The Week

■ Treasury officials propose to reintroduce, around July 4 next year, the old unpopular $2 bill. “For years Americans associated the $2 bill with racehorse gamblers,” an official explains. “We would like the bill to be seen in a more patriotic light.” That’s his story. Real reason’s that nothing can replace the $1 bill, and almost has.

■ SALT with a grain of salt: In its November 24 issue, an editorial in Aviation Week & Space Technology reported “a deliberate policy of secrecy and deception on the part of the Nixon and Ford Administrations that has tried desperately to conceal from the U.S. Congress and public the Soviet violations of both the letter and spirit of the SALT agreements.” At the Detroit Economics Club a few days later, Secretary Kissinger bitterly attacked the Aviation Week report. He stated that “there has been no violation that has been reported that has not been brought to the attention of the Soviet Union and [that] has not been energetically pursued, or I should say, no allegation of a violation.” Mr. Kissinger declared that he considered the editorial “unworthy” and “a disgrace when the President and Secretary of State can be accused of deliberately deceiving the American public with respect to alleged violations by our major adversary.” In its December I issue, Aviation Week comments, accurately, that Secretary Kissinger’s Detroit remarks did not include a direct denial of the report. Meanwhile, on NBC’s Meet the Press, dismissed Defense Secretary James Schlesinger said in answer to a question: “In a number of respects, if they [the Soviet Union] have not violated the letter of the agreement, they have clearly violated what we [the U.S.] said would be a violation of the agreement in our unilateral statements …”

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William F. Buckley Jr.

■ Treasury officials propose to reintroduce, around July 4 next year, the old unpopular $2 bill. “For years Americans associated the $2 bill with racehorse gamblers,” an official explains. “We would like the bill to be seen in a more patriotic light.” That’s his story. Real reason’s that nothing can replace the $1 bill, and almost has.

■ SALT with a grain of salt: In its November 24 issue, an editorial in Aviation Week & Space Technology reported “a deliberate policy of secrecy and deception on the part of the Nixon and Ford Administrations that has tried desperately to conceal from the U.S. Congress and public the Soviet violations of both the letter and spirit of the SALT agreements.” At the Detroit Economics Club a few days later, Secretary Kissinger bitterly attacked the Aviation Week report. He stated that “there has been no violation that has been reported that has not been brought to the attention of the Soviet Union and [that] has not been energetically pursued, or I should say, no allegation of a violation.” Mr. Kissinger declared that he considered the editorial “unworthy” and “a disgrace when the President and Secretary of State can be accused of deliberately deceiving the American public with respect to alleged violations by our major adversary.” In its December I issue, Aviation Week comments, accurately, that Secretary Kissinger’s Detroit remarks did not include a direct denial of the report. Meanwhile, on NBC’s Meet the Press, dismissed Defense Secretary James Schlesinger said in answer to a question: “In a number of respects, if they [the Soviet Union] have not violated the letter of the agreement, they have clearly violated what we [the U.S.] said would be a violation of the agreement in our unilateral statements …”