Word: leaders
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Mindful that his get-together with the Soviet leader will take place at a time of extraordinary upheaval in Eastern Europe, Bush has mused privately and publicly about the "historic" nature of the encounter. Flying back from Memphis aboard Air Force One on the day before Thanksgiving, he wondered aloud if the meeting might help guarantee "a peaceful future for kids all over," including his eleven grandchildren. Then, in a televised address that evening, the President struck what was for him a visionary tone. He invited Gorbachev to "work with me to bring down the last barriers...
Such talk has angered British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who spent the day after Thanksgiving with the President at Camp David tutoring him on how to handle the Soviet leader, with whom she has met five times. Concerned that Cheney's announcement will weaken America's hand if the Malta talks take a substantive turn on arms control, Thatcher advised Bush, "Any surprise that you're presented with, you take it away and you consider it very, very carefully...
Initially, Bush had hoped to invite Gorbachev to Camp David for a few days. There, alone and in private, he could test Gorbachev's mettle and get to know the Soviet leader personally, just as he had befriended hundreds of other foreign leaders in his career. After the Soviets opted for Malta, Bush told aides, "I want a Camp David atmosphere on that ship." To work his magic free of prying eyes and ears, he has ordered reporters to stay far from the U.S. cruiser Belknap and the Soviet cruiser Slava. "He wants to be able to get up from...
Wendehals literally means turn neck, the name of a rare bird that can twist its head 180 degrees; the word has been adopted by East Germans to refer to the thousands of Communist Party officials, from Egon Krenz, the current party leader, down to district secretaries, who overnight began to sound as if they had joined the pro-democracy movement. A favorite target is Gunter Mittag, the recently sacked Politburo member in charge of the economy. Described by the newly outspoken East German press as arrogant and autocratic, Mittag is being held responsible for wrecking the economy and cooking...
Following eight nights of tumultuous demonstrations and calls for democracy, Czechoslovak party leader Milos Jakes resigns. The day in 1968 that Soviet tanks rolled into Prague. Prepping for his shipboard sessions with Gorbachev, Bush gives some signs that the meetings just might go beyond the get- acquainted exercise he originally envisioned. How the President's thoughts on the Soviet Union -- and its daring leader -- have evolved from standoffishness to engagement...