Point Man

By Jacob V. Lamar Jr

He is a former pacifist and conscientious objector who staunchly supports America's military buildup. He is a lifelong Democrat who advised Walter Mondale on foreign policy but who today works for Ronald Reagan. By his own estimation, Max Kampelman, 65, the chief U.S. negotiator at the Geneva arms- control talks, is an idealistic realist who entertains no illusions about the Soviet Union. As the fifth round of the current negotiations continued last week, Kampelman called the U.S.S.R. "probably the most deadly and most serious adversary" the U.S. has ever known.

After 14 months of impasses on Star Wars and long-range weapons, Kampelman is cautiously hopeful that an agreement can be reached on the limitation of medium-range missiles. The Soviets are eager for some type of accord that Mikhail Gorbachev can point to if he joins Reagan at a summit this year. Last week they presented a draft treaty incorporating their earlier proposals for reducing medium-range weapons. Kampelman was quick to knock it down. "There was nothing new in that treaty," said the diplomat. "It was merely a formal treaty carrying out statements they had previously made to us."

Despite his wariness of the Soviets, Kampelman maintains a solid working relationship with his counterpart, Victor Karpov. In the long, tortuous process of arms negotiations, he is careful to remain receptive to the Kremlin's more serious overtures without giving ground on the American side. "What they respect is power," says Kampelman. "The extent to which their adversary has power of its own adds an element of dignity to the argument of the adversary." Reagan has given his negotiator a relatively free hand in the talks. Assisted by a team of representatives from the departments of State and Defense, the CIA, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the White House, Kampelman drafts statements with minimal instruction from the Oval Office. "The President has confidence in us," he says, "so we act on it."

Kampelman the Democrat is out of the Henry ("Scoop") Jackson mold: like the late Washington Senator, he favors liberal social policies while taking a hawkish stance on national defense. He was not always so promilitary. The son of a hat salesman in the Bronx, Kampelman had graduated from New York University and was working his way through law school when he was drafted in 1942. A Jew, he cited religious reasons in declaring himself a conscientious objector. Says he: "I just couldn't see myself killing anyone." Rather than fight, he volunteered for alternative service in a program at the University of Minnesota on the effects of starvation. His weight plunged 25%, to close to 100 lbs. To keep his mind off food, he pursued a doctorate in political science and after the war became an instructor at the university.

When Hubert Humphrey went to Washington as a Senator in 1949, Kampelman followed as his legislative counsel. He left Capitol Hill in 1955 to join the prestigious law firm currently known as Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson. He also enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve. Explains Kampelman: "The development of atomic and hydrogen bombs led me to doubt my earlier faith in the power of nonviolence to overcome evil in international relations."

Kampelman has served as a vice chairman of the Coalition for a Democratic Majority, an organization formed by Humphrey and Jackson, and was a co-founder of the Committee on the Present Danger, a hawkish group of which Reagan was a member. In March 1980 President Carter named him the U.S. representative at follow-up talks on the Helsinki human rights accords, a position he held onto after the Reagan ascendancy.

Not surprisingly, Kampelman believes that his job as chief negotiator in Geneva is the greatest challenge of his political life. "No matter what we think of the Soviets, we have to live with them on this globe," says Kampelman. "We can't blow them away, we can't wish them away. We have to find a formula by which we can live with them in peace and dignity."

With reporting by Neil MacNeil/Geneva