Word: chernenko
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...three weeks since Konstantin Chernenko succeeded Yuri Andropov as leader of the Soviet Union, U.S. policymakers and Kremlinologists have peered closely East and West for portents of hope. Last week they thought they detected several encouraging signs of Soviet movement on arms control...
...year stalled negotiations to ban chemical weapons. Missiles can be detected by satellites or sophisticated electronic eavesdropping, but chemical munitions can be checked only by visiting the factories where they are made. Said President Reagan at his press conference Wednesday night: "We are very hopeful that [Chernenko may be] willing to agree to on-site inspection with regard to chemical warfare. We think this is a good sign, and we have let him know that we want better relations, we want to sit down and try to resolve some of the problems that we have...
...accession of Chernenko gives the Soviets an opportunity to back out of a negotiating corner. Andropov had made it clear that the Soviets would not return to the Geneva talks as long as Pershing II and cruise missiles were deployed in Europe. But Chernenko is not so closely identified with that stand...
...color to what can be a gray existence. Nor are Soviet officials immune to the temptations; it is often their children who are first to sport the latest Western clothes, courtesy of a trip abroad or a state store reserved for the elite. "What cannot help alarming us," Chernenko said last year, "is the desire on the part of our youth to make themselves noticeable not by their knowledge or industry but by expensive things bought with their parents' money...
...reassure the Kremlin, for it illustrates that a Soviet youngster can be enthralled with the trappings of Western culture but still retain his deeply nurtured distrust of the U.S. Indeed, the blue jeans and the disco thump probably serve as useful vents for youthful frustrations. The greater threat facing Chernenko is not that the Soviet Union's young people are attracted to other cultures, but that the system does not provide for their multiplying needs and locks them into slots at an early age, breeding apathy and boredom. -By James Kelly...