Word: gorbachevized
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...Just decided. Just placed the call, and his phone rings. It works." That was from George Bush. He was talking in the filtered sunlight of the Oval Office about the three times he has reached out and touched Mikhail Gorbachev. The first time was just after Bush took over the presidency. The second call came in January, when German unification was hot, the third in February, after the Nicaraguan elections...
Last week, with the Lithuanian situation coming to a boil, Bush noted that Britain's Margaret Thatcher had phoned Gorbachev. Bush wondered aloud to aides if he should call Gorbachev again. Bush was walking a high wire, supporting both Lithuania's right to be independent and Gorbachev's leadership. His message had been conveyed in public statements, diplomatic channels. But phoning is different. "Just to call," Bush explains, "say, 'Look, how's it going? What do you think about this?' I learn from it. I mean, it's a two-way street. It's better than a cable...
Bush has elevated the phone to new virtuosity. "Interesting diplomacy," he says. "If there are going to be disagreements between the Soviet Union and the U.S. -- and there will be -- I want to be sure they're real and they're based on fact, not on misunderstanding. If ((Gorbachev)) knows the heartbeat a little bit from talking, there's less apt to be misunderstanding...
...President has a propensity for physical communication," says Brent Scowcroft, his National Security Adviser. From a phone conversation, Bush gauges things like Gorbachev's conviction and assuredness, which are beyond the printed word...
...Bush-Gorbachev phone relationship is not yet on a George-and-Mike basis, but maybe next time, says Bush. Nor, despite the President's easy "just placed the call and his phone rings," is it quite that simple yet. When Bush gets the urge to call, he signals Scowcroft, who goes to Soviet Ambassador Yuri Dubinin, who checks out Gorbachev's availability, which so far has been afternoon Moscow time and morning in Washington. The Kremlin insists on placing the call to the Signal Corps in the White House. An interpreter and a notetaker listen in on extensions...