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The setting for the Vance-Gromyko talks last week was at one time a cooperative apartment building that now serves as the Soviet U.N. mission, on Manhattan's 67th Street. As Vance and his nine fellow U.S. delegates sat across a green baize-covered table from their Soviet counterparts, they had only to look up to confront a portrait of a determined-looking Lenin, founder of the Soviet state. Gromyko spoke for most of the two-hour, 25-minute session the first afternoon. The following day, at the U.S. headquarters across from the U.N., it was Vance's turn to play host. The talks this time lasted nearly four hours. At his press conference that same afternoon the President seemed optimistic. Said he: "If the Soviets are forthcoming and cooperative and are willing to compromise some of their positions, we will have an agreement." He added that he hoped SALT II would be signed by the end of the year. Already there was talk in Washington of holding a summit conference with Leonid Brezhnev, either in the U.S. or in Moscow, if the Soviet leader is too ill to travel far.
U.S. officials once hoped to sign a SALT II agreement before the end of last year, however, and despite the optimism, there are still important differences to be resolved. The U.S. military remains concerned that the Soviets will find ways to convert their medium-range rocket, the SS-20, into a strategic weapon like the more powerful SS-16. They also fear that the Soviets' supersonic Backfire bomber could be used as a strategic weapon against the U.S. For their part, the Soviets are worried by the low-flying U.S. cruise missile, whose versatility enables it to be used as both a tactical and a strategic nuclear weapon. Soviet negotiators have been trying to limit to 600 kilometers the maximum distance that land-and sea-launched cruise missiles can travel; for air-launched cruises, they are striving for a 2,500 kilometer limit.
Yet another sticking point has been the duration of the SALT II protocol. The U.S. wants it to last until December 1980. The Soviets want the protocol to last as long as possible in order to put a brake on American technological developments.
On Saturday, Vance and Gromyko began their weekend meetings with Carter. At the first session, they met for three hours and 40 minutes, then appeared joking and smiling on the White House lawn to indicate that progress had been made. Gromyko said "signs have appeared of a certain movement forward," although he warned that the talks had not yet reached their "final stage." Indeed, the two men met again on Sunday morning, only to admit to reporters that some problems still remained. Said Vance: "Obviously, we have not reached agreement on all issues." To seek a final accord, the Secretary of State will go to Moscow later this month.