Heading Toward A 4% Solution

Big missiles: a bigger problem

When Secretary of State George Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze meet in Washington this week, their main objective will be to clear the way for a get-together later this year between their bosses, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. The principal task for Sherpas and summiteers alike is to end an eight-year deadlock on arms control by concluding a treaty on intermediate-range nuclear forces. Under the so-called global zero option, the Soviets would have to do away with an entire class of modern, mobile multiple-warhead missiles, the SS-20s, which have threatened America's Asian and European allies for nearly a decade.

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