BERLIN: End of the Short Fuse

The signing of a preliminary agreement on Berlin last week was the most important step toward detente in Europe since the Austrian Peace Treaty of 1955. One by one, the ambassadors of the U.S., Britain, France and the

Soviet Union entered the palatial Allied Control building in West Berlin, once the seat of the Prussian High Court. Then, seated at a long oak table, each man signed his name no fewer than twelve times. U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Rush welcomed the agreement "as a sign of the Soviet Union's desire to move from confrontation...