European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 12, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Inside stripes pan Union talks Oro Oroo 5 d americans in Greece but still having d Georgia tech wins acc 21 327 authorized unofficial pub cation for the armed forces March 1985 Lle dolls Ond Sondy g 3593 a Chernenko is dead Gorbachev will take Over Konstantin Chernenko a photo Moscow a the soviet Union on monday announced the death of president Konstantin Chernenko and quickly named Mikhail the youngest member of the to replace him As communist party Trie whose rapidity took some by marked a shift in Power from the elderly elite to a younger it followed the shortest tenure of a soviet Leader in history just under 13 months and marked the end of what Many Western diplomats had seen As a period of transition following the death of Leonid Brezhnev in november Gorbachev becomes the seventh general Secretary of the soviet communist it was not known if he also would assume the secondary Post of chairman of the presidium of the supreme soviet the nations equivalent of Chernenko died sunday of lung and liver disease at the age of the government announced it said he would be buried in red Square on wednesday following a relatively Brief lying Instate period in Moscow House of his death Cut the politburo to 10 full five of whom Are Over the age of Western experts on Kremlin practices said it was the lowest membership level on the ruling body in recent the death announcement was delayed for almost 19 but Moscow quickly went into official with radio broadcasts continuing the somber classical music that had started in Early Blac draped flags were Hung on major and Chernenko portrait was placed on the front of the House of where window displays were hurriedly cleared to make Way for Blac bordered por traits of the late squads of police began sealing off the area around the which will be tightly restricted until after the a medical bulletin issued by the government con firmed reports that Chernenko had Long suffered from the lung disease emphysema and said his ailment was complicated by chronic he died at they against the background of worsening pulmonary and cardiac the first indication that Gorbachev would be named general Secretary came when the official news Agency Tass announced that he would head Chernenko funeral Chernenko performed that function for see Chernenko on Page 28 Gorbachev Geneva talks will go on As scheduled Geneva up despite soviet president Konstan tin Chernenko the United states and the soviet Union agreed monday to resume arms control talks As planned after a 16month spokesman Joseph Lehman said that the opening meeting will take place at the soviet Mission at 11 tues Day and that plans were going ahead for a second plenary session at the arms control Headquarters on Lehman told a news conference the opening session would include the three senior negotiators on each headed by chief Delegate Max Kampelman and his soviet Viktor according to Kampelman assured Karpov of understanding if the soviets wanted to change the schedule in Light of Chernenko but the soviets said they preferred to get right Down to Lehman said the opening session would be a familiarization our expectation is that the thursday meeting will move on to matters of he Lehman said the talks probably will take place in eight week with negotiators alternating Between Geneva and their Home the first round of talks is Likely to be somewhat Shorter than eight he the agreed to at a meeting in january Between Secretary of state George Shultz and soviet foreign min ister Andrei will take place under three Sepa rate headings weapons in intermediate Range nuclear forces and strategic Lehman said on intermediate and strategic Wear the positions of both sides Are Well on we Are starting from the soviet Union broke off parallel talks on intermediate Range and strategic weapons at the end of 1983 when the United states began deploying cruise and Pershing 11 missiles in Europe to counter a buildup of soviet ss20 the soviets insist that the present negotiations Are not a continuation of the earlier leaders health was a Safe secret Moscow up during his 13 months in the health of Konstantin Chernenko was a state with his death the Kremlin veil of silence was in the last weeks of his soviet officials put up a facade of showing Chernenko on television casting his vote in 24 elections and being presented with his credentials As a newly reelected member of the russian supreme a later examination of the two tapes purportedly four Days apart showed that both events took place in the same most Likely a private Kremlin it was similar to last when the late Yuri Andropov was incapacitated for six months before his in a Potemkin like pretence of an Active and healthy Lead officials sent Multi car motorcade with blacked out windows zooming along Moscow main Boulevard be tween the Kremlin and Andropov within hours of Chernenko an official autopsy report was showing that he suffered a Long time from the lung disease this had been Long speculated in the West but never the Gravity of the condition was furthered by concomitant chronic which worsened into the autopsy As Chernenko health there was a constant Stream of books and letters published under his for weeks at a he was not seen in before did not appear in Public for More than six he was officially suffering from a after his it was announced that he died from complications of a kidney within hours of Chernenko Mikhail Gorbachev was elected to succeed him As general Secretary of the communist accompanying the Tass announcement was an official but there was no mention of his wife or children or the veil that shrouds soviet leaders descended once Dollar drops today see Page 27