Word: brezhnevs
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...waiting warily for Moscow to take the first concrete step toward easing tensions. But American and Soviet officials did seize the opportunity to stop the angry and menacing verbal exchanges that had been escalated into a war of words during the two years that Ronald Reagan and Leonid Brezhnev led the superpowers, and to substitute cautious expressions of hope for conciliation. To use the felicitous phrase that Shultz picked up from an American reporter, the "mood music" of U.S.-Soviet relations had suddenly softened...
...shift in mood began in the first hours after Brezhnev's death two weeks ago. It grew more pronounced as Vice President George Bush and Shultz arrived in Moscow for the funeral, under specific instructions from President Reagan to emphasize U.S. willingness to ease tensions. Andropov, accompanied by Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and Andrei Alexandrov-Agentov, an adviser on East-West relations, met with them and U.S. Ambassador Arthur Hartman for 30 min. in the brightly lit Green Room of the Kremlin. They discussed nuclear-arms control, Afghanistan and human rights, three of the prickliest issues between...
...that is far from the only, and not necessarily even the most pressing, matter on Andropov's mind. Besides receiving Bush and Shultz, the new Soviet boss plunged into a round of meetings with satellite, neutralist and even anti-Communist heads of government who were in Moscow for Brezhnev's funeral (see WORLD). Soviet officials sought to impress on Americans that, because their chief intends to move fast in establishing the main themes of his foreign policy, the U.S. has no time to lose in seeking a better relationship. Nor will the U.S. necessarily be pleased with...
...held for that purpose, Secretary of State Shultz asserted that "signals are fine" and the U.S. appreciated the "great courtesy" that Andropov had shown toward himself and Bush, but "the thing we are really looking for . . . is the substance of change in behavior." As Shultz noted, no sooner had Brezhnev been laid to rest than "it was as though someone threw a switch and suddenly martial music and a long march-by of troops. That was mood music too, I thought...
...FORMER ACTOR, President Reagan should have known better. After all, timing is essential in Hollywood, just as it is crucial for successful diplomacy. By announcing a deployment plan for the MX missile so soon after the death of Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev, the President may have ruined the most important scene to be played out in U.S. Soviet relations for years...