Keeping a Watch on Brezhnev

Soviet Party Leader Leonid Brezhnev is a past master of give and take, Russian style. At one point during the most recent Strategic Arms Limitation Talks in Moscow, Brezhnev took a fancy to the expensive gold Omega wristwatch worn by State Department Counsellor Helmut Sonnenfeldt. Brezhnev asked for it, offering in exchange a cheap Russian pocket watch.

Sonnenfeldt protested that the watch was a gift from his mother-in-law, and that she might be less than delighted at such a one-sided deal. With that, Brezhnev left the room, returning quickly with a somewhat better chrome-plated wristwatch--a Swedish-made Eternamat. As a sweetener, he hinted that Sonnenfeldt might get his own watch back if and when there is a final SALT agreement between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Sonnenfeldt's mother-in-law might be miffed for quite a while.

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