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...embarked on one of the most extraordinary episodes of creative insubordination in the annals of diplomacy. He entered a covert and unauthorized negotiation-within-the-negotiation with his Soviet counterpart in the INF talks, Yuli Kvitsinsky. During a stroll in a forest outside Geneva, the famous "walk in the woods," they reached a tentative compromise. Back in Washington, Perle and Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger led a successful campaign to repudiate the deal and reprimand Nitze...
They are officially known as reservations, but lawmakers call them "killer amendments." Attached to a treaty by the Senate, they require the President to renegotiate certain provisions. Although Reagan is expected to have little trouble getting the two-thirds majority needed to ratify the INF accord, such likely opponents of the treaty as North Carolina's Jesse Helms and Wyoming's Malcolm Wallop may aim to scuttle it by mustering a majority in favor of amendments that sound reasonable but would prove lethal...
...West should take to reduce the Warsaw Pact's superiority in non-nuclear weapons. Nunn and others believe that imbalance may be more threatening with the elimination of Euromissiles. He is said to be considering a unilateral declaration of objectives that NATO should achieve after passage of the treaty. INF opponents may push for a more lethal amendment that would bar the President from carrying out the treaty's provisions unless the conventional-arms imbalance in Europe is redressed. Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd said last week he thought such a restriction "could be a killer...
Verification. The INF pact has precedent-setting provisions that allow the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. to inspect each other's missile sites for evidence of cheating. Some conservative Senators, however, may want an amendment providing for the investigation on demand of "suspect sites" not enumerated in the treaty. That would be strongly opposed by both the White House and the Pentagon. In fact, the Soviets agreed to this idea in principle earlier this year, but the U.S. rejected the notion after defense officials realized it would work both ways; they did not want Soviet inspectors poking around classified facilities...
Human rights and regional conflicts. Lawmakers could link ratification of the INF agreement to issues like a Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan or an easing of the restrictions on Jewish emigration. Many Senators might find it hard to vote against such politically popular measures. But because these provisions have little real relevance to the missile accord, they could probably be shot down before reaching the Senate floor for a vote...