Judging the Summit

Six years have passed since American and Soviet leaders have met at the summit. The world is entitled to hope that the meeting in Geneva this week between President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev will produce concrete results toward a lessening of tensions and a reduction of nuclear arms on both sides. But hope is one thing, and realistic expectation another.

The bravura atmosphere surrounding the Geneva summit, with each side striving mightily to win the public-relations battle, should not be allowed to set up a false standard of success or failure.

Realists should remember that only a few months back the world was justifiably worried not only that the two great powers were divided on the great issues of the day but also that they did not even seem capable of civilized discourse. Knowledgeable people were under no illusion that a summit meeting would produce a meaningful arms-control agreement, but they did permit themselves to hope that such a meeting would contribute to negotiations by helping to dispel the antagonistic atmosphere.

The summit should be judged by that standard. If the two leaders do nothing more than get acquainted and part without acrimony, the meeting will have been worthwhile.

Pre-summit maneuvering has already produced positive results. Reagan and Gorbachev are still far apart on how strategic nuclear weapons should be cut, but both have made offers going beyond what they would have presented in the absence of an impending summit meeting. The Soviets, feeling a pre-summit need to embellish their human-rights record, have said that they will allow a few Russian spouses to join their U.S. husbands and wives in America. Moscow has signaled a willingness to talk about an increase in Jewish emigration.

Last but not least, the pressures of impending summitry have resulted in an increase of moderate influences within the Reagan Administration, and a corresponding decrease in the power of Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger and other hard-liners who really don’t believe in arms control at all.

The differences between the United States and the Soviet Union grow from profoundly different beliefs as to the nature of man and the meaning of freedom. Those differences won’t be bridged at this summit or any other. If Reagan and Gorbachev are able to do nothing more than meet, take each other’s measure and depart on terms amicable enough to give a positive momentum to future negotiations, the summit will have been worthwhile.