Word: reagans
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...usual standard of superpower face-offs, Reagan's preparation for this one has been minimal. Reagan, for all his joviality, made clear that he was heading off to Iceland very much on his guard. He eyed the photo of the Hofdi guesthouse, the austere cottage where they will meet, and asked, "What about the ghosts?" There were a lot of wonderful stories about ghosts and elves, he was told...
...Reagan loved the intrigue. He went through the schedule, got a weather report and recalled that he had left his fur hat at Camp David. He had learned a bit about Iceland, he noted, from Tom Clancy's novel Red Storm Rising, which vividly depicts the island's crucial importance to NATO. He also remembered an astronaut's saying that the moon was nicer than training in Iceland...
...that is prologue. The moment is here, as swift a job of casting and production as Reagan can recall. On the phone, his familiar voice sounds like that of an American heartlander who was somehow picked out to star in this drama, feeling his way but absolutely undaunted...
Meanwhile, the superpowers have passed in the night on the issue of strategic defense. In March 1983 Reagan proclaimed his dream of a comprehensive, impregnable, space-based shield that would render offensive nuclear forces "impotent and obsolete." He has argued that deterrence based on the threat of retaliation is immoral and a "defense that really defends" is benevolent, an eerie echo of Kosygin's rebuttal to McNamara at Glassboro. Proponents of the Strategic Defense Initiative charge that the Soviet offensive buildup proves that the U.S.S.R. never really accepted the logic of McNamara's argument and has violated the spirit...
Some members of the Reagan Administration hope for a so-called grand compromise before the President leaves office. In recent months, Reagan has hinted that in exchange for the right Soviet concessions, SDI may be negotiable. One of his most conciliatory statements came on June 19 in a speech to a high school graduating class. He praised the Soviets' latest proposals in Geneva and said he was hoping that Gorbachev would "join me in taking action--action in the name of peace." The site of that speech was Glassboro...