Diplomacy: Tense Summit in Bonn

Schmidt fails to convince Brezhnev that the U.S. wants serious arms talks

The conversation in the grand, neoclassic Beethoven dining room of Bonn's 18th century Redoute palace hushed as the ailing, 74-year-old guest rose ponderously from his chair. While his host, West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, unceremoniously popped a stick of chewing gum into his mouth, Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev began to deliver his first public statement since President Ronald Reagan offered to cancel deployment of new U.S.-built nuclear missiles in Western Europe if the Soviets would dismantle the counterparts in their growing...