Word: gorbachevized
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...Baker prepared for his first full-fledged meeting with Gorbachev and Shevardnadze in Moscow on May 10, the Administration was still in the dark. Washington had used every public and private avenue to press its message, but it had heard nothing from Moscow since Shevardnadze's rejection of the arguments in Bush's March 27 letter. With no fallback position, Bush and Baker resolved to push the strategy again. "Time is not on our side," Baker was reminded in a memo from his top aides four days before the Moscow meeting. "We must convince the Soviets not that...
Late in the evening of May 6 -- the day before Baker left for Moscow -- a breakthrough occurred. Gorbachev finally responded to Bush's letter. "We note the positive trends in Central America," Gorbachev wrote, "including the intention of your Administration and the U.S. Congress to 'give diplomacy a chance.' I agree that productive Soviet-U.S. engagement on regional questions will lead to a growing potential of goodwill in Soviet-U.S. relations." Gorbachev, it appeared, had bought the linkage. Then the Soviet leader added something of even greater importance: "In order to promote a peaceful settlement of the conflict...
More important, the Soviets demonstrated initial good faith in the matter of arms flows to Nicaragua and the Salvadoran guerrillas. While Soviet military aid to the region diminished in the wake of Gorbachev's May 6 letter, Cuba had stepped up its weapons shipments dramatically to fill the void. More ominously, evidence suggested that Soviet munitions intended for Havana were being transshipped to Nicaragua. Technically, Gorbachev's pledge to Bush was being honored. On the ground in Central America, however, the situation had barely changed. Aronson asked for a clarification: Was transshipment permitted by Moscow? No, said Pavlov. "We will...
...requests of the Soviet Union by the United States." Among them, he asked for a "Soviet commitment that all arms shipments from Nicaragua to the F.M.L.N. cease definitively and that no territory of Nicaragua be used by others to provide arms support for the F.M.L.N." Baker also asked that Gorbachev pressure Castro: We want a "Soviet commitment to reduce Cuban military and economic assistance as necessary to ensure that Cuba does not increase ((the)) flow of lethal weapons to Nicaragua and to ensure that Cuba does not rearm the F.M.L.N." "Baker called his demarche 'requests,' " Pavlov remembers, "but they were...
...service of the party. That leaves only one channel for positive change: a new, more enlightened Emperor who will reform the system from the top down. Such a leader can come forward, of course, only after Deng has died. But even if a Chinese version of Mikhail Gorbachev does take office, he will have to tread carefully. As the students camped out in Tiananmen Square discovered that fateful night last June, any attempt to change China too quickly is an invitation to tragedy...