Word: bushing
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Even the Soviets were flashing warning signs. Armed forces Chief of Staff Mikhail Moiseyev said the Soviet leadership should make no further concessions to the U.S., and noted pointedly that there are still too many disagreements to conclude a strategic-arms treaty by June. Gorbachev and Bush would have to meet again just to hash out these differences, said Moiseyev...
...that measure, the main value of Malta was in fulfilling Bush's stated goal: making a personal connection with Gorbachev. To Bush's relief, Gorbachev played a low-key role, thanking the President for his "prudent and cautious" rhetoric. The two leaders engaged in lengthy chats about "Western values," an expression Bush uses to describe the changes sweeping Eastern Europe. In one 30-minute segment, Gorbachev asked Bush to drop the phrase from speeches, because it implied the changes were a victory for the West. Accordingly, the President has started speaking of "democratic values...
That kind of concession displeases conservatives, who say the Soviets should suffer through their economic and political crises without American assistance. The White House dispatched Vice President Dan Quayle to disarm the hard-liners even before Bush left Europe. Quayle uttered anachronistic noises to the Washington Post, including a nostalgic reference to the Soviet Union as a "totalitarian state." If Quayle's partial retraction a few days later -- he changed the description to "authoritarian" -- seemed to blur the Administration's view even more, that was part of the game. Behind the scenes, White House officials reminded conservatives that the overtures...
...each. But some NATO allies are dragging their feet on peripheral issues. British and French negotiators are wary of any deal that reduces the size of their independent air forces -- so wary, in fact, that some experts predict that aircraft will have to be taken off the table if Bush is to meet his deadline...
Despite these challenges, Bush is still buoyed by an element of good fortune. Gorbachev seems content to let the President move at his own pace. The Soviets and NATO allies support a stabilizing U.S. presence in Europe. And a gradually reduced Soviet threat may enable Bush to squeeze just enough money from the military next year to keep the federal deficit moving downward. Bush recognizes that he is the benefactor of a rare alignment of stars. "I'm a lucky person to be President of our country in these very exciting times," he said last week. But as the ground...