Coming Closer to SALT II

Cryptic hints that the gaps are narrowing

On the rostrum of the United Nations General Assembly, immediately after an attack on the Camp David agreements, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko suddenly fell silent, then leaned against the side of the speaker's desk. Two diplomats anxiously started forward, grasped Gromyko under the arms and helped him off the podium. For a time it seemed as though the 69-year-old veteran might be nearing the end of a career that has kept him at the head of the Soviet foreign ministry for an astonishing 22 years, but after a medical checkup and an hour's rest in a U.N. foyer, the durable Russian was back on the podium. His only complaint, he said, was against the "very, very hot" TV lights.

Nobody was more relieved than Jimmy Carter and his chief diplomatic aides, for they were preparing to welcome Gromyko to Washington over the weekend for what might prove to be an important new phase of the Carter Administration's 18-month preoccupation with SALT II negotiations. Gromyko is by now a matchless expert in the technicalities of strategic arms, and there is no real replacement for him on the Soviet side. "If his illness had been any worse," said one vastly relieved U.S. diplomat, "we could have kissed SALT goodbye for another six months."

Gromyko was in the U.S. for his seventh meeting with Secretary of State Cyrus Vance since the Carter Administration took office, and indications were that the gap between the U.S. and Soviet negotiators was narrowing. For more than a year, there has been broad agreement in three basic categories: limitation of total strategic missile systems to 2,250 for each side, a three-year ban on developing or testing new missile systems, and further negotiations for a SALT III treaty that would make additional cuts in strategic nuclear arsenals. At the last Vance-Gromyko meeting in Geneva, in July, both sides pressed for some exemptions in the restrictions on new weapons and it appears they tentatively agreed that each could test at least one new land-launched missile. Since then the two nations have been warily circling each other, seeking tradeoffs. Says one U.S. participant in the talks: "It's like a Chinese menu. You take three from Column A, or two from Column B, or you can mix it up."

The setting for the Vance-Gromyko talks last week was at one time a cooperative apartment building that now serves as the Soviet U.N. mission, on Manhattan's 67th Street. As Vance and his nine fellow U.S. delegates sat across a green baize-covered table from their Soviet counterparts, they had only to look up to confront a portrait of a determined-looking Lenin, founder of the Soviet state. Gromyko spoke for most of the two-hour, 25-minute session the first afternoon. The following day, at the U.S. headquarters across from the U.N., it was Vance's turn to play host. The talks this time lasted nearly four hours. At his press conference that same afternoon the President seemed optimistic. Said he: "If the Soviets are forthcoming and cooperative and are willing to compromise some of their positions, we will have an agreement." He added that he hoped SALT II would be signed by the end of the year. Already there was talk in Washington of holding a summit conference with Leonid Brezhnev, either in the U.S. or in Moscow, if the Soviet leader is too ill to travel far.

U.S. officials once hoped to sign a SALT II agreement before the end of last year, however, and despite the optimism, there are still important differences to be resolved. The U.S. military remains concerned that the Soviets will find ways to convert their medium-range rocket, the SS-20, into a strategic weapon like the more powerful SS-16. They also fear that the Soviets' supersonic Backfire bomber could be used as a strategic weapon against the U.S. For their part, the Soviets are worried by the low-flying U.S. cruise missile, whose versatility enables it to be used as both a tactical and a strategic nuclear weapon. Soviet negotiators have been trying to limit to 600 kilometers the maximum distance that land-and sea-launched cruise missiles can travel; for air-launched cruises, they are striving for a 2,500 kilometer limit.

Yet another sticking point has been the duration of the SALT II protocol. The U.S. wants it to last until December 1980. The Soviets want the protocol to last as long as possible in order to put a brake on American technological developments.

On Saturday, Vance and Gromyko began their weekend meetings with Carter. At the first session, they met for three hours and 40 minutes, then appeared joking and smiling on the White House lawn to indicate that progress had been made. Gromyko said "signs have appeared of a certain movement forward," although he warned that the talks had not yet reached their "final stage." Indeed, the two men met again on Sunday morning, only to admit to reporters that some problems still remained. Said Vance: "Obviously, we have not reached agreement on all issues." To seek a final accord, the Secretary of State will go to Moscow later this month.

Any agreement that is finally worked out will face strong opposition in the U.S. Senate. Though some 40 Senators are believed generally in favor of a new strategic arms pact along the lines that currently seem possible, at least 20 are believed resolutely against it. This raises the ominous possibility of rejection of a treaty by Congress. California's Senator Alan Cranston has gone so far as to say that failure by Congress to ratify a good agreement by the necessary two-thirds majority would be "catastrophic." SALT's foes, led by Senator Henry Jackson, contend, on the other hand, that a bad treaty would have its own catastrophic consequences.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.