Is détente dead or dying? Is SALT finished? Is Jimmy Carter's new open foreign policy, with its emphasis on human rights, really working?
Alarmist questions? Perhaps. Nonetheless, they were raised last week in the wake of the Administration's first face-to-face encounter with the Russians. It was an obvious setback. Cyrus Vance returned from his visit to Moscow as Secretary of State shaken by the Soviets' brusque dismissal of two U.S. proposals for reviving the long-stalled SALT talks (TIME, March 28).
It was only the first round in a long game of negotiations. Moreover, the...