Antarctica may be a frozen, windswept wasteland, but last week it became the first piece of territory which the U.S. and Russia agreed to make a military and nuclear no man's land.
Not much in the public eye until Admiral Richard E. Byrd's expeditions in the 1930s, Antarctica soon aroused that old flag-planting urge among several nations. The 1957-58 International Geophysical Year brought a temporary thaw in Antarctic rivalries. Scientists from twelve na tionsthe U.S., Russia, Britain, France, Belgium, Norway, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, Chileworked together in a broad and coordinated program of Antarctic research. In May...