Facing the Nation

For viewers of the weekly Soviet TV show International Panorama, it was a rare spectacle. At the beginning of a program devoted to doctrinaire analysis of world affairs, the cool, youthful image of U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kenneth Dam suddenly appeared. In a taped transmission from a reception room at the State Department, Dam responded to Correspondent Alexander Druzhinin's questions about arms control. Dam assured his Soviet audience that the U.S. was sincere in hoping to reach an agreement in the talks currently under way.

Just as unusual as Dam's uncensored six-minute presentation was the fact that the Soviets were then treated to an opposing view by another American. U.S. Rear Admiral (ret.) Gene La Rocque, a strong opponent of Administration policy, argued that the U.S. MX missile "is a very dangerous weapons system" and questioned the Administration's commitment to reaching an arms control agreement in Geneva. International Panorama Host Alexander Bovin left no doubt about the Kremlin's preferences. He promptly declared that "La Rocque has quite accurately defined the weak points in the American approach to the talks."

Dam's appearance marked the first time that a Washington-based official had explained U.S. policies on Soviet television since former President Richard Nixon addressed the Soviet nation in 1974. It was a small victory for the Reagan Administration, which has become increasingly upset about the access that Soviet officials have to U.S. television. Last month, after Pravda rejected an article by U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Arthur Hartman, the State Department decided to apply direct pressure by denying the Soviet Central Committee's U.S. expert, Georgi Arbatov, permission to speak to the American press during a visit to the U.S. Said a senior State Department official after the Panorama show: "It's not the millennium, but it is a welcome event." This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.