Word: gorbachev
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Star Wars program. Many critics of Reagan's foreign policy have pointed out, however, that as the Soviet Union started to fray, there was a real chance it would end with a nuclear bang rather than a whimper. Had the U.S.S.R. not been lucky enough to draw Mikhail Gorbachev instead of, say, Yuri Andropov as its last leader, the odds are high the outcome would have been very bad. All any U.S. President could do with that nightmarish regime was restrain it from further expansion while praying that when it finally did collapse, it would somehow manage...
...render Moscow's nuclear missiles "impotent and obsolete." Whether or not the U.S. could build such a Star Wars shield was less important than the Soviets' knowledge that they themselves never could. The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) quickly became an obsession of the Soviet leadership. Konstantin Chernenko and Mikhail Gorbachev tried to derail it through propaganda and arms control. But Reagan steadfastly refused to give...
...Veterans Affairs. The archconservative who was skeptical of Social Security ultimately was credited with saving it. He came into office looking not to survive the cold war but to win it, building up America's defenses to confront the "evil empire" but then backing off enough to give Mikhail Gorbachev room to change course. Reagan may have been the champion of missile defense, but he also declared as his dream the complete abolition of nuclear weapons, a position that made even the moderates around him flinch...
...line. He felt it was important to assert what was right. He got very stubborn and even mad when his advisers would take out a line he really believed from a speech. It was on that trip that he stood in front of the Berlin Wall and said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall...
Bush notes how Reagan's warmth and humor could reshape his positions without creating the impression of inconsistency. "He sent me off to see [Soviet President Mikhail] Gorbachev. I guess I was the first one of any authority to meet with him. I wrote out the cable of that meeting and sent it back saying this leader was different. When I got back, many people were disgusted." Nevertheless, Reagan, who had famously called the Soviet Union the "evil empire," was warming to a quiet thaw. "I don't think the President ever changed his views to 'I love communism,'" says...