"It's unbelievable," declared a Pentagon official. "We'd never allow something like that to happen here." He referred to the astonishing Soviet decision to let three Democratic Congressmen prowl for four hours through the secret radar facility near Krasnoyarsk in Siberia. The Kremlin permitted the lawmakers and a few aides to snap 1,000 photographs inside the facility, which has been the focus of U.S. charges that the Soviets are violating the 1972 treaty limiting antiballistic missile systems. Predictably, the visit served to intensify debate in Washington about Soviet intentions.
The Reagan Administration contends the station is meant to close a gap in...