home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- <text id=89TT1738>
- <title>
- July 03, 1989: World Notes:Arms Control
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- July 03, 1989 Great Ball Of Fire:Angry Sun
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 35
- World Notes
- ARMS CONTROL
- Off to a Bad START?
- </hdr><body>
- <p> The two new chief negotiators seemed almost chummy when the
- Strategic Arms Reduction Talks resumed in Geneva last week. U.S.
- envoy Richard Burt joked about the danger of falling asleep due
- to jet lag, and his Soviet counterpart, Yuri Nazarkin, quipped
- that he had not yet mastered the jargon of arms control. Then,
- as talks progressed, Burt put forth a surprising proposal that
- threatened to sour the mood.
- </p>
- <p> The U.S. insisted that unprecedented U.S. inspections of
- Soviet nuclear weaponry -- to test techniques for monitoring
- Moscow's compliance with the proposed START accord -- take
- place even before any such treaty is completed. Secretary of
- State James Baker defended the proposal, contending that an
- early understanding on verification might make an arms-reduction
- pact with the Soviets easier to sell to Congress.
- </p>
- <p> The Soviets had no immediate response. But U.S. critics
- promptly charged that the Bush Administration was avoiding tough
- questions, like whether to scrap the Star Wars antimissile
- system, and deliberately delaying a START agreement. The
- Administration, warned Senator Joseph Biden, a member of the
- Foreign Relations Committee, may have committed a "major
- blunder."
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-