Word: malta
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Gorbachev made fun of Bush's celebrated caution, in fact, telling the joint news conference, "In our position, the most dangerous thing is to exaggerate" the accomplishments of the Malta summit "and that we should always preserve elements of cautiousness--and I use the favorite word by President Bush...
George Bush has often said he prefers "what works and what's real" to "airy" theorizing. Yet as he prepped for the toughest challenge in his diplomatic career, this weekend's meeting in Malta with Mikhail Gorbachev, there were tantalizing signs that the President was coming down with a case of "the vision thing." As he described his attitude toward the Saltwater Summit last week, "I'm thinking of it rather philosophically...
...closest advisers predict that he will stick to the cautious script he has followed since Hungary, Poland, East Germany and most recently Czechoslovakia began loosening the grip of Communist repression. But the President was dropping hints that if the chemistry is right, then maybe -- just maybe -- the meeting in Malta could go beyond the modest get-acquainted session he originally envisioned. He dangled that possibility in his televised speech. While stressing that the meeting "will not be a time for detailed arms-control negotiations" and that "there will be no surprises sprung on our allies," Bush also declared that...
...probability that such steps will be taken, if not at Malta then soon thereafter, was enhanced by developments in Washington. In recent weeks feuding between anti-Soviet hard-liners like Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and moderates led by Secretary of State James Baker, who favor a more active U.S. role in helping perestroika succeed, has been decisively resolved in the moderates' favor. Whether by conviction or coercion, Cheney has lately been cooing like a dove. By ordering the Pentagon to cut as much as $180 billion from its projected spending plans through 1995, Cheney indicated that Washington is ready...
...hard-to-cut weapons systems that are immensely popular on Capitol Hill. Conspicuously absent from the lists were such big-ticket items as the Navy's Seawolf attack submarine, the Air Force's Advanced Tactical Fighter and the Army's LHX attack helicopter. The Navy flouted the spirit of Malta further by scheduling a test of its Trident II submarine-based ballistic missile for Dec. 1 -- the day before the summit begins. The Navy's insensitivity to diplomatic timing so worried the Joint Chiefs of Staff that they are contemplating postponing the test...