
common history and values.
The essence of Helsinki
Allin all, holding the Helsinki confer-
ence and hammering out the final docu-
ment was an ideological, political, dip-
lomatic and propaganda victory for the
socialist countries. It marked success for
their policy of peaceful coexistence. The
tone for this has been set in 1972, when
the Federal Republic of Germany signed
bilateral treaties with the Soviet Union.
Poland, Czechoslovakia and the Ger-
man Democratic Republic, respectively
These treaties inaugurated a new era
since they acknowledged the political
outcome of World War Il. They put an
end to or froze border disputes and ter-
ritorial demands between the signing
countries. - هو جزء من
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