THE PRESIDENCY by HUGH SIDEY: In Jerry's Crystal Ball

October 1978. Hail to the Chief booms out over the assembled dignitaries in the East Room of the White House. The President strides in, smiling broadly. He announces yet another Middle East peace agreement worked out by his ubiquitous Secretary of State, this one between Israel and Jordan. It is the third in a sequence that began a year and a half ago with an Israeli-Egyptian treaty. While he has the rapt attention of his audience, the President reveals that the SALT II agreement signed twelve months earlier has worked so well that the Soviet leadership wants to move on...