Peppering SALT

Critics are lining up early

As if he did not have enough problems on Capitol Hill, Jimmy Carter faces increasing congressional opposition to the new Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II) that his negotiators hope to hammer out with the Soviet Union before the end of the year. Closed-door briefings by Administration officials for selected Senators have given SALT's critics something to criticize.

The Administration is most worried about Senator Scoop Jackson. The Washington Democrat was the bane of Henry Kissinger's existence during earlier SALT debates, and now, in a truly bipartisan spirit, he is marshaling his formidable technical expertise and political power to give Secretary of State Cyrus Vance as much trouble, if not more. As chairman of the Senate's arms-control subcommittee, Jackson has heard testimony on SALT II from a parade of high-level witnesses, and he has not liked what he has heard. In one subcommittee session, Jackson treated Vance in a way that one shaken Administration insider termed "angry and almost vicious." The clear implication of Jackson's interrogation: that the U.S. has caved in to the Soviets. He and other SALT critics also charge the Administration with self-serving leaks to the press, while defenders of the prospective treaty accuse Jackson of leaks intended to discredit the negotiations.

The critics argue that the expected agreement puts sharp limits on the cruise missile, which promises to be vital to the U.S. arsenal, without imposing sufficient curbs on a number of threatening Soviet weapons systems, notably the long-range Backfire bomber and the SS-18 rocket, which can carry eight independently targetable warheads. Another Administration nemesis (also a Democrat), former SALT Negotiator Paul Nitze, has declared that by 1985, when SALT II would expire, the U.S.S.R. would be in a position to launch three times as many land-based nuclear warheads as the U.S., and the U.S. Minuteman missile system will be vulnerable to a pre-emptive strike. Says Nitze: "We are locked into inferiority, and I don't know how to get out of it."

Some aspects of the Administration's deal with the Soviets remain secret, and others are still under negotiation. But in private, senior officials have begun to lobby hard for SALT II. Says one: "It's a damn good agreement." Adds another: "This gives us the basis to go after more stringent controls in SALT III." Nonetheless, even if the intensive bargaining with Moscow does yield a treaty in the next few weeks, Carter and his arms-control team are going to need all their patience and persuasive skills to assure its ratification by two-thirds of the Senate.

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