The Nation: Slowing Down the Arms Race

DESPITE the justifiable fanfare in Moscow over the U.S.-Soviet agreements on limiting strategic nuclear weapons, the summit signing was, except for a few last-minute technical hitches, mainly a formality. The details had been worked out in tough, painstaking but nonpolemical SALT negotiations extending over 2½ years. Through some 130 separate meetings, alternating between Helsinki and Vienna, the talks were often deadlocked and agreement seemed improbable. But in the end, both sides showed a realistic willingness to compromise. The result should be a historic slowdown in the costly and dangerous arms race. It...