Correspondents' Correspondence
Correspondents' Correspondence BRIEF TAKEOUTS OF MORE THAN PERSONAL INTEREST FROM LETTERS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS. WASHINGTON How does one trap a senatorial dove? By...
...By putting SALT on his mind...
...That, anyway, is what some people here are hoping for.-arnold Abrams...
...Critics seized upon it as a symbol of the careless extravagance that, they said, characterized American spending in Laos...
...We initiated an underground test program far more extensive than would have occurred if-as was probable -both sides had independently succumbed to public pressures against surface testing...
...The Statue of Liberty and Eiffel Tower are prime examples...
...This was accompanied by immense increases in U.S...
...Dovish senators will continue to support the talks, of course...
...official, "that it has come to represent something we all would like to forget...
...Mayor Tate, nonetheless, has yet to see the writing on the ballot box...
...As a result, this year's arms budget is the first in a decade to be lower than that of the year before...
...He envisioned it not only as a fitting memorial for his forces, but also as a lasting monument to himself...
...In retrospect, it is not at all surprising that the Joint Chiefs of Staff unanimously supported the treaty...
...The incumbent Republican District Attorney, Arlen Specter, was re-elected by more than 100,-000 votes over Tate's hand-picked candidate, David Berger...
...It is something of an embarrassment now because it was conceived as a magnificent monument through which courageous government soldiers would parade after returning victoriously from combat with Communist forces...
...There another young Irishman, David Flaherty, defeated the machine-picked mayoralty candidate in the primary, and then smothered a well-financed Republican challenge in the general election...
...Things have not quite worked out that way, however...
...Concrete for the structure, it developed, was being provided under the auspices of the mammoth U.S...
...If, on the other hand, the talks achieve some nominal success-the best result likely under the circumstances-the Administration may well attempt to use promises of new arms spending in other areas as a lure to gain military support for the agreement...
...Significant agreement to curb this weapon is extremely unlikely, since the United States has almost completed testing it-while the Soviet Union is far behind and needs time to catch up...
...It is a measure of the plight of Mayor James Tate, the legatee of the "Green Machine," that his best chance for survival lies in the ambitions of young Green, whom he recently denounced as a "spoiled brat...
...Less well-known but equally symbolic is Vientiane's Arch of Triumph...
...Also rejected was the machine's long acclaimed heir apparent, the White Backlash...
...Senators who founded much of their case against the ABM on the danger of weakening disarmament negotiations are being warned by their aids-and by leading arms control lobbyists-to avoid making strong statements about the importance of the talks to future retrenchment of arms spending...
...Berger's law and order campaign estranged much of the black vote from the Democratic organization...
...The concrete originally had been ordered for a much-needed landing strip at this capital's airport...
...Polls show that a large majority of the American people supports arms cuts...
...Problems began soon after work was started in 1959 by government soldiers...
...For the negotiations are so complex-so dependent on abstruse and classified intelligence-that SALT can be manipulated by the Administration to produce almost any desired political effect...
...In any case, the domestic interplay is likely to be as intricate, and as important to the future of the arms budget, as the negotiations themselves.-George F. Gilder PHILADELPHIA In this city, as in New York, Pittsburgh, New Haven, and Atlanta, the November election results signaled the end of the Machine Age in municipal politics...
...Recently completed after 10 years in the making, it was supposed to be a cross between the Arc de Triomphe and a Laotian temple...
...American and Laotian officials find themselves hard-pressed to define precisely what the arch represents...
...The arch became a political issue when word of the affair reached Washington...
...Mayor Tate may well decide that the most effective way to handle the upwardly mobile young Congressman is to "spoil" him still further with a nomination for the U.S...
...In a meeting of the Democratic City Committee on November 21, Tate had his ward leaders oppose all of Green's reform proposals and force the Congressman to resign as chairman...
...It turned out Laotian on top, French at bottom and empty in the middle...
...Even without Green to worry about, Tate's problems will be formidable...
...The matter," says one official, "is not being pressed...
...Moreover, the widespread contention of the peace movement that mirv contributes to incentives for a first strike ignores the enormous increase in secodd strike capacity the system confers on submarine forces...
...Indeed, they were perhaps its major beneficiaries...
...Congress, it is being argued, would do well to emphasize its present efforts to cut back defense spending regardless of the negotiations...
...American taxpayers were, in effect, funding the general's monument...
...Perhaps it should be, for Vientiane's major landmark may not be long for this world...
...But they will make a major effort to avoid being trapped by them...
...Nobody, it seemed, could explain how it happened to wind up in the arch's foundation...
...Going beyond the electoral problems of the machine, it faces a Grand Jury investigation of graft in the city's Redevelopment Authority -with indictments of city officials expected soon...
...Veteran observers are skeptical...
...And Stone's apprehension, fully detailed in a forthcoming article in Foreign Affairs, is becoming increasingly influential on the Hill...
...mirv is just one aspect of the hazardous complexities of SALT...
...If Green decides to avoid the problematical race against Scott and fight it out in the city, the recent elections in Pittsburgh bode well for his prospects...
...Let's say," says one U.S...
...The Pentagon will not be hard put to find statements by leading doves contending that without a big-power agreement on strategic weapons a new round of the arms race is inevitable...
...officials now claim that Washington eventually recovered all funds spent on the arch by the Laotian government-Something in the neighborhood of $5 million...
...It may soon fall down, or simply sink quietly out of sight...
...The arch's sturdy American concrete is sinking fast in this capital's sandy soil...
...Courage is not a quality normally associated with government troops...
...but few doubted who was responsible...
...strategic spending to which the Soviet Union is still expensively reacting today...
...The example of the Test-Ban treaty illustrates the problem...
...Senate against Minority Leader Hugh Scott in 1970...
...Here the Democratic organization of the late "boss" William J. Green is foundering before a liberal Republican District Attorney, a retired professional basketball player, and a handsome, nationally ambitious young Democratic Congressman whose name is, yes, William J. Green...
...No other structure in this country captures the essence of Laos as fully as this arch...
...Senators are currently subjecting the defense budget to severe scrutiny...
...This will not be easy, for the public has been taught over the years, ironically by doves as much as by hawks, to regard arms negotiations as indispensable to a substantial retrenchment in arms spending...
...Now there is some talk here of coronating the king of Laos at the monument, but the prospect has not seized the public imagination...
...Tilting and topheavy, it stands 150 feet high, and equally wide, at the head of Avenue Lang Xang, Vientiane's loose equivalent of the Champs Elysees...
...and the GOP candidate for Controller, former Philadelphia Warrior star Tom Gola, won by a similar margin...
...aid program here...
...So fast, in fact, that the structure already has taken on a distinctly visible tilt...
...Subtlety was not one of Phoumi's strong points...
...At least this is an answer one might hear today on Capitol Hill now that the long-awaited Strategic Arms Limitation Talks have begun in Helsinki...
...If the talks fail-as is regarded probable in view of the President's negative attitude toward them-the Administration may well assert the need for new arms spending...
...In the end, moreover, like the Kennedys, Green is likely to have the support of the machine and the reformers, too.-Norman Fast VIENTIANE In addition to functioning as tourist bait, major landmarks in some cities eventually evolve into national symbols...
...Erecting a triumphal arch was the dream of General Phoumi Nosavan, former Rightist strongman and CIA protege who fled to Thailand after an abortive coup attempt in 1965...
...Thus the public will exaggerate the importance of either success or failure of the talks...
...But sophisticated arms control experts, like Jeremy Stone, who was among the most effective lobbyists against the ABM, fear that these trends may be undermined by SALT...
...The peace movement has already probably blundered in its emphasis on MIRV (Multiple Independent Re-entry Vehicles) and on the allegedly catastrophic consequences of its deployment...
...victory is one thing they have not achieved...
Vol. 52 • December 1969 • No. 23
