Word: sovietizers
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Gorbachev's initiative will make it ever more difficult for Reagan to put forth a public case for pursuing his Star Wars program. Said the Soviet leader: "Instead of wasting the next ten to 15 years by developing new weapons in space, allegedly designed to make nuclear arms useless, would it not be more sensible to eliminate those arms?" Reagan is caught in a public relations bind: it will be difficult for him to explain convincingly why he is prepared to scuttle a plan to rid the world of nuclear missiles by insisting on the right to build a defensive...
...second stage of Gorbachev's program, which would begin by 1990 and last five to seven years, the U.S., the Soviet Union and "other" nuclear powers would make further reductions in intermediate-range missiles and carry out a phased elimination of battlefield nuclear weapons. The problems are obvious: agreement would be required not only from Britain and France but from China, the other known member of the "nuclear club" and a nation that has so far refused to join any nuclear negotiations. An even stickier problem is that the U.S. and its NATO allies depend on nuclear weapons to deter...
...matched a Western concession made last December with one of his own on verification. He proposed an agreement on chemical weapons that moved beyond Moscow's previous willingness to destroy only existing stockpiles and called for dismantling production facilities as well. He also extended for three months a Soviet moratorium on weapons tests that began last August and was to have expired on Jan. 1, and he pledged to prolong it further if the U.S. should join. Washington insists it needs to test in order to catch up to Soviet advantages...
Gorbachev is obviously seeking to put Reagan on the defensive, which he has. The Soviet leader's proposal is deftly crafted to appeal immediately to many West Europeans who are anxious about nuclear missiles stationed on their soil or aimed at them. The President will now feel pressure to demonstrate progress toward a deal when the two meet in Washington for their second summit, possibly as early as June...
...line is simply to insist that Soviet negotiators spell out all the small print in Gorbachev's proposals. So far as it goes, that is logical. For all its ambiguities and propagandistic sweep, the plan hints at enough concessions to spur serious negotiating. Only detailed probing at Geneva will determine how much is real and how much is propaganda, and there is room for healthy skepticism. But the heat will be on Washington--both for the sake of winning the battle for public opinion and, more important, for keeping alive the hope of a genuine arms-control breakthrough--to come...