U.S., Soviet Missile Inspectors: So Far, So Good

In the middle of a forest in Soviet Byelorussia, with nuclear-tipped SS-20 missiles looming nearby, sits a small outhouse newly made of fresh wood. A skirted figure on the door indicates that it was built for women--specifically, for American women serving with on-site inspection teams.

When U.S. inspectors came to call, the Soviet commander said with a smile: “It’s certainly not for my men. We have never had a woman in the area.”

In the first week of inspections as part of the new treaty banning medium-range nuclear missiles, the issue of facilities for women in Byelorussia may have been one of the most serious. No substantive difficulties have arisen at all, Brig. Gen. Ronald LaJoie, commander of the U.S. On-Site Inspection Agency, said in an interview.

The treaty allows inspectors from each superpower to visit the missile sites of the other to confirm the number of missiles that must be destroyed. The Americans who began last week to inspect the Soviet missile sites found not hostility but hospitality.

“My men--12% of our inspectors are women, but none have gone out so far--have been very pleased with the reception they’ve been getting,” LaJoie said. “The Soviets have gone out of their way, even with small gifts like pins, to welcome them.”

Inspections began July 1, 20 days after the treaty took effect. U.S. teams visited 16 bases in the Soviet Union during the first week, and Soviet teams inspected seven U.S. bases--five in the United States and two in West Germany--in short-term visits of a day or two. By the end of August, U.S. teams will have visited 133 Soviet sites, and the Soviets will have seen 26.

Soviet inspectors in the United States, in brief remarks to the press, have voiced no complaints about their treatment, although they overloaded the U.S. processing system when five teams--50 men--and 30 support personnel descended in a single plane with minimum notice on Travis Air Force Base in California.

The sight of an Ilyushin-62 parked next to a B-52 took some Americans’ breath away. So did Soviet inspectors sporting U.S. military “baseball hats,” emblazoned with F-16 and B-1 insignia, that they bought at the base museum.

The difference between U.S. preference for high-technology inspection techniques and Soviet inclination toward a more low-tech approach has been striking. This was most apparent, officials said, in the equipment each side intends to use at the arms production facility--Votkinsk, on the edge of Siberia, and Magna, Utah--where they will station inspectors for 13 years.

To ensure that containers emerging from the Votkinsk plant are too small to hold missiles or other items limited by the treaty, the United States will employ a huge infrared heat-sensing instrument to cast the containers’ profile on a special screen and measure the dimensions.

The Soviets, by contrast, will rely on three long, thin sticks, each painted white with black numbers indicating meters. With these simple rulers, Soviet inspectors will measure the length, height and width of the containers emerging from the Utah arms plant.

“I wonder which works better at minus-40 degrees,” one U.S. official remarked wryly.

Beyond the amusing contrasts is the business of ensuring that the inspectors do not collect any information to which they are not entitled by the terms of the treaty.

When U.S. inspectors visited Soviet missile bases last week, butcher paper effectively covered instruments and dials inside launch control centers. At U.S. bases, tarpaulins hid computer consoles.

Equipment carried by the inspectors may be inspected, and escorts of the host country may accompany the visitors at all times, except in their living accommodations. Nonetheless, the potential for spying will always exist.

Among U.S. concerns, for example, is that a clever Soviet “inspector” at Magna might be able to convert equipment bought at the local Radio Shack store into an electronic eavesdropping system. While there is no Radio Shack equivalent in Votkinsk, the Soviets are probably equally worried about what some ingenious American “inspector” might do.