Word: icelander
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...solicited a discount by telling the salesclerk, "We can bargain in Russian." He wound up with 10% off, leading some observers to note wryly that the hard-line U.S. negotiator had settled for less than many White House aides, who successfully haggled for as much as 20%. Some shrewd Icelanders showed their capitalistic acumen in another realm. Many of them rented their homes to news organizations desperate for accommodations. Arni Arnason, marketing director for Iceland Waters, his wife and two children moved out of their apartment a block from the press center and into his sister-in-law's home...
Raisa Gorbachev fit into Icelandic plans perfectly. For two days the genteel Raisa was an enthusiastic booster of Icelandic ways and wares. Dressed in a three-quarter-length silver-fox coat and black suede boots with a matching handbag, she appeared at a popular public swimming pool fed by sulfurous waters from Iceland's famed geothermal springs. The swimmers, who apparently had not been informed of the visit, paddled through the steamy mist in rubber caps and goggles to greet the Soviet First Lady. When Raisa applauded them, they clapped in return like performing seals. She then leaned over...
...from their past stentorian sloganeering. Under Gorbachev, they have come to realize that cultivating international public opinion can boost their foreign policy. The new affability and reasonableness was first evident at the 1985 Shultz-Shevardnadze meeting in Helsinki and became more apparent at the Geneva summit. In Iceland, the style has come into...
Despite the preparations he still must attend to, Reagan is willing to ruminate about his sense of the importance of the Iceland meeting, about how two men in a strange and distant room can shatter the world or heal it. "When I sat down with Gorbachev in Geneva, I told him that here were two individuals in a room who either could provide peace for the world or could bring about World War III," says Reagan, his voice taking on a tone of urgency. "We needed to work to eliminate the mistrust between us and then the armaments that could...
Before he left for Iceland, Reagan tried a couple of his new jokes on his staff. They were so earthy that the staff voted thumbs down. Reagan, undaunted, laughed heartily. He may be keeping something about Gorbachev even from them. "We achieved a certain personal chemistry," Reagan says. "There was no animosity. I think I have some room to maneuver with him. He is not a total czar in his nation. He has his own problems like I have mine. He needs to go home with something...