ABSTRACT
In the wake of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and then of the suppression of liberty in Poland, two successive American Administrations vainly sought European support to restrict East-West trade. The resulting disagreements have left an unfortunate residue. Pressures for East-West trade grew in the late 1960s and early 1970s, ironically, following the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. There is little doubt that the negotiating balance in East-West trade had been reversed over the past decade. Indeed, economic relations have done much more to induce Western restraint in the face of Soviet misconduct than to encourage Soviet restraint in international behavior. The industrial democracies are in a position to use their economic strength positively and creatively. If the industrial democracies wish to subsidize their exports by easy credit or pricing policies, the creative area for such efforts is not in the Communist countries but in the third world, especially among its moderate, market-oriented governments.
