New Phase

Something was happening about Berlin. Twice in five days, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk met Moscow's new man in Washington, affable Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, for talks on "procedure" that might lead to actual negotiations this month. "Very friendly," remarked Dobrynin after his first hour's chat. "Relaxed," agreed a State Department spokesman. In Moscow, Khrushchev and Gromyko saw mild hope for a settlement.

Such a settlement, if it happens, will probably involve some of the devices that the U.S. cautiously broached to its allies three weeks ago: 1) a 13-nation authority to control access on the road, rail, canal and air routes to Berlin; 2) a nonaggression pledge between NATO and the Warsaw Pact nations; 3) a joint promise to keep atomic weapons out of the hands of nations not now possessing them; 4) joint committees with East and West German members to discuss mutual problems.

Contrary to the impression Gromyko tried to create, none of these points is yet the accepted policy of the West, or even a firm basis for bargaining. Both Khrushchev and Gromyko are still loudly insisting that Western occupation troops be removed from Berlin, to be replaced by United Nations or "neutral" forces. Declared Rusk last week: "We will not treat that as a negotiable problem . . . The facts are that we are in West Berlin, and we are going to stay there." Nor would the U.S. grant Russia's East German satellite the recognition it wants.

Rusk might be ready to let East Germans (and even East Berlin Communists) sit on the international commission controlling the routes to Berlin, but they would have no veto power over the travel of U.S., British and French forces along those routes. As "agents" of the Russians, East German cops could stand at the border barriers and direct traffic--but only so long as their signal was always "go."

Even this semiconcession is anathema to many West Germans. But Bonn's Foreign Minister Gerhard Schroder is now backing Rusk's package, against the opposition of many prominent members of his own Christian Democratic Party. At the NATO meeting in Athens this week, Rusk will have a chance to brief Schroder and the other Western Allies on the latest in the U.S.-Soviet talks, sample their moods and rally their support. No matter what the West Germans do, France will doubtless remain stiffly aloof, for Charles de Gaulle remains adamantly opposed to any Berlin negotiations "under threat." Besides, he feels that the Russians are beset by grave internal troubles, that there is now less reason than ever for even the semblance of concessions to Moscow.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.