Disarmament: Old Horse, New Odds

Geneva's headwaiters beamed indefatigably last week as pealing nightclub and restaurant cash registers heralded the return of the 17-nation disarmament conference after a five-month recess. Their euphoria even infected the café au lait-colored Palais des Nations, where some 200 reassembled officials settled back into their bronze and green leather chairs—as usual, leaving three seats vacant for nonattending France—and prepared for the sixth antiwar jaw session since the disarmament conference got under way in 1962. Buoyed by last August's partial test ban treaty, most Western and neutral negotiators expected action this time and greeted a new five-point program from President Johnson...