Armaments: Hands Beneath the Sea

As an arms-control milestone, the seabed treaty proposed by the U.S. and the Soviet Union in Geneva last week hardly ranks in importance with 1963's partial nuclear test ban and the nuclear nonproliferation pact of 1968. Nor is it any substitute for the long-delayed strategic arms limitation talk (SALT), which Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko last month promised to consider "soon." Still, like the treaties denuclearizing Antarctica and outer space, the seabed proposal at least offers the hope that one more area may be closed to the arms race.

The treaty, which...

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