Word: gorbachev
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...next summit meeting, little more than eight months away, it will not suffice for Reagan and Gorbachev to declare that they have achieved a better understanding of each other. The pressure will be on them to produce results, or risk letting the hope of arms control forever slip away. At the very least, the fact that they will soon be meeting again, with the whole world watching once more and by then hoping for more than just smiles and handshakes, will help concentrate the minds of Reagan and Gorbachev and their advisers, and force them to face some hard...
...Gorbachev's heavily armored black ZIL limousine, airlifted from Moscow, swung into view. Reagan, shedding his overcoat, stepped out into the raw morning and stood stiffly at the top of the steps, as if at attention. Quickly striding from his car, Gorbachev theatrically swept off his black fedora. Reagan came down and grasped the hand of his rival with a firm handshake seen around the world. As both men smiled broadly, the American President, 20 years older and four inches taller than his Kremlin opposite, gently steered his guest inside...
...were supposed to chat privately, alone with their interpreters, for just 15 minutes before joining their advisers, half a dozen on each side, for a formal discussion of relations between the two countries. Reagan, however, had a different idea. Right away he proposed to Gorbachev that the two of them do as much of their business as possible in private, away from their staffs. Gorbachev accepted with alacrity. "Here we are," said Reagan when the two men had settled into high-backed armchairs by the fire in a small sitting room. "Between us, we could come up with things that...
Reagan had been well coached on what to expect from his Kremlin rival. Gorbachev had been forceful and unyielding at his presummit meeting in Moscow two weeks before with Secretary of State George Shultz, and Shultz had passed along to Reagan a vivid description of the Kremlin leader in action: assertive, dynamic, very opinionated and not easily swayed by eloquent rhetoric. Nonetheless, Shultz had counseled, Gorbachev was a good listener, and extremely curious to learn more about the mind-sets of his Western adversaries...
Nonetheless, Reagan's decision to disappear with Gorbachev for nearly an hour at the very outset came as a surprise to his advisers. As the two leaders remained behind closed doors on that first morning and their aides began a reverse countdown, ticking off how long they were exceeding their schedules, one American official came up to Shultz, nervously pointing at his watch and fretting that the Big Two were not keeping to the program. Retorted Shultz: "If you're dumb enough to go in there and break it up, you don't deserve to be employed here...