DIPLOMACY: Summit III: Playing It As It Lays in Moscow

When the final communiqué was written and the last toast—so carefully worded—was delivered, the third summit meeting between President Nixon and Soviet Party Chief Leonid Brezhnev came to a quiet close last week. It had lived up to its advertised and modest expectations, and yet the result, despite the cautious advance billing, was something of a letdown. The dialogue had continued, the spirit of detente was nudged ahead by some useful if minor pledges of cooperation in scientific and cultural fields. What was worrisome about Summit III—and deeply disturbing about the future—was...