MISSILE TREATY WORTH THE EFFORT
SUN-SENTINEL
The missile reduction agreement that Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev will sign during their meeting in Washington next month does not mean that the U.S. and Soviet Union will live in harmony forever after.
What it does mean is that the two superpowers at last are prepared to take their first significant step down the road to effective nuclear arms control. That road is long and obstacle-pocked. There is no guarantee that the Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty will even make it through the U.S. Senate, where many members view every Kremlin move with suspicion.
Such reservations, considering the U.S.S.R.'s past performance, are understandable. If verification procedures are adequate, however, and administration negotiators believe they are, the INF pact should be ratified without a Red-baiting circus.
The agreement calls for the elimination of all missiles with ranges of 300 to 3,000 miles. The Soviets will have to junk more missiles than the West because it has far more of them in place.
The treaty allows, for the first time, both countries to station inspectors on the other's soil. They will provide on-site surveillance, including inspections of plants where missiles are to be destroyed and some factories where they are produced.
Critics question the wisdom of weakening NATO's nuclear deterrent by removing weapons scattered through West Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Holland and Belgium. The missiles being eliminated, however, represent only a small percentage of the nuclear firepower that can be brought to bear on Soviet and East Bloc targets from the sea and air.
Through his first six years in the White House, Reagan yielded to no man as a commie-basher. Gorbachev, the slick public relations huckster who succeeded a long line of somber Red robots, has forced a change in tone. The two leaders still trade frequent accusations of aggression, oppression and bad faith but, through the last 12 months, Reagan has muted his evil empire rhetoric somewhat and pushed hard for the first arms control agreement of his administration.
Except for specific language, that agreement is ready to be signed at the Washington summit meeting. While the treaty will have little immediate impact on defense costs or world tensions it does, as Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze said, open up a "new dimension" in relations between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.
The scope of that dimension will depend on the statesmanship of future leaders. For now, as the Senate awaits debate on the details, sharp-eyed interpreters of the fine print will be needed. Political grandstanders need not apply.