Vienna Jaw Wars

By Jacob V. Lamar Jr

The two diplomats were closeted in a stuffy room in Vienna's Soviet embassy for six hours, twice as long as scheduled. In painstaking detail, U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko reiterated their stands on issues ranging from arms control to human rights. The latest Shultz-Gromyko exchange, the first since Mikhail Gorbachev assumed leadership of the Soviet Union in March, ended with no softening of opposing positions and no date or place set for the proposed Reagan-Gorbachev summit. Said a U.S. official who attended the meeting: "It was two stone walls confronting each other, and neither cracked."

If the long meeting produced no breakthroughs, at least it kept alive the resumed U.S.-Soviet dialogue. Shultz and Gromyko tentatively planned to meet again in Helsinki Aug. 1, and they agreed to push for accords on matters like cultural exchanges. The "nervousness and angst" between the two countries have diminished, U.S. officials insist, even if they have been replaced by stalemate. Said Shultz: "We heard each other out. I think that's very useful."

Shultz and Gromyko moved their talks through a series of "headlines" -- topics that either side could name. One hoped-for headline never discussed was a summit meeting. The U.S. was determined not to raise the issue explicitly, but Shultz provided Gromyko several openings to bring up President Reagan's invitation to meet with Gorbachev. The Soviet Foreign Minister did not take the lure. The Americans concluded that at present Gorbachev is more concerned with internal affairs than with diplomatic initiatives. The U.S., for its part, does not want to appear overeager. "It's obviously stupid to chase after the Soviets," said a top official. Whether there is a summit, he said, "is now up to them."

Much of the meeting concentrated on the Geneva arms talks, which are to resume May 30. Gromyko persisted in linking reductions in Soviet missiles to a ban on U.S. research for the Strategic Defense Initiative, or Star Wars. Shultz again argued that Star Wars and offensive weapons are separate issues; he contended that U.S. negotiators in Geneva would be flexible if the Soviets were.

The two sides were equally unyielding on other issues. Shultz repeated American demands for a Soviet apology for the March 24 killing of U.S. Army Major Arthur Nicholson Jr. and reminded Gromyko of "how these incidents blow our relationship off course." Although the Soviets seemed to acknowledge Shultz's lecture on the Nicholson killings, Gromyko turned icy when the Secretary of State chastised him for Moscow's treatment of dissidents like Physicist Andrei Sakharov, who, along with his wife Yelena Bonner, has been exiled to the isolated city of Gorky. Soviet sources indicate that Sakharov went on a five-day hunger strike last month that ended when he was taken to a hospital and was force-fed.

Shultz and Gromyko talked again privately for ten minutes or so after the ceremonies commemorating the 30th anniversary of the treaty that ended Allied occupation of Austria and granted the country permanent neutrality. In their speeches, both diplomats pointed to the Austrian treaty, which required ten years of East-West discussions, as an example of their difficult but hopeful work. Said Shultz: "This is a lesson we hope to see repeated in our negotiations with the Soviet Union."

With reporting by Erik Amfitheatrof and Johanna McGeary/Vienna