The Perspective Below

In a positively ostentatious feat of celestial detente, the Americans and Soviets were scheduled this week to unite their Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft 140 miles up in the cosmos. Their photographs looking back will show the eerily beautiful blue and white marbled globe, but the perspective down on earth seemed murky and bitterly troubled.

As Americans contemplated the atmosphere abroad (see THE WORLD), there were especially ominous signs for some democratic or formerly democratic governments. India, under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's state of emergency, seemed to be slipping into authoritarianism. Portugal, which not long ago gave hopes of becoming a successful democracy, seemed to be heading toward a leftist dictatorship. Argentina, where the chances of democracy admittedly had never been strong, seemed on the edge of bankruptcy and chaos. Though Britain appeared to be making some moderate progress in fighting its way back from the economic precipice, it remained in desperate shape.

While American and Russian astronauts were preparing to go through their elaborate ballet in space, American and Russian diplomats were continuing their own interminable dance. Without any apparent hindrance from the Soviets, the U.S. prodded Israel and Egypt toward a second-stage agreement in the Sinai. As Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko met in Geneva, there seemed new possibilities for agreement on nuclear arms limitation.

But detente, a great hope for the world, is an idea still viewed on both sides with skepticism and wariness. Out in the neutrality of space, a successful Soyuz-Apollo linkage would be an extraordinary performance, both technically and politically. Down here on earth, detente is not susceptible to technology's brisk logic -- and is a more difficult, more complicated business.

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