Khorosho,' Said Brezhnev

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Last to arrive in Vienna was the summit's centerpiece, the 78-page SALT II treaty. Its remaining details were still being negotiated for most of the week in Geneva by teams of U.S. and Soviet diplomats. The final issue was minor, and the butt of much diplomatic banter. The chief CIA man on the U.S. delegation had presented his KGB counterpart with a T shirt emblazoned: FREE THE TYURATAM EIGHTEEN! The gift was one of those arcane jokes that are best appreciated by SALT technicians. It referred to 18 heavy-missile launchers at the Soviets' Tyuratam test site in central Asia, which the Soviets claim are used only for tests and therefore do not count as strategic weapons. Well past the eleventh hour, the Soviets agreed to dismantle twelve of the launchers and to guarantee that the remaining six would be plainly marked as test silos.

The final marathon negotiating session ended at 2 a.m. Thursday, but the treaty documents could not be taken to Vienna until midday Friday. One reason: the Soviets in Geneva had to make do with primitive manual typewriters, cumbersome paper almost as thick as cardboard and a 1950s-vintage copying machine. If a typist made a single error, the page had to be retyped. The Americans used a high-speed word-processing machine; errors could be corrected almost instantaneously.

In a final diplomatic nicety, the negotiating teams prepared four official copies of the treaties, two in English by the Americans and two in Russian by the Soviets. Each delegation drew up one socalled original, in which its country was named first at each mention, and one so-called alternat, in which the other country was named first. In this way, neither side establishes even the most symbolic sort of primacy in either language. The documents were hand delivered to Vienna by the chief negotiators, Robert Earle of the U.S. and Victor Karpov of the U.S.S.R.

All was finally in order for the summit by midday Friday. But first, both of the principals changed their plans to take advantage of the cloudless, mid-70s day and do some sightseeing. Carter, accompanied by Rosalynn, Amy, Cyrus Vance and his wife Grace, motored west of Vienna to the town of Klosterneuburg, where the Vienna woods give way to vineyards along the Danube. There they lunched on the sun-dappled patio of a restaurant at a 12th century abbey. Brezhnev took a drive through downtown Vienna, traversing the Ring, passing the Hofburg, and winding up in the courtyard of the Schönbrunn Palace, formerly the Habsburgs' summer residence, which he had asked especially to see. Brezhnev stepped out of his Zil only once, to lay a wreath at the Soviet war memorial (known to Viennese as the tomb of the "unknown plunderer").

That evening Carter and Brezhnev rejoined each other at the State Opera House for a performance of Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio. The crowd applauded as Carter entered the presidential box, clapped louder when Brezhnev and Kirchschläger arrived and roared with approval when Carter and Brezhnev returned the applause. At one point, Brezhnev leaned forward and murmured "Ochen khorosho" (very good). Carter nodded in agreement. Carter and Brezhnev left after the second act, presumably to get a full night's sleep before beginning their formal discussions next day.