Monday, Dec. 15, 1958
Who's on First?
The cold war's issues fit together like a child's toy nest of boxes. Berlin, at the center, sits inside the larger German question, which sits inside the European security question, which sits inside the container that might enfold them all--disarmament. For the last month U.S., British and Soviet officials have been struggling with the biggest container of all at the Geneva conference on suspending nuclear tests.
Early last week U.S. newspapers blossomed with cheery stories that the Soviet Union had suddenly capitulated on the big point the U.S. and Britain had been demanding from the outset, had agreed that any ban on nuclear testing must be linked to a control system. As Western spokesmen passed word that "the more realistic" approach of the Soviets had brought the conference closer to success, U.S. Delegate James T. Wadsworth tabled a draft first article "inseparably" linking the ban with the projected control organization. At week's end the conference announced that it had reached agreement on a first article of an East-West treaty.
The U.S. and Britain have repeatedly said they will never sign a treaty unless it spells out in detail a foolproof control and inspection system to prevent violations of a test ban. But on second look, there were no control provisions in the article they had approved in Geneva. Pressed, a U.S. spokesman admitted that the delegates had agreed to split the article in two, the control provisions being left in the second article. The Soviets, he explained, had "essentially adopted our language." "We will now get to the control system," he added.
His normally grumpy face wreathed in smiles after the conference's formal endorsement of prohibitory nuclear tests, a line that the Russians have so long beat their propaganda drums for, Soviet Delegate Semyon Tsarapkin told reporters, "I am optimistic. We have adopted Article i." And how soon would the conference adopt Article 2? "We shall see."
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