Gorbachev sleepeth not when the West is having a little problem with seasickness. He has grabbed the headlines on two fronts. First he proposes an isolated treaty aimed at reducing sharply the number of intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) in Europe, and next he proposes a get-together with the sometime mad dogs in China. The explanation for this being, in the estimation of “an Eastern European source,” that “The Chinese are now emphasizing ideology more, and the Soviets feel this creates more common ground.” Another way of saying this is that the uglier life is in China, the more the Soviet Union has in common with it.
The instinctive reaction to the proposal is that its timing can hardly be a coincidence. The Reagan Administration is in desperate need of a little ballast and, until this is found, cannot maintain a steady course. Presumably that is the reason the Soviet Union is taking this initiative. But why is this proposal apparently agreeable to the same five Western European powers so shocked by the proposals floated at Reykjavik?
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