International: Close Decision

"Baseball is over," said a Reuters teletypist to a U.N. staff member in a washroom at Flushing Meadows. "We are all making bets on who wins in the election, and on what ballot. Want to come into the pool?"

The typist was talking about Yugoslavia's candidacy for a seat on the Security Council, which came up for a vote before U.N.'s General Assembly last week. The U.S. backed Yugoslavia. Russia, dead set against the Titoist rebels, backed Czechoslovakia. The issue that bitterly divided the Eastern bloc also split the Western camp: Britain had chosen...