President Nixon, as WFB reminds us, had just returned from Moscow without

"SALT II in his pocket; that is to say,... a document that carries forward from the

agreements of 1972 a plan for the continuing reduction in the strategic arms of the United States and the Soviet Union." Was this because of Watergate, "or because the Russians are Communists, or a combination of the two?" A combination, Mr. Nitze explains ("...one of the things they take into account is what they call the correlation of forces. And I think they do, in looking at the correlation of forces, estimate what the internal political strength of the United States is, and I think it is without doubt that the Watergate affair has weakened the Presidency and therefore has made it more difficult for us to achieve the kind of agreements which we really should have"), and we are launched on a thorough discussion of strategic arms and general military preparedness.