Problems Caused By Prospect Of Summit

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31864, 17 December 1968, Page 25

Problems Caused By Prospect Of Summit

f.V.Z. Press Assn—Copyripht) NEW YORK, Dec. 15. President Johnson is apparently determined to have one last talk with the leaders of the Soviet Union before he leaves office, and this is creating an awkward situation for his staff, for the Russians, and

for the new Nixon Administration, writes James Reston of the New York Times News Service. Reston continue?: What could they talk about now, other than the missed opportunities of the past? President Johnson cannot agree to anything at this late date, that will not depend on the judgment and authority of Mr Nixon later on. He can make no promises he will have the power to redeem. The Soviet leaders want an end to the Vietnam war on terms President Johnson is not prepared to accept. They want the United States Senate and the West Germans to approve the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and President Johnson can I commit neither. I They are ready to talk about the control of military arms and missile systems, but, not unnaturally, they :want to talk to the people in Washington who have the power to control them. President Johnson’s aides do not want to deny their chief his last chance, since he seems eager for one final roll of the dice, but it is difficult and almost impossible for them to come up with policies which they cannot put into practice. Russian Attitude The Russians know a summit would be futile—and they have been ignoring Washington suggestions for one—but there might be one advantage from Moscow’s point of view. A summit meeting would at least give the impression to the world that President Johnson’s Administration had forgotten that the U.S.S.R. invaded Czechoslovakia and kidnapped the Czechoslovak leaders. But beyond this, Mr Kosygin and Mr Brezhnev

are interested in the future exercise of American power, which they know will soon pass from President Johnson to Mr Nixon. For the President-elect and his future Secretary of State the prospect of a summit meeting is enough to ruin Christinas. The new Republican leaders do not want to spoil President Johnson’s party, but they are too unprepared yet to send an observer to a summit meeting, and too courteous to say publicly that they would refuse to send one. The new cabinet members, still recovering from being thrown into Washington on national television, are scarcely ready to deal with each other, let alone to deal with Mr Kosygin and Mr Brezhnev. They are thinking of more practical logistical problems than the anti-ballistic missile system. More Pressing Problems Where will they live in Washington? Where will the children go to school? What will the women wear? Should we sell or rent the old bouse back home, and will Sophie, the cook, really move to the Capitol and, if so, will she stick? These are really important questions for a new Administration: nothing is more dangerous to the unity of a new cabinet than a disdisgruntled cabinet wife house-hunting in Georgetown. After all, how do you live in Mr Nixon’s cabinet with a son and daughter who were for Senator McCarthy —or make sense of the anti-bal-listic missile problem when you haven’t read the background papers, and are so disoriented by the political and family changes of the last few weeks that you cannot quite remember where you are when you wake up in the morning? It would be a pity, therefore, to ruin what has been a smooth and almost chummy transition from the old to the new Administration, with a spectacular charade in Geneva on problems nobody has the power to solve. Everybody has behaved remarkably well recently, considering the mutual doubt that exists between the departing and arriving leaders. Restraint Shown Mr Nixon has invited Chief Justice Earl Warren to stay on at the court until June, and Judge Warren has agreed, and both have suppressed their true feelings with admirable restraint. Governor Nelson Rockefeller has said he loves New York, and Mr Nixon has restrained himself from urging him to move'to Washington, and meanwhile the Presi-dent-elect has stolen Mr John Mitchell, Governor Rockefeller’s legal adviser on bonds, to be AttorneyGeneral.

Mr Melvin Laird has left the House of Representatives for the Pentagon, and is now calling for peace in Vietnam, and Governor George Romney has agreed to leave East Lansing for the Potomac, and Mr Henry Kissinger and Mr Pat Moynihan have left Cambridge for the White House, all at sacrifices to their finances if not to their pride. So things have been going rather well. We have a conservative cabinet to deal with a catalogue of radical problems at home and abroad, and this will require some spectacular adjustments, but a summit meeting with the Russians at this moment is not likely to help the transition.

Later on it might be a good idea, but right now it is no Christmas present for either Mr Nixon or President Johnson.