Shultz's World Without End

By WALTER ISAACSON

Conducting global diplomacy on Manhattan's East Side

Ever since he took over as Secretary of State, George Shultz has been pinned down in his Washington office by the crossfire in Lebanon. "I can't remember when I last spent so long in the same time zone," jokes the former globetrotting corporate executive. Finally, last week, he found a way to tend to the simmering dilemmas of East-West relationships as well as the pressing problems of the Middle East while staying close to home. At the United Nations to address the 37th session of the General Assembly, Shultz conducted a diplomatic shuttle among more than 30 foreign ministers--all without leaving Manhattan's East Side.

The centerpiece of the whirlwind week was Shultz's first official meeting with Andrei Gromyko. The Soviet Foreign Minister has met with nine American Secretaries of State during his 25 years in office. Since he speaks English fluently, he did not ask to have Shultz's remarks translated, but he did reply in Russian. As they sat in U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick's office for their three-hour meeting, Gromyko gave a grim assessment of Soviet-American relations. Shultz, in turn, pressed Gromyko on Moscow's intervention in Poland, Afghanistan and Cambodia, and on use of biological and chemical weapons. The conference produced few concrete results; the main accomplishment was keeping businesslike discussions alive and agreeing to meet again this week.

Such a dialogue is important in reducing the uncertainty that the aging Soviet leadership feels about Reagan. Despite the President's assertion at his press conference last week that the Soviets "have a pretty good understanding as to where we stand," there are reports that the Kremlin is currently engaged in a top-level debate over whether to try to improve relations with Reagan or to wait until a new Administration comes to power. "Reagan's rhetoric baffles them," says Columbia University Soviet Expert Seweryn Bialer, who met last month with Central Committee members.

As the President noted last week, Moscow has exercised considerable restraint during his term. Even though Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev sent two letters warning the U.S. not to send troops to Lebanon, he has not yet reacted to the American military presence there. The Soviets also note that they have refrained from giving full support to Central American liberation movements and from directly invading Poland. "Their policy is still oriented toward a relationship with America," Bialer feels. A senior Western diplomat in Moscow agrees: "Some Soviet spokesmen have portrayed the relationship as hopeless, but that is not their real thinking."

Gromyko raised with Shultz one of the few vestiges of Soviet-American attempts at cooperation, nuclear arms-control talks, noting that little progress is being made. Negotiators from both countries returned to Geneva last week to resume talks on limiting intermediate-range nuclear forces (I.N.F.) in Europe. Strategic arms reduction talks (START) set to resume in Geneva this week.

Disputes over East-West relations have provoked a divisive crisis within the Western alliance. Washington's attempt to impose sanctions on firms supplying equipment for the natural gas pipeline the Soviets are building from Siberia to Western Europe threatened to spoil Shultz's dinner with French Foreign Minister Claude Cheysson. "Obviously they were not going to sort it out over pate," said one U.S. official. So Shultz shifted the discussions to the broader terrain of East-West economic relations and sounded out Cheysson on what Western strategy ought to be. Said a Shultz aide: "He is taking it to a deeper level than a shouting match among allies. Cheysson was very responsive."

So, too, were the other European Foreign Ministers Shultz consulted: Britain's Francis Pym, Italy's Emilio Colombo and Belgium's Leo Tindemans. Shultz will now try to sort out the common interests that he heard in his conversations and propose an alliance policy on East-West trade. While the pipeline problem seems beyond solution at the moment, Shultz's fence may help contain the dispute.

Much of Shultz's time in New York spent on the problems of the Middle East (see WORLD). A key discussion with Foreign Minister Abdel Halim Khaddam ran four times as long as the 30 minutes scheduled. The Syrians repeated their commitment to withdraw promptly from Lebanon if Israel does the same. "The U.S. was encouraged by the serious character of the exchange," said State Department Spokesman John Hughes. To other Arab ministers, including Jordan's Marwan Kasim, Shultz emphasized the need for Jordanian participation in Reagan's peace plan for the region.

Shultz has become concerned about moves by radical Arab nations to expel Israel from some U.N. agencies. Last month Israel was excluded from the International Atomic Energy Agency, prompting a U.S. walkout. There are signs that similar actions could be taken by other affiliated groups, and even the General Assembly. Shultz made it clear that the U.S. would walk out of, and withhold funds from, any organization that made such a move.

The new Secretary hardly electrified the General Assembly with his 45-minute address outlining the Administration's approach to foreign policy. But Shultz's cautious, even ponderous style served him well in private sessions. Unlike his frenetic predecessor Alexander Haig, who sometimes had staffers burst into meetings with important cables, Shultz listens intently to his guests and responds slowly and softly. "He is rocklike," says an aide. In the assessment of one French diplomat, "he appears bien dans sa peau, self-confident." This reassuring style, more than anything else, showed that U.S. foreign policy, although not on a perfect course, has a steadier hand on the tiller. -- By Walter Isaacson. Reported by Gregory H. Wierzynski/United Nations

With reporting by Gregory H. Wierzynski/United Nations

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