Nation: Praising with Faint Damns

Most foreign leaders prefer Carter—but reluctantly

During the 1972 presidential campaign several Italian newspapers suggested that choosing the leader of the West was too important a decision to be left only to Americans. It is a notion that world leaders would eagerly endorse this year. Although they are discreetly keeping their feelings to themselves, they are watching the 1980 campaign with varying degrees of disdain and dismay. In general, they like none of the three candidates, though most would reluctantly cast their ballots for Jimmy Carter. West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt expressed one major reason when he told aides, "At least I have got more or less used to Carter." But local and regional considerations also play a role, both for leaders who favor the incumbent and for the few who support Ronald Reagan:

Soviet Union. The government newspaper Izvestiya describes the differences between Carter and Reagan as ";rather dubious."

But the Kremlin's U.S. specialists favor Carter, chiefly because he supports SALT II, which Soviet Party Chief Leonid Brezhnev regards as one of his major accomplishments. The Soviets also believe that Carter is more reasonable than Reagan and perhaps more amenable to relaxing East-West tensions. The satellites generally agree. Says an East German diplomat: "Everybody's afraid of Reagan."

Western Europe. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher likes Carter personally and thinks he should be given more credit for his handling of the crises in Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf and Poland. But she is an exception. Most NATO leaders still consider Carter naive and inconsistent. On the other hand, they fear that Reagan's opposition to SALT II could threaten détente and start a new cold war—with them in the middle. Even in France, which traditionally prefers Republican Presidents because, in French eyes, their foreign policy seems more disciplined, the G.O.P. contender is known as "Ronnie-le-cowboy."

Western Europe's apprehensions about Reagan are tempered by the hope that his foreign policy might be set largely by his Cabinet. Many Europeans would be delighted if Reagan named Henry Kissinger as Secretary of State, former NATO Commander Alexander Haig as Defense Secretary and George Schulz as Treasury Secretary. In that case, Schmidt has told aides, "Reagan would not be all that bad."

Middle East. One group of top Israeli officials argues that Carter, despite his tilt toward Egypt in the peace talks, is at least a known quantity. Says a government official: "We do not know what Reagan is going to say or what he is going to do if he becomes President." But other Israelis maintain that Carter is too unpredictable and that Reagan would at least conduct a tough Soviet policy, which the Israelis advocate. Egyptian officials speculate that if Carter got a second term, he would be free from re-election considerations and more willing to push Israel harder to grant meaningful autonomy to the Palestinians. The Egyptians fear Reagan would side so strongly with Israel that the peace process would collapse.