Henry Kissinger was on the wing again, with another of those exotic itineraries: Bangkok, Vientiane, Hanoi, Hong Kong and Peking. Flying with him were U.S. hopes for an imminent cease-fire in Laos, for a gradual end to the Cambodia fighting and for new assurances that the settlement in Viet Nam will stick. The sensitive mission may also help define the still-emerging triangular relationship among long-estranged and still uneasy powers: the U.S., the U.S.S.R. and China.
Kissinger's first diplomatic stop, in Bangkok, was partly a courtesy call upon a U.S. ally, Thailand's Premier Thanom Kittikachorn. But it also gave Kissinger and his...