May 22, 1988

LEAD: When the Soviet Arms negotiator in ''A Walk in the Woods,'' Andrey Botvinnik, decides to leave Geneva, his younger American counterpart, John Honeyman, reacts with the alarm of a rebuffed lover. ''Don't go,'' pleads the otherwise stiff Honeyman. ''I'm still your friend,'' the avuncular Botvinnik replies.

LEAD: President Reagan, heading a contingent of about 600 Americans, will meet five times with Mikhail S. Gorbachev during next week's Moscow summit meeting, which is expected to be heavy with symbolism and ceremony.

LEAD: The Federal Government's two-month-old policy of seizing boats, cars and other vehicles on which even small amounts of illegal drugs are found is causing dismay among civil libertarians and howls of protest from those whose property is confiscated.

LEAD: ONE week from today, when President Reagan arrives in Moscow for his fourth meeting with Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the evolution of Soviet-American relations will have completed a dramatic cycle. From a surge of cooperation in the early 1970's and then into a tense period of frozen hostility, the two powers have now emerged into what may prove to be the healthiest relationship in their postwar history.

LEAD: FOR almost three decades the thoroughbred horses at the 600-acre Mill Ridge Farm just outside Lexington, Ky., were surrounded by nothing but bluegrass. But these days the serenity of an area known as a breeding ground for Kentucky Derby winners is being disturbed.