Khorosho,' Said Brezhnev

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But not since the Kennedy-Khrushchev meeting of 1961 had Vienna been the site of a modern superpower summit, and the Austrians were determined that this one would go smoothly. Reinforcements from the provinces increased the police force to 6,000 men. Armed guards were assigned to Carter and Brezhnev, even though both brought phalanxes of their own. More than 100 taxis were diverted to summit duty, chiefly because the press corps of more than 2,000 had reserved long in advance nearly all of Vienna's chauffeured limousines. The summit principals had brought their own transportation: a black Cadillac and Lincoln Continental for the Americans, a black Rolls-Royce and Zil limousine for the Soviets. They were gas-guzzlers all, in a country where premium fuel costs $2.57 per gal.

The Viennese tried to act with aplomb, but there was considerable excitement at their city's being once again the center of world diplomacy. In the window of the world-famous Demel pastry shop, life-size likenesses of Carter and Brezhnev, made of papier-mache and marzipan, sat playing chess with marzipan missiles.

Carter was welcomed at the airport by a trumpet fanfare followed by almost complete silence as he shook hands with his official host, President Rudolf Kirchschläger. "We have no right and no wish to influence your deliberations," said Kirchschläger, "but we hope and we wish and we trust from the bottom of our hearts that the meeting . . . will contribute toward the further process of détente and toward a reduction of armaments." Carter went directly to the American ambassador's residence, a three-story mansion that was built in the early 1930s for Coal Baron Karl Broda, who fled" to the U.S. in 1938.

Friday morning, Brezhnev flew into Vienna aboard a blue and white Ilyushin 11-62, accompanied by Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, Defense Minister Dmitri Ustinov, Chief of Staff Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov and Konstantin Chernenko, a Brezhnev protége who acts as the Politburo's executive officer. Resplendent in a blue suit studded with medals, including four Orders of Lenin, Brezhnev descended to the tarmac, gripping the handrail and stepping carefully but steadily. To a roll of drims, he warmly greeted Kirchschläger, walked with a slight limp by the honor guard and then was driven straight to his quarters in the Soviet embassy, a tree-shaded stone building that was built in the 19th century. Members of the Soviet advance team had taken great pains to portray Brezhnev as alert and eager for the summit and in no way hampered by ill health. Still, Austrian officials took no chances. They quietly ordered several hospitals throughout the city to keep beds and life-support equipment at the ready in case Brezhnev needed them.