Letter from Washington

When they opened the back door of that C5 A cargo plane 20,000 feet over the Vandenberg, California test range, out dropped the heaviest thing ever dropped from an aircraft. The thing was a 43-ton Minuteman I ICBM and it landed on the Kremlin. Sort of. Actually, it dropped 8,000 feet, ignited, flew for 10 seconds, as planned, and then dropped, as planned, into the Pacific. But this test —the first of an airborne ICBM launch —took place the day Henry Kissinger arrived at the Kremlin to talk about strategic arms. The test notified the Soviet Union that we are well along toward perfecting an airborne deterrent. This will make it much harder for the Soviet military leaders to develop a first strike capability—that is, a strategic force capable of overwhelming our missiles in a quick first shot.

While the votes poured in, deciding whether Tweedledee or Tweedledum would be elected here and there, the politics of the next two years was being settled in Rabat, Morocco, where 21 members of the Arab League declared that the Palestine Liberation Organization shall be regarded as the “sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.” This probably means: war in the Middle East within six months; with or without war, another oil embargo; an oil embargo that will produce a circus in Congress, as politicians respond to consumer fury about long gas lines by attacking oil companies.

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When they opened the back door of that C5 A cargo plane 20,000 feet over the Vandenberg, California test range, out dropped the heaviest thing ever dropped from an aircraft. The thing was a 43-ton Minuteman I ICBM and it landed on the Kremlin. Sort of. Actually, it dropped 8,000 feet, ignited, flew for 10 seconds, as planned, and then dropped, as planned, into the Pacific. But this test —the first of an airborne ICBM launch —took place the day Henry Kissinger arrived at the Kremlin to talk about strategic arms. The test notified the Soviet Union that we are well along toward perfecting an airborne deterrent. This will make it much harder for the Soviet military leaders to develop a first strike capability—that is, a strategic force capable of overwhelming our missiles in a quick first shot.

While the votes poured in, deciding whether Tweedledee or Tweedledum would be elected here and there, the politics of the next two years was being settled in Rabat, Morocco, where 21 members of the Arab League declared that the Palestine Liberation Organization shall be regarded as the “sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.” This probably means: war in the Middle East within six months; with or without war, another oil embargo; an oil embargo that will produce a circus in Congress, as politicians respond to consumer fury about long gas lines by attacking oil companies.