ABSTRACT
The Bush administration is convinced that the best approach to bilateral United States (US)-Soviet relations is through concentration on traditional diplomacy and especially the negotiations on arms control, regional conflicts, and emerging European security issues. American attitudes toward Eastern Europe are receptive to programs of direct economic assistance even while believing that the route to development is through private investment and market forces. Relaxation of export controls is under vigorous debate; some relaxation is apparently inevitable but the US will stand firm for the moment on a distinction between Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union for the purposes of wider liberalization of export controls. The presence of nuclear weapons under NATO control in Europe is bound to stir special concerns. Yet within the framework of a lessened threat and symbolic troop presence as guarantor of stability, residual nuclear forces of a limited sort in the NATO countries could be useful.
