DISARMAMENT: Nothing of Value

For nearly six long months, Western delegates to the five-nation U.N. Disarmament Subcommittee in London have been spicing the tedium of the negotiations by assuring each other—and the rest of the skeptical world—that at last the U.S.S.R. was displaying a serious interest in disarmament. They thus unwittingly became in effect guarantors of Russian good faith. Last week, in a 7,500 word blast of vituperation, Russia's Valerian Zorin relieved them of this obligation.

Speaking in the hush that followed Russia's triumphant boast of having successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS), the normally amiable Zorin did a job...