World: FULL CIRCLE IN PARIS

All things from eternity are of like forms and come round in a circle. —Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

WHEN the history of the Viet Nam peace negotiations is written, posterity will probably look with astonishment on what has proved to be the most important procedural obstacle to getting down to substantive business: the shape of the table at which the participants sit. For ten weeks of often absurd haggling, the parties in Paris—the U.S., South Viet Nam, North Viet Nam and the National Liberation Front—have argued about whether the table at which to discuss a...