_ WORLD

Opportunity historic |

for arms control

TRIBUNE COMBINED SOURCES

Top level Soviet-U.S. meetings in Mos-
cow, together with a series of Soviet missile
teduction initiatives that both preceded and
accompanied the talks have created an “his-
toric opportunity” to sign a ground-
breaking arms control agreement.

Georgi Arbatov, director of the Soviet
Institute of the USA and Canada, told
Teporters on NBC-TV’s Meet the Press
Sunday that the proposals covering both
Short-range and medium range missiles
Made by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
have created a unprecedented basis for
agreement. “Never was such a chance given
to any U.S. president as now,” he said.

Viktor Karpov, the chief Soviet arms
control negotiator at Geneva, also expressed
Optimism about the new opportunity,
emphasizing that an arms control pact now
depends on the willingness of the U.S. to
Teach an agreement “without raising artifi-
Cial obstacles.”

The last several weeks have seen a quick-
€ned pace of arms control proposals from
the Soviet Union intended to pave the way
for a first-step agreement.

Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev announ-
ced last month that the USSR was prepared
to accept the “zero option”on medium
Tange missiles, first proposed by the U.S. in
1981 on the eve of its deployment in Europe
_ Of new cruise and Pershing 2 missiles. That
Option would see the Soviet missiles
_ Temoved from European soil together with
the cruise and Pershing missiles deployed by
the U.S.

The USSR had initially objected to the
Proposal on the basis that French and Brit-
ish missiles would be untouched by the
agreement, leaving the Soviet Union and
Eastern Europe vulnerable to nuclear
attack launched from Europe. But in an

effort to break the impasse, Gorbachev
proposed that the zero option be put on the
table.

In a speech in Prague April 10, Gorba-
chev declared: “Today world nations are
interdependent, like mountain climbers on
one rope. They can either climb together to
the summit or fall together into the abyss...
that underlines the need for a new way of
political thinking adequate to the nuclear
age. Only such thinking can lead to all coun-
tries taking urgent measures to prevent a
nuclear disaster which would wipe out the
human race.

“Tn a bid to make the first and therefore
crucial step toward disarmament, we have
suggested an accord be reached on medium
range missiles,” he said.

In the same address, Gorbachev outlined
proposals for quick agreement on the
reduction and eventual elimination of
short-range missiles. The proposals were in
direct response to new obstacles thrown in
the way of a medium-range missile agree-
ment by Britain and France, both of which
had earlier agreed to the zero option.

The Soviet leader also emphasized other
peace proposals including an agreement on
banning chemical weapons; agreements on
reducing and eventually eliminating tactical
nuclear weapons; agreements on cutting
back troops and conventional arms in
Europe; and the establishment of a nuclear-
weapons free zone in central Europe.

Throughout his speech, he stressed the
urgent need for countries to be prepared to
discuss all issues and not to raise new obsta-
cles.

“The West speaks of inequalities and
imbalances,” he said. “And, yes, there is a
certain asymmetry in the armed forces of
the two sides in Europe, due to historical,
geographic and other factors.

i.

been given such an opportunity.”

“We are for redressing the imbalances
existing in some of the elements, but not
through a build-up by the trailing party but
through a build-down by the one that has
broken away,” he said.

“As we see it, the process of lowering the
level of military confrontation in Europe
should proceed stage by stage, with obser-
vance of the balance at each stage at the
level of reasonable sufficiency. Such mea-
sures could help get the job of reducing that
huge pile of troops and armaments in
Europe off the ground at last.

“There is a truly unique chance for that
now,” he emphasized. “it would be unpar-
donable to miss it.”

Gorbachev also made that point directly
to George Shultz during the US. secretary
of state’s visit to Moscow earlier this month,
emphasizing that the onus is now on the
USS. to sit down and negotiate seriously.

“No previous U.S. administration has
had such opportunities,” he said, “Yet we

REAGAN, GORBACHEV IN GENEVA, 1985... ‘‘never before has a U.S. president

do not see any clear sign from the U.S. that
they wish to use these opportunities to
improve our bilateral relations or to
decrease global tensions. All our efforts to
remove obstacles are met with new compli-
cations, obstructionism or, at best, hedging
and procrastination.”

Shultz’s visit to Moscow brought little in
the way of concrete response to the Soviet
proposals from the U.S. side although it did
ease the way towards a U.S.-USSR summit
and offered the hope of some movement on
certain issues, including chemical! weapons
and nuclear test verification.

Still, Shultz’s subsequent talks in western
Europe indicated that an agreement on
medium range missiles could be coming
closer. The Kohl government in the Federal
Republic of Germany(West) has declared
its acceptance of the zero missile option and
stated that “additional armament” would
be unnecessary if the USSR removes its
SS-20 missiles as it has proposed.

a

INTERNATIONAL FOCUS Tom Morris

Cheering up
the troops

The anguish in Washington
Over the ‘‘sex-and-spy-scan-
dal” at the American embassy
in Moscow is truly of epic pro-
portions.

On April 14, during the visit
of Secretary of State George
Shultz to the Soviet capital,
things had reached such a low
among U.S. personnel that

strawberries and cream were
being flown in to cheer them
up. In diplomatic circles, it’s
known to be serious when
strawberries and cream and a
pep-talk by the Chief are re-
quired.

The situation, however, has
been downhill for some time:

A few months back embassy
staff had to wash their own
dishes, take their own kids to
school, staff the basement

The U.S. marines: not all mom and apple pie.

AO

MacDonald’s ptomaine palace
and do all their own menial
jobs when the USSR pulled out
the local support staff.

Then the (mom and apple
pie) Marines were caught with

their trousers down (sic), more .

interested in wine, women and
song than keeping the world
safe for democracy. Worse still
the USSR knew all about it.

Now, say the Americans,
the Soviets know everything
going on in the new, $191-mil-
lion complex, which comprises
housing, a pool, shops and em-
bassy facilities. ““We’re damn
mad,’ growled Shultz. “‘No
fair,’’ breathes Reagan.

So now we've heard the
U.S. charge the USSR with
everything. But voyeurism?

It’s not easy
being perfect

Those who don’t (or can’t)
read the Washington-based
syndicated columnist, George
F. Will, are being deprived of a
lesson in journalism and true
Americanism.

G.F.W.
Stuff. He thinks Reagan is a

’ wimp; that the Commander-

in-Chief is a gutless wonder,

is made of Real

derelict in his duty, plain chic-
ken.

The Moscow embassy scan-
dal, says Will, is made even
worse by the Washington em-
bassy scandal. Explains Will:
The new U.S. Moscow em-
bassy is bugged silly by the
KGB. The new Soviet em-
bassy in Washington is a KGB
“‘listening post’’ in America’s
bosom.

Not bad, eh? Sneaky Rus-
sians ... they win both ways.

The Moscow complex, he
says ‘‘should be razed, and the
Soviet Union, which ruined it
with electronic penetration,
should pay for it — $191-mil-
lion.”

The Soviets, he says, put the
new American embassy “‘in a
trough in Moscow,”’ while the
Americans gave the Soviets *‘a
Washington hill, suited for
electronic espionage.”

That’s dirty pool.

George Will then gives us
the real scoop on glasnost:
Openness ‘‘is open access for
Soviet spies to the U.S. em-
bassy in Moscow,” he writes.
Not much gets by George.

Will is angry at the Soviets,
at Shultz, at Reagan, at the
Marines, at U.S. liberals, at his

wife and kids, at his cat.
It’s not easy being perfect in
an imperfect world.

John Paul’s world,
and the real one

George F. Will may think
he’s the only perfect human,
but he still must share this
earth with someone who thinks
he’s infallible.

Pope John Paul has just re-
turned from another Latin
American swing where he once
again showed how out of step
the Vatican is.

In Chile he watched police
shoot people and chatted along
with Pinochet. In Uruguay he
ignored the fact the country
had endured years of right-
wing repression while his
church said nothing.

In Argentina he praised the
church hierarchy, when
everyone knows they ° col-
laborated with the criminal jun-
ta. He then warned unionists
not to meddle in politics and
repeated archaic church
dogma on divorce to Argen-
tines about to pass divorce
legislation.

He isn’t infallible, but he’s
certainly political.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, APRIL 22, 1987 e 9