Nation: FOREIGN POLICY: NIXON'S OPPORTUNITIES

IN the early days of a new Administration, "the nation has a sense that a page in history has been turned, and the new President has a blank sheet upon which to write." So says Kermit Gordon, president of Washington's Brookings Institution, in Agenda for the Nation, a 620-page study released last week. In no field is this truer than in foreign affairs.

As a candidate, Richard Nixon left frustratingly vague the precise foreign-policy lines he might pursue. As President, Nixon may find that lack of commitment something of an asset. Pinned down by few definite pledges, he will have considerable latitude in filling the blank sheet. The world's leaders are well aware of this. Moscow, though initially suspicious of Nixon, is already dropping hints about renewing U.S.Soviet arms-control talks. More surprisingly, Peking last week proposed reopening the Warsaw talks with the U.S. on Feb. 20; the meeting would be the first between the two countries in 13 months.

Concurrent Dangers. The international problems awaiting Nixon range from reform of the world monetary system, shaken three times in the past year, to the concurrent dangers of Balkanization and military hegemony in Africa. And most demand quick attention. Among them:

> VIET NAM. The President-elect's first order of business will be to settle the war, if only for domestic reasons. In the Brookings report, Gordon argued: "The brutality and horror of the war—made vivid as in no previous war by the immediacy of television; the corrosive and divisive effects of the war on American society; and the budgetary drain of the war which has shortchanged urgent domestic claims—all dictate that ending the war must lead all other tasks on the President's agenda." Yet the report concedes that the end of the fighting "will not quickly ease the Government's budgetary bind." Despite Saigon's decision to attend the Paris peace talks (see following story) and the hope for more serious talks, negotiations could still be dragging on as the 1970 midterm elections approach.

>THE MIDDLE EAST. If Viet Nam is Nixon's most urgent problem, the Arab-Israeli face-down may well prove his most perilous concern. Once the Soviets decided to reinforce their Mediterranean fleet and serve as chief armorers and advisers to the Arabs, they raised the possibility of direct conflict between the superpowers in that volatile area. During the campaign Nixon urged that the U.S. help keep Israel militarily strong enough to ensure its survival—a recommendation that has, naturally, annoyed the Arabs. To reopen communications with both sides and seek out possible paths to reconciliation, Nixon has assigned Pennsylvania's former Governor Scranton to undertake a ten-day tour of the area beginning this week.