DIPLOMACY: Of Arms Control and the Man

Globetrotting at a pace that is impressive even by his familiar peripatetic standards, U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger arrived in Moscow last Wednesday on the first leg of a three-week trip that will take him to more than a dozen countries in Europe, South Asia and the Middle East. One achievement is certain: en route (probably between Bangladesh and Pakistan) Kissinger will break all known records for long-distance diplomacy by logging his 200,000th mile of State Department travel. Other triumphs, however, may be considerably harder won.

Top priority item on the agenda for his 3½ days of talks with Kremlin leaders was the sensitive issue of strategic arms control. Disappointingly little progress has been made since the first round of SALT negotiations ended in 1972. At that time, a treaty was signed on limitation of defensive missile systems (ABM'S), but an interim agreement on the deployment of offensive nuclear arms extends only to 1977. Unless some significant breakthrough can be made soon, the idyl of American-Soviet détente may be lost in the nightmarish shuffle of an accelerated arms race. Well aware that peripheral agreements on scientific collaboration and cultural exchange cannot compensate for failure to achieve this central goal, Kissinger went into the talks with a variety of specific suggestions for more lasting and stringent controls on the whole range of strategic arms. His proposals include several possible formulas for establishing "essential equivalence" between American and Soviet stockpiles—an issue that has kept SALT II negotiations deadlocked for the past two years.

Arriving at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport, Kissinger announced that he expected the talks, which will also cover the Middle East, European security problems and Soviet-American trade relations, to be "full, friendly and constructive." Privately, however, he was somewhat less optimistic. Although Kissinger, in the post-Nixon era, is freed from the burden of representing a President of precarious tenure, he must now contend with Soviet uncertainty about the continuity of foreign policy between past and present Washington Administrations. Soviet diplomats have been inquiring about the chances of Kissinger's own survival in office—which looks solid to most U.S. Administration watchers, despite recent attacks on him by journalists, academics and others.

Untimely Leaks. Soviet Party Leader Leonid Brezhnev had requested an early introductory meeting to establish personal contact with President Ford. As a prerequisite for such a meeting, Kissinger was expected to press for assurances of progress on the arms question. Late last week Moscow and Washington jointly announced that the two leaders will hold a "working meeting" near the Soviet Far Eastern city of Vladivostok on November 23 and 24 after the President's visits to Japan and South Korea.