Soviet Warmth In Washington

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31942, 20 March 1969, Page 15

Soviet Warmth In Washington

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) WASHINGTON,

March 18.

The Soviet Embassy on Sixteenth Street, Washington, looks like one of those decaying French mansions in which the occupants have run out of money. It now has a hideous high green fence in front of the once oppulent and elegant doorway and inside there is an internal television system which watches all approaches to the building night and day, writes James Reston, of the “New York Times.” It looks, in short, seedy and suspicious, partly because the Soviets will soon be building a new embassy in the capital, and partly because they are worried about anti-Soviet demonstrators. And this is interesting because upstairs the atmosphere is quite different. The

Soviet diplomats are clearly in one of their officially amiable moods these days, and talk as if United StatesSoviet "peace ' and friendship” was back again as the major slogan of their foreign policy. The Soviets seldom change the mood by accident They are usually correct, but they are almost always cold or genial for some specific reason, and the reason this time seems to be that they aye taking the fighting along the Soviet-Chinese border with the utmost seriousness, and want no unnecessary trouble with the West over Berlin, the Middle East, or arms control in the meanwhile. ‘. The evidence of a new Soviet tactical approach to world problems is piling up. They called on the West Germans, of all people, to explain their troubles with the Chinese. They are elaborately polite to the new Nixon administration, and in regular and almost chummy personal . communication with the White House and the State Department. They did not demur about President Nixon’s proclamations in Europe about the importance

of the North Atlantic Treaty and the Common Market, both of which , they have de ; nounced in the past, and they even reacted to President Nixon’s latest decision 'to build an anti-missile system as if he were' doing them a favour.:

. Meanwhile, they have suddenly agreed to a new rapid communications System between the: United States embassy in Moscow and • the State Department, which they had held up for many months, and they are now pressing for an agreement on the revival of United States Consul offices in Leningrad and a new'Soviet Consulate in San Francisco. Of course, they keep on supplying North Vietnam and the Arab countries with military assistance, and continue to menace Czechoslovakia as if it were a hostile colony, but something is obviously, happening in their relations with ; the other Communist States and with the Western nations, and particularly, with the United States.

This has produced a qujet but fascinating debate within the • new Nixon Administration, which is - an odd mix-

tore of the old Johnson holdovers, the new Nixon appointtees, and the professional Washington bureaucracyall of them divided on whether this latest Soviet approach to Washington, the Middle East, and arms control is an opportunity or a trap. . . ' President Nixon has been listening to those who think that both the Soviets and the North Vietnamese are in trouble —= and therefore should ,be pressed. for concessions everywhere—and he has also been hearing from other, aides who see a fundamental change in the Soviet' Union’s- relations with China and the-West, and want'him to exploit the change by avoiding military decisions to the Soviet Union .about the Middle East, arms control and Vietnam.

The new President’s, reaction to all this is clearly to temporise and compromise, and since he has to deal with delicate and ambiguous political problems both at home and. abroad-, there is- something to be said for his caution. . His decision to order the deployment of a modified

anti-ballistic system has divided and confused both his supporters and his opponents at home, .ahdt in any event will take ia long time to debate before any money and machinery can be gathered to do the job. Meanwhile, he has taken, advantage of the new Soviet offers of co-operation, to reassure the Ambassador (Mr" Dobrynin) that he is willing to talk about the Middle East arid arms control long before anybody will have time to build or set up a single anti-bal-listic missile site in Montana or North Dakota.

The question,, is whether the Soviet Union, for whatever reason—China or anything else—is finally ready to talk sense about controlling the arms’ race and the ArabIsraeli controversy in the Middle East. ■ The signs in Washington -are that the Soviets want' to talk about both—that is about all the evidence will support. It may be no more than a tactic, but the. Soviets are pressing it hard, and President Nixon is now in a position to explore the posibilities, without too much political opposition at home.