Diplomacy: Custody Disputes

The grand strategies of superpower diplomacy were undercut last week by individual lunges for freedom. In Afghanistan, troops of the Soviet-backed Communist government surrounded the U.S. embassy in Kabul after a 19-year-old Soviet soldier slipped in through an open gate. Embassy personnel were allowed to come and go, but electricity to the building was cut off while U.S. diplomats tried to determine whether the soldier was seeking political asylum. Said Secretary of State George Shultz, en route to Moscow for presummit consultations: “Our posture is to do our best to look after his interests.”

The incident came nine days after Miroslav Medvid, a seaman aboard a Soviet grain ship, jumped twice into the Mississippi River in an apparent bid for freedom. U.S. immigration officials returned him to the Soviet vessel. The ship was detained near New Orleans until Medvid was allowed an interview to discover his intentions. By the time the interview took place last week, the Soviet sailor said he wanted to go home. The U.S. release of Medvid to the Soviets drew a chorus of protest from more than a dozen Congressmen.