Word: haig
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...adjectives used in diplomacy are almost as precise in their meaning as equations in physics. Thus when a State Department spokesman described last week's meeting between Secretary of State Alexander Haig and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko as "frank and businesslike," his listeners knew that the session may not have been a love feast, but that some progress had been made. At the first high-level dialogue between the two superpowers in twelve months, and the first for the Reagan Administration, Haig and Gromyko soberly spelled out each nation's grievances with a minimum of posturing...
...Haig-Gromyko conference took place in the office of the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Jeane Kirkpatrick, on the eleventh floor of the U.S. Mission in New York. Sitting on green sofas, the two men chatted while photographers clicked away. In a slip of the tongue, Haig noted that he had been reading the Soviet official's "bibliography" and learned that Gromyko had begun his diplomatic career in the U.S. in 1943 as Soviet Ambassador to Washington. Gromyko, 72, corrected the record by observing that he first came to the U.S. in 1939 as a counselor in Moscow...
...nearly three hours with only their interpreters present. Gromyko predictably complained about the Reagan Administration's plans for a massive military buildup and faulted its foggy position on arms control. Taking note of Washington's anti-Soviet harangues, he accused the U.S. of wrecking detente. In answer, Haig cited President Reagan's fervent belief that Moscow is to blame for any chilly relations and attacked the Soviets for continuing to press their own formidable military augmentation. He also ticked off a familiar list of examples of Soviet expansionism: Angola, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, South Yemen, Cambodia and Central America...
bombers and Polaris-armed submarines assigned to NATO. But the Americans refused to budge, since the Soviets have not placed any parallel systems of their own on the table. Gromyko and Haig instead drafted a statement that did not specify which weapons would be discussed. Both sides left bilateral issues, such as trade and the possible resumption of SALT talks, for a second get-together scheduled this week...
...that first meeting went smoothly enough, the diplomatic parrying at the U.N. General Assembly's 36th session did not. Delegates were somewhat surprised that Haig chose to address the assembly on the problems of promoting the economic growth of poor nations, rather than on East-West issues. He rejected a Third World proposal for a massive shift of wealth from rich nations to poor nations as "unrealistic" and emphasized private investment as a potential cure for poverty. The solution did not sit well with many of his listeners...