THE NATION: Affronts & Finesse

At the top of the U.S.'s list of urgent diplomatic problems in a more than crowded week was the hot and dangerous strife in Lebanon (see FOREIGN NEWS). There, the West was trying to keep the fire in the tangled underbrush of Lebanese politics from igniting the vast political munitions dump of the Middle East.

Elsewhere, Russia's new switch back to the hard line brought a new batch of affronts. In Moscow, an obviously stage-managed mob milled around the U.S. embassy for three hours, yelling insults and shaking fists. Russian fighter planes forced down a strayed U.S. Air Force...

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