MOSCOW DEADLOCK 'Impeachment key factor’

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33498, 1 April 1974, Page 13

MOSCOW DEADLOCK 'Impeachment key factor’

IN.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

MOSCOW, March 31.

President Nixon’s possible impeachment was the key factor in the failure of the Secretary of State (Dr Henry Kissinger) to break the deadlock in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks in Moscow, in the view of many foreign diplomats in Moscow.

“The Russians decided to take a firm stand because they knew that Mr Nixon was in trouble and needed a S.A.L.T. agreement to boost his position at home.’’ one Western ambassador said.

According to sources close to the Kissinger-Brezhnev discussions, impeachment was not mentioned, but there wa; no doubt that the Russians had Mr Nixon on their minds: at a reception they gave durin Dr Kissinger’s visit, many Americans found themselves besieged by Russian journalists and others with questions about Mr Nixon’s possible impeachment.

The Russians are now making it clear that they are not taking for granted Mr Nixon’s proposed visit to Moscow this summer.

“Our leaders are aware of the possibility that Mr Nixon will be impeached before the summer,” one Russian journalist said, “but they are not worried that this will affect Soviet-Ameri-can Jations. They think detente will go on even if he is not President.”

Another Russian reporter startled an American by asking: "When will President Ford oe coming?” One Western ambassador has expressed concern that the United States might make dangerous concessions to the Russians simply to try to ensure a S.A.L.T. agreement before Mr Nixon’s visit, but other senior diplomats say that a S.A.L.T. treaty by Juns, was improbable, although an agreement on principles—the “conceptual break-through” Dr Kissinger sought—might be attainable by then. Several Western diplomats. while agreeing that the Russians took a tough stand on S.A.L.T., believe that the extent of Dr Kissinger's failure may have been overstated bv members of the Kissinger party after thev had left Moscow.

“It was good American domestic politics,” was the a=sessment of one diplomat

who is familiar with the American scene. “Kissinger put the blame on the Russians for the deadlock, and he took the heat off himself from those back home who had said that he was coming over here to make a deal with the Russians at any price.”