Show 1111 1 11 11 11 1 1 1 1 1 m 11 It ft See Seems 15 To Me MeBy By hy Joseph Josph n H. H Roberts AlA Geneva Conference COPYRIGHT 1377 1977 Contemporary Features Syndicate Inc The Russians agreed to set up committees to study the various problems associated with arms control and talk about them hem when hen they meet with the thc US U.S. representatives In Geneva later this month That's about all alt they agreed to when Secretary of State Stale Cyrus R R. R Vance presented President Carters Carter's strategic arms limitations proposals Vance was given one big for everything else and sent packing It was a rather inauspicious beginning for Carter in the thc murky world of foreign relations but under the circumstances circumstances cir clr cir cir- I dont don't know what else he could have expected The proposals were for tor substantial substantial substantial sub sub- reductions in nuclear weapons and had the Russians been willing to consider them it would have required weeks of negotiations and full fuJI defir defining ng of terms-not terms three days of polite talk before any kind ind of an agreement either side could comprehend and abide by could be worked outLets outLets outLets out Lets Let's hope the Geneva conference con con- ference Terence will prove more productive than the Moscow visit It may if the Russian and US U.S. negotiators can avoid getting gelling bogged down in a lot of silly propaganda I dont don't mean what President Carter has said about human rights is silly propaganda but it could become such if it is made an issue during the conference Like freedom human rights is an abstract idea It can mean different things to different people It is hardly an issue that can be negotiated It certainly has no place in a conference on arms control or any other concrete matters about which treaties can be drawn and limits set If the diplomats will stick to the highly practical business of reducing the number of strategic weapons in their enormous arsenals they will do more for human rights especially the right to life than any number of speeches will accomplish Barring failing health and the uncertainty of his successor should he die the chances for our at least starting to formulate a real agreement with the Russians on arms limitations are good They would probably benefit more from a reduction in military spending than we would They are investing a much larger percentage of their GNP in military hardware than we are and the drain on their budget must be tremendous If we could get a genuine quid-pro- quid quo agreement with them both sides would benefit The leaders of the armed forces in the USSR however want military superiority hot not parity If they can convince or his successor that the peace-loving peace Americans arc are areso so eager for arms reduction that they will settle for a unilateral disarmament in hope the Soviets will follow their good example the Geneva meeting will produce little more than rhetoric We have made mistakes in our dealings with the Russians in the past because we have not understood these hard-driving hard suspicious power-hungry power men who have fought their way to the top in the Communist st world We have no appreciation for propaganda and the other tools of psychological warfare as they do We are either too trusting or not trusting enough when we deal with them and as asa asa asa a consequence we either get nowhere with them as Vance did in Moscow or we permit them to bully us into accepting sided one-sided agreements in which we lose and they win We can only hope that the meeting in Geneva will take place as scheduled and that this time the Carter administration will employ a bit more diplomatic perspicuity than it did in Moscow We cant can't afford any more mistakes If we dont don't succeed this time it may be years before we can come to terms with suc- suc cessor-and cessor that could mean more billions of dollars spent pent on weapons neither side heeds needs for adequate defense |