Underappreciated Features of SALT II

Regrettably, Mr. George Will, ["A Failure to Master SALT,"] has decided to withhold from the SALT debate his very considerable talent for elucidation. He has chosen to parrot the superficial, short-sighted catalog of half-truths and flawed analyses by which many hard-liners are seeking to frighten Americans, defeat SALT and inaugurate a military buildup far beyond our needs.

The proposed SALT agreements are complex, in large part because they address dozens of issues of widely varying importance in which many compromises have been made by both sides. As a consequence, by selecting specific issues and ignoring others, and by focusing on certain items that are not covered and omitting others that are, many convincing cases agaist these agreements can be erected. Mr. Will does not illuminate the issue by taking such an easy course.