Word: bushing
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...first six months of the Bush Administration, agnosticism about Gorbachev was an article of faith. White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater went so far as to call him "a drugstore cowboy." Moreover, it was virtually taboo to use any form of the verb "to help" in the same sentence with Gorbachev. Senate Democratic leader George Mitchell accused the Bush Administration of "status quo thinking" and exhibiting an "almost passive stance." Bush's attitude began to change when he visited Poland and Hungary in July. His hosts impressed on him that their survival, not to mention their success, depended on Gorbachev...
...Bush's conversion has not ended the deep schism within his Administration. National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft remains cautious about Gorbachev's ultimate aims, and his deputy Robert Gates is acidly skeptical about the Soviet leader's ability to prevail. In an unusual move, Baker last week forbade Gates to deliver a speech that was too pessimistic about Gorbachev's economic program. Vice President Dan Quayle directly challenged Baker in a Los Angeles speech by stressing "the darker side of Soviet foreign policy" and saying that instead of helping, the U.S. ought to "let them reform themselves...
Raising this skepticism is probably, to use Bush's favorite word, prudent. After all, what if Gorbachev is indeed merely pursuing by more subtle means the old Soviet goals of getting the U.S. to withdraw from Europe, dissolving NATO and neutralizing Germany? Even so, as Baker points out, it would still make sense for the U.S. to "lock in" gains by helping Soviet bloc nations become more independent and by securing agreements that make mutually beneficial arms reductions. In addition, the changes in Eastern Europe have progressed so far that a sudden reversal becomes less likely every...
...given the sweeping transformations under way, these measures seem limp. Such a step-by-step approach would be, at best, yet another example of the -- dare one say timid? -- incrementalism on arms control and trade that has marked Soviet-American relations for four decades. As Bush himself says, the opportunity is historic. The idea that the Warsaw Pact would launch a land invasion of Western Europe, which is what most of NATO expenditures are designed to prevent, has become nearly inconceivable. "It may be time to abandon incrementalism for a leapfrog approach, to see if we can really make...
...Instead, Bush could challenge Gorbachev with courage and imagination. He could ask the Soviets to join the West in making enormous, fundamental cuts in defense spending. This would not be naive pacifism but hardheaded self- interest. It could be a boon to the deficit-choked American economy as well as to perestroika. Rather than negotiating trims in a few weapons programs, Bush could propose demobilizing significant portions of each side's military, testing whether Gorbachev would go along with dismantling whole divisions and reconfiguring forces so as to create a less dangerous world...