Word: brezhnevs
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Some observers believe that the Russians made a basic error in their negotiating tactics. Once Brezhnev had publicly scheduled the 25th Soviet Party Congress for next February, he was caught in a tight squeeze. To meet that deadline, he had to get the Security Conference completed, then move to a new SALT agreement and a successful trip to Washington. In the end, the Russians simply had to make more concessions than they wanted to on Basket Three. "We didn't even have to go to our fallback positions on most of the Basket Three issues," says one Western negotiator...
Like Ford and Brezhnev, Europe's Big Four representatives had an impressive supporting cast. Although France was a defeated power, it was ably served by its adroit, persuasive Foreign Minister, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord-whom Napoleon had once called "a piece of dung in a silk stocking," presumably because of his tendency to shift allegiances. Also present were some 32 minor German princes, representatives of the Pope, the Sultan of Turkey and numerous special interest groups (including the Jews of Frankfurt). They were accompanied by an extravagant collection of wives, mistresses and servants, and so much...
...problems of disarmament cannot be separated from other basic goals of détente-those of overcoming the secretiveness and weakening the totalitarian nature of Soviet society. The Nixon-Brezhnev agreement [of 1972] limiting antimissile defenses and the Ford-Brezhnev agreement [of 1974] limiting offensive strategic weapons are important but in my opinion incomplete and even dangerous...
...fact that the Vladivostok agreement [signed by Ford and Brezhnev last year] seemed to legitimize multiple, independently targetable warheads [MIRVs] is also alarming. MIRVS, which are a new fashion in military rocketry, open up wider possibilities for the arms race and increase the danger of a so-called unstable situation, in which it would be strategically advantageous for either side to deliver a pre-emptive nuclear strike. In the language of human beings, that would mean committing the greatest crime in history...
...toying with the notion of an off-season $998-per-person package holiday in Russia, which 5,057 Americans visited in the first four months of this year-an increase of 42% over the same period last year. In the spirit of Apollo-Soyuz, the New Yorkers figure, Brezhnev may even invite them to a champagne lunch in the Kremlin...