Brezhnev and the Businessman

Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev is "in wonderful condition. He seemed in full of of himself, with a twinkle in his eye, a good sense of humor, but very forceful and positive." That is the report of Armand Hammer, the New York City-born, Russian-speaking chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corp., who spent nearly two hours chatting with the Soviet leader last week. Ham mer, who has met Brehznev many times, went to Moscow after learning that Occidental's phosphate sales to the U.S.S.R. might be embargoed by Washington. Said he: "I wanted to ask [the Soviets] not to retaliate by cutting off Russian ammonia shipments to the U.S." Somewhat to Hammer's surprise, Brezhnev devoted much of their meeting to a lengthy analysis of the threat to detente that has followed the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. State Department officials contend that there was "nothing new" in Brezhnev's state ments. In Paris, however, Hammer told TIME Correspondent Sandra Burton that the a the Soviets are now ready to negotiate with the U.S. on a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The gist of Brezhnev's message, says Hammer, was this: "If the Russians had guarantees that the U.S. and neighboring countries would exert their influence to see that there was no interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan, and above all, if the U.S. would assure that the arms it is sending to Pakistan would be used only for defensive purposes, then the Soviet troops would be withdrawn." Most of the time Brezhnev read from a prepared text, but he broke off from time to time for more candid remarks. Said Hammer: "He felt that the accusations that the Soviets went into Afghanistan to take over the country and threaten oil routes was 'sheer nonsense.' He said that Afghanistan had always been neutral, but suddenly the Soviet Union found itself with a hostile country on its southern border. He indicated that they only went in because they were invited in 14 different times by the two previous regimes." Hammer asked the Soviet President if he had any documentation. Brezhnev turned to an aide and said, "We must have," to which Hammer replied, "It might help to publish it."

On the subject of U.S. retaliation, Hammer said, "Brezhnev was very upset at the U.S. threats but added that such pressure would not intimidate the Soviets. He seemed especially hurt by the boycott of the Olympics. But he also said that the Russians had survived this kind of cold war before, and they would continue to survive it. He belittled attempts to 'starve us,' as he put it. He said that fortunately the Soviets had their own natural resources and would simply develop them more, and that they would continue to trade with other countries. The only people who would suffer,' Brezhnev said, 'would be the American businessmen.' "

Defending the U.S., Hammer said he told Brezhnev that the Afghanistan invasion marked "the first time the Russians had crossed the border of a non-Warsaw Pact country, and that it was difficult for the U.S. to believe that if the Soviets could do that to a neutral country, using such great force, that they would stop in the future." Brezhnev offered no response.

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