A Call for Hardheaded Detente

Nixon urges Reagan to meet Andropov at the summit

Richard Nixon has observed what he calls the "dangerous deterioration" of U.S.-Soviet relations from the melancholy vantage point of someone who believes he could have prevented it if it had not been for "Watergate and all that." Under the banner of détente, he was the last President to conduct a coherent and largely successful policy for managing the rivalry between the superpowers. During his six years in office, Soviet mischief making in the Third World was more restrained than it has been since. The Soviet leaders opened the door a crack in permitting...