Word: andropov
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There is a sharp division of opinion in Washington as to how the U.S. negotiators in Geneva should be instructed to reply. The Pentagon counsels simply saying no and insisting on Reagan's zero-zero plan. Defense officials dismiss Andropov's bid as a mere propaganda ploy. They fear that if the U.S. makes a counterproposal, Moscow will ask European governments to delay installation of the American missiles while negotiations continue, then stall the talks endlessly, in effect blocking deployment of the Pershing IIs and cruises without yielding anything...
...White House would be to instruct Nitze to reject the Andropov offer but press for clarification, explanation and possible modifications. That, however, would only postpone the hard decision on whether or when to make a counterproposal...
...Union have aimed at each other. Edward Rowny, the chief U.S. negotiator, said last week, "The odds are probably fifty-fifty" that agreement can be reached during 1983. Reagan said his bargainers "feel that the Soviets are really negotiating in good earnest, so we're a little optimistic." Andropov, in writing to an American journalist, sounded a friendly tone and suggested a summit meeting with Reagan, an idea the U.S. treated warily...
...rooting out the mujahedin, the ragtag but stubborn guerrillas who control most of the countryside. Neither side has gained or lost much ground over the past three years, and all signs point to a continuing stalemate. Although diplomats began to speculate last November that new Soviet Leader Yuri Andropov would try to find a face-saving compromise that would allow the Soviet Union to withdraw from its Afghan quagmire, there has been no evidence of that so far. Says a senior British diplomat: "No one is winning, and short of a decision by Andropov to extricate himself from the country...
...biggest worry among party officials at the moment is figuring out what the Kremlin wants. "Andropov is as much a mystery to the Czechs as he is to us right now," says a Western diplomat. "They are waiting to see whether he wants blind loyalty or economic reform, or both...