Editing 79-12-A2 (section)

=== Transcript ===
In the summer issue of Strategic Review, the quarterly publication of the
respected United States Strategic institute, Walter Hahn suggests that Soviet
chief Leonid Brezhnev has profoundly affected the debate over SALT II here in
the United States.

He did so when he stood before President Carter and assembled diplomats at
the Vienna summit in June and declared that Senate amendments to the treaty
would have--"grave and even dangerous consequences for our relations and for the
situation of the world as a whole."

This statement, along with additional warnings delivered by Soviet foreign
affairs minister Andrei Gromyko, awakened many Senators and other thoughtful
participants in the SALT dialogues to the fact that the Soviet leadership
feels confident enough to dictate the way we should go about formulating foreign policy.

Hahn explains--"That incident in Vienna put a certain floodlight on the whole
dramatic production called SALT. The numbers, in the sophisticated and deadly
game of modern strategy, weaponry and survival, are terribly important. But the
real issue lies beneath and beyond those numbers."

In Hahn's view, the real issue--and the ultimate benefit of the SALT II debate--
is that it is providing a forum for America to finally come to grips with its
"Vietnam hangover." Among supporters and opponents of the treaty alike, SALT II
is triggering a time of reflection about the role of the United States in a troubled
world since our exit from Vietnam.

Thus, Senate opponents (and those who are undecided) are not responding so
much to the technical "war of numbers." As Hahn puts it--"they are responding more
meaningfully to a pronounced popular uneasiness ... about what SALT II symbolizes and
presages for America's role and fate in a world in which the shadow of the adversary's
power is growing ever more conspicuous."

By the same token, a liberal senator such as George McGovern who, political
logic suggests, should be one of SALT's strongest supporters, is examining the treaty
in the wider context of his overall foreign policy beliefs. He may yet vote against
SALT II.

Most notably, the imminent signing of SALT II in Vienna prompted Senator Henry
Jackson, a loyal Democrat, to break dramatically with a President and foreign policy
team of his own party. In a speech delivered in June, Senator Jackson used the
occasion of SALT II to weave together the events, policies, actions and reactions
of American foreign policy since "détente" began in 1972. The pattern which emerges
Jackson claims, is a policy of "appeasement" towards the Soviet Union.

So Hahn believes that a word of thanks to Chairman Brezhnev is in order. Whether
the SALT II treaty passes or fails, his dictum to the United States Senate--delivered
with the arrogant confidence of one who anticipates nothing but blind obedience--
helped expand what might have been a debate over numbers into a comprehensive nationwide
re-evaluation of America's role in world events in the 1980's. 

This is Ronald Reagan.

Thanks for listening.
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