"The Russian mentality is geared to chess, the American to poker, and to understand their moves you have to look at the world," said Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas as he attempted to explain "Russia Today" at the Ford Hall Forum last night.

Basing the speech on his own travels, Douglas dealt more with the Russian-American competition for underdeveloped countries and with the problem posed by Communist China than with Russia itself.

Douglas praised the Peace Corps efforts. "Russia is a competitor whom we'll have to meet teacher for teacher in every underdeveloped country," he said. He also emphasized the futility of military grants that allowed existing governments to maintain a "feudal" status quo and withhold civil liberties, but did not enable them to protect their countries from Russian aggression.

Douglas noted that the Russian standard of living, although lower than America's, makes it "a member of the affluent society" and "a symbol of revolt against the status quo" to the countries of the Middle East and Africa.

He added that the integration of the European economy by the Common Market, although it might create a "true third force" to offset the polarization of power between the U.S. and Russia, would drive smaller, poorer countries into a "Communist Common Market."

Douglas thought, however, that Russia and American have a great deal of common self-interest that would make possible and necessary a political settlement between the two countries.

Besides the need to avoid a nuclear war, an aggressive Communist China is a danger to both countries: to the U.S. in India, where miniaturization might turn "that bright, shining example of democracy on the sub-continent" into a dictatorship; and to Russia in Siberia, "a handsome country" where "Mao-Testing could put 300 million Chinese and still have 300 million left at home."