Just Small Talk in Geneva

The superpowers start off cordially--and inconsequentially

The room rated at least a footnote in history: in this modest, comfortably decorated chamber at the Soviet mission in Geneva, much of the negotiating had taken place before the 1979 SALT II agreement. It seemed a fitting place to step into after the warm if formal greeting offered last week by Victor Karpov, the chief Soviet negotiator for a new round of arms talks, to his U.S. counterparts, Max Kampelman, John Tower and Maynard Glitman. Before Karpov waved the Americans in, he said to Kampelman, the leader: "I hope that our meeting will not be the last one but one...

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