The Michigan Daily-Saturday, June 16, 1979-PageS5
Carter, Brezhnev begin SALT II talks
From APand UPI
VIENNA, Austria - In the splendor
of a Hapsburg palace, Soviet leader
Leonid Brezhnev and President Carter
met for the first time yesterday and
held talks as a warmup to their historic
summit meeting.
An elevator lifted 72-year-old Soviet
President Brezhnev to their ceremonial
call on Rudolf Kirchschlaeger,
president of Austria. Carter walked up
the steep staircase and told reporters
their 20-minute exchange over orange
juice, biscuits, and tea was "a good
beginning."
Brezhnev, whose health has been a
question-mark, appeared somewhat ill
at ease, shuffling a bit.
BUT HE alertly whirled around to
grasp the president's hand when
photographers shouted for handshakes.
He wore a row of medals on his dark
blue suit and a hearing aid behind his
left ear. Both men smiled.
The two met first in a gilded an-
teroom and then insthe bedroom of 18th-
century Austrian Empress Maria
Theresa. The room - where the em-
press died - was also the spot where
President John Kennedy and Soviet
Premier Nikita Krushchev started
their 1961 summit.
Austrian officials said Carter and
Brezhnev sat in the same silk-brocade
chairs used by Kennedy and Krushchev
18 years ago.
U.S. OFFICIALS said Carter told
Brezhnev it would have been good if
their first meeting had been earlier in
his term, now 2 years old. Brezhnev
agreed and said they should not wait so
long to hold their next round.
"I don't think it's possible to draw
any conclusions from this meeting,"
said a U.S. official, who described it as
simply an exchange of pleasantries.
On leaving the palace, Carter was
cheered by a buoyant crowd of 1,000
Austrians shouting,"Jimmy! Jimmy!"
The blue-suited and bemedaled
Brezhnev had left the Hofburg five
minutes earlier, but reporters were
kept away as he stepped into the car.
CARTER AND Brezhnev had never
met before. Bruno Kreisky, the
Austrian chancellor, said afterward,
"It went well, under the circumstan-
ces." The two leaders, whose formal
talks open Saturday, ended the day by
sharing a box at a first-night perfor-
mance of Mozart's "The Abduction
from the Seraglio" at the city's famed
opera house, joined by Carter's wife
Rosalynn and daughter Amy.
The 11-year-old Amy bounded up the
golden staircase of the opera house
ahead of her parents to take a seat in
the central box, where the Carters and
Brezhnev viewed the opera together.
The crowd applauded when Carter
entered the box. The applause grew
when Brezhnev and Kirchschlaeger
came in together, and became still
louder when Brezhnev and Carter
joined in the applause.
THE CARTER family and Brezhnev
left at the intermission between the
second and third acts, apparently to
give the leaders a chance to rest before
formal discussions began Saturday.
Brezhnev, 72, arrived in the Austrian
capital yesterday morning amid tight
security. The ailing Soviet leader
walked unassisted down the stair ramp
from his plane, but kept a firm grip on
the hand rail. His face appeared puffy
and he favored his left leg as he
reviewed an honor guard.
BREZHNEV HAS been reported
recently to be in better health than he
has been for some time.
In contrast, the 54-year-old American
president began his day by jogging 16
laps around the U.S. ambassador's
residence. Carter arrived Thursday
night and spent much of yesterday
relaxing with his family.
Full summit negotiations begin
tomorrow with two meetings between
the leaders andttwo more on Sunday.
The signing of the treaty limiting
strategic weapons is scheduled for
Monday.
The treaty becomes effective only af-
ter approval by the Supreme Soviet and
the U.S. Senate. Carter faces a tough
selling job in winning the necessary
two-thirds ratification from a skeptical
Senate.
The treaty imposes the first
numerical limits on the strategic ar;
senals of the two superpowers. The
SALT I treaty signed in 1972 froze
existing arsenals for five years.
Vance and Soviet Foreign Minister
Andrei Gromyko met separately for an
hour to discuss the agenda and specifics
of the next two days of talks.
Terms to know as the
SALT II talks progress
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Here is a
glossary of terms that will appear often
over the next few days as President
Carter and Soviet President Leonid
Brezhnev meet here before signing
SALT II on Monday.
SALT II - A second-phase strategic
arms limitation agreement that limist
the numbers of strategic weapons the
two superpowers may aim at each
other through 1985. It is a follow-up to
SALT I, a pact curbing anti-ballistic
missile systems that was signed in
Moscow in 1972 by Brezhnev and then-
President Richard Nixon.
SNDVs - Strategic nuclear delivery
vehicles, which are long-range missiles
and heavy bombers, including those
modified to launch cruise missiles.
ICBMs - Intercontinental ballistic
missiles, rocket weapons fired from
land bases over ranges generally
around 6,300 miles at speeds of
thousands of miles an hour.
SLBMs - Submarine-launched
ballistic missiles fired from submerged
submarines over ranges varying in the
thousands of miles.
ASBMs Air-to-surface ballistic
missiles that would be fired from
planes over long ranges.
Cruise missiles - Weapons similar to
small, pilotless planes, powered by air-
breathing jet engines. They could be
launched from airplanes such as B-52
bombers or from ships, submarines or
ground bases. They could carry nuclear
warheads at about 500 miles an hour
over a range of about 1,550 miles.
MIRVs - Multiple independently
targetable re-entry vehicles, clusters of
warheads that can be aimed separately
at targets far apart.
Yield - The explosive force released
by nuclear weapons. Expressed in
megatons equivalent to millions of tons
of TNT and kilotons equivalent to
thousands of tons of TNT.
Backfire - A new Soviet two-engine,
swing-wing bomber that is not included
in the SALT treaty despite U.S. concern
that it could be used against the con-
tinental United States if refueled in
flight. The Soviets say the Backfire is a
medium bomber for naval aviation and
for use against peripheral land targets
in Asia and Europe.
Verification - The ability to monitor
each other's missile tests and other
weapons developments to check com-
pliance and guard against cheating on
the treaty terms.
National technical means - Photo
satellites, radar and other monitoring
devices used in verification.
Telemetry - Radio signals from test
missiles in flight to ground stations,
providing information on their perfor-
mance and characteristics. The United
States insisted that both sides keep such
signals in the clear, not in code, so that
verification would be unimpeded.
Counterforce weapons - Those
targeted against an enemy's missile
and bomber bases with the aim of
destroying hostile weapons-delivery
vehicles before they can be launched.
First strike - An attempt to get in the
first nuclear blow to disarm an enemy.
The United States has traditionally
foresworn launching any first strategic
strike.
Second strike - The policy of absor-
bing an enemy's first strike and
retaliating with a devastating counter-
blow. The U.S. nuclear force has been
designed for second strike. This un-
derlies the U.S. deterrence philosophy.
Assured destruction - Massive
retaliation in all-out nuclear response
to a major Soviet attack. Still the
bedrock of U.S. strategy for deterring
any Soviet assault.
Flexible response - Options to hit
targets selectively, particularly
military and military-related targets,
in an effort to contain the degree of
nuclear exchange.
Gray-area weapons - "Theater"
nuclear arms, such as Soviet SS-20 in-
termediate-range ballistic missiles and
U.S. nuclear-armed fighter bombers
based in Western Europe. They are not
limited by SALT II or any other pact.