As WFB frames the question, "The general understanding is that Soviet-

American relations are at an all-time low, which appears to be true, and it is certainly true that this worries some people more than it does others." Mr. Talbott is one of the "some": "I'm certainly worried about what Reagan has done to Soviet-American relations.... A really serious impasse in Soviet-American relations is not a healthy thing." Mr. Kaiser, while not as unworried as his host, refuses "to hold Reagan responsible for everything that's happened." Among other things, he points out, it wasn't Ronald Reagan who invaded Afghanistan. And as examiner* Morton Kondracke describes the arms race, "When we build, they build. When we stop building, as we did during detente, they build."