In its quest for a ban on all nuclear testing, the Soviet Union publicly unveiled a novel proposal last week. Speaking in Washington, Colonel General Nikolai Chervov, one of Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev's closest arms-control advisers, invited the U.S. to explode an atom bomb at a Soviet nuclear test site. Purpose: to enable Washington to fine-tune its monitoring equipment and thus ensure that any treaty violation could be detected. Chervov added that the Soviets should then be allowed to detonate a bomb at a U.S. test site.
After noting that Soviet negotiators privately proposed the idea during July talks on nuclear...