Despite the recent Soviet without from the suspended Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START), the Chief U.S. negotiator yesterday said he is "sure the Soviets will come back to the table, but I don't know when."

Retired Gen. Edward Rowny, in a speech at the Kennedy school of Government, argued that the START talks broke down in December primarily because of the impasse in the separate Euromissile talks.

"We saw that they were unwilling to talk strategic arms control while Euromissile deployment went ahead as planned," Rowny said.

The Scowcroft Commission approval of the MX missile and the introduction of the "build-down" proposal in Congress--whereby old warheads are replaced by fewer new warheads--also confused the Soviets and made them wary of an agreement, Rowny said.

Underlying Problems

Rowny said that American negotiators had to confront fundamental problems in dealing with the Soviet Union, such as their secretiveness. "If is difficult to negotiate when they play their cards close to the chest and we lay ours on the table. They don't have our concept of compromise at all," Rowny said.

He also discussed certain structural and cultural difficulties, primarily continuity of Soviet leadership and goals as opposed to American inconsistency. "They have long-range objectives; we have short-range ones. They play chess; we play Pac Man."

But despite the recent difficulties, Rowny professed basic faith in the concept of arms control saying in response to a question concerning whether the U.S. should negotiate, "80 percent of Americans don't trust the Russians, but 80 percent want an arms control agreement. So do I."