Word: brezhnevs
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VIET NAM. For years the Soviets have insisted that they had no control over Hanoi and no choice but to supply the North Vietnamese with arms to keep them out of Peking's influence. Nixon is not prepared to buy that. In essence he will ask Brezhnev: "What kind of superpower are you if you cannot control your allies?" As a precondition for U.S. cooperation in other areas, Nixon is likely to insist on a Soviet pledge to supply only defensive arms to North Viet Nam. If Brezhnev raises the question of what is to become of the twelve...
Tripolar Alignment. Ironically, the most important political item was not on the agenda and would probably not even be mentioned in the formal talks. Yet the summit might never have taken place except for China. In private, though, Brezhnev is almost certain to try to find out from Nixon whether there were any secret agreements made during his China trip. The President can honestly reassure his Soviet counterpart on that point. Even so, there is no doubt that the new relationship with China has given Washington an advantage in the tripolar alignment. Previously Moscow was the only power that talked...
...importance of the Moscow summit to the Soviet leadership is disguised by ideological rhetoric. In fact, one major reason why Brezhnev is eager for détente with the West is economic. For the first time, the Soviet Union is in the grip of a consumer revolution, a revolution that can no longer be ignored or satisfied by appeals for more sacrifices for Communism. Under Brezhnev, the Soviet citizen is aware of improving living standards. The average Russian family can buy a wider selection of clothing than ever before, and can eat plentifully, if plainly. Most Soviet workers now have...
Before their own people Brezhnev and his colleagues must maintain a stance that is in accord with the Communist propaganda that continually exhorts the Soviets to be on guard against Western imperialism. Still, they have shown that they, rather like their guest this week, are essentially pragmatists. How much leeway do the Soviet leaders have today in changing old and outmoded positions? And to what extent do they really want to? Those will be the questions in the President's mind as he faces Leonid Brezhnev this week across the table in St. Catherine's Hall...
WHEN Leonid Brezhnev replaced Nikita Khrushchev in Russia's top job eight years ago, Kremlinologists tended to agree that the obscure new First Secretary of the Communist Party was just another faceless nullity in the gray mass of Soviet bureaucrats. They were wrong, of course. At 65 the Soviet leader has emerged as a shrewd, robust, forceful and even dashing personality, with a love of fast cars and a zest for life. On the same stage with him, other Politburo members almost seem like part of the furniture...