
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 14, 1991                   TAG: 9102140146
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

OLIN FEARS SOVIET INVASION OF EAST BLOC

Rep. Jim Olin, D-Roanoke, warned Wednesday that the Soviets might take advantage of the United States' preoccupation with the Persian Gulf War and launch an invasion of Eastern Europe to reclaim their former satellites.

"I don't think it's out of the question," Olin said, after talking to a class of Patrick Henry High School students, where questions about the war and the Soviet Union dominated the discussion.

The Soviet military was never happy with Mikhail Gorbachev's decision to let Warsaw Pact countries shuck off communism, Olin told the students, and now the military seems to have assumed greater control over the Soviet government.

"The military wants to re-establish some old relationships," Olin said. And with so many American troops pulled out of Western Europe to fight in the Persian Gulf, "the timing would be good" for the Soviet military to strike in Eastern Europe, Olin said.

"They could pull off an operation that could reverse the whole thing," Olin warned.

Even if that doesn't happen, the turmoil in the Soviet Union and the military's growing power within Gorbachev's government "might turn out to be a more major problem than the Persian Gulf," Olin said.

"It's a very volatile situation," Olin said. "Gorbachev is running a revolution. It's peaceful, but it's a revolution." And most revolutions, regardless of their intent, tend to end in a dictatorship, Olin noted.

In other comments to a class of about 35 advanced history and government students, Olin:

Cautioned people demonstrating their support of the Persian Gulf War to respect the constitutional rights of those who oppose the war. Olin, who voted against authorizing the war because he said he wanted to give economic sanctions more time to work, noted that some pro-war demonstrators have said "very derogatory" things about anti-war protesters.

"If they're really patriotic, they'd be supporting the Constitution and the Bill of Rights," Olin said.

Said he expected American troops not to stop with the liberation of Kuwait, but to move on into Iraq itself. He noted that Bush previously assured troops they'd come home as soon as Kuwait was freed. "He doesn't say that anymore," Olin said. He said he didn't know how far American troops would move into Iraq.

by CNB