Word: reagans
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...America raged unchecked, and the so-called peace process in the Middle East made no discernible headway. Nature joined politics in contributing to human misery as earthquakes in Mexico City, a volcano eruption in Colombia and a cyclone in Bangladesh claimed tens of thousands of victims. In the U.S., Reagan became the first President to confer the full powers of his office voluntarily on his Vice President, George Bush, though only for eight hours, while surgeons removed a cancerous growth from Reagan's colon. The President recovered quickly and apparently completely, but apart from the summit his political momentum seemed...
...phenomena, however, only the ascension of Gorbachev to the Soviet leadership could eventually rival for long-range importance to the world the sweeping changes Deng is pushing through in China. But for all the panache he displayed on taking power and all the headlines and television time he and Reagan commanded at the summit, Gorbachev's impact on history by year's end was still far more potential than actual. The freshness and vigor of his personal style far outweighed the importance of any changes he had made in Soviet foreign or domestic policy. Indeed, though Gorbachev, like Deng...
Controversy immediately erupted over the event's outcome, but there was near unanimity about the virtue of the rescue mission itself. President Reagan somberly supported the decision to go in. So did the hijack survivors, including Pilot Hani Galal, who had told the tower at Valletta, "Please do something. They're going to kill us all." The same shock coupled with somber understanding had accompanied an anti-terrorist assault 17 days earlier in Bogotá, Colombia, where at least two dozen terrorists died, along with nearly 100 hostages...
...notoriously dour Andrei Gromyko, it was a revealing endorsement. To combat the image of decrepitude generated by a succession of Red Square funerals, the Kremlin knew it needed someone youthful and vigorous, To compete effectively in the arena of international public opinion, and particularly to vie with Ronald Reagan, it required its own Great Communicator, with a commanding presence on the podium, strong eye contact at the bargaining table, and a nice smile for the camera. That man was Mikhail Gorbachev, 54, the youngest member of the Politburo...
Similarly, in dealing with the outside world, Gorbachev seemed bent not on introducing new policies so much as trying to make more palatable the ones he inherited. At his Geneva summit meeting with Reagan, he proved himself an able spokesman for a depressingly familiar set of attitudes, objectives and one-sided demands. The U.S.S.R. might withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, but only if that country remained under Soviet control; the U.S. must ultimately remove all its intermediate-range missiles from Western Europe, even though the Soviets dominate that category; Washington must cancel Star Wars despite a huge Soviet buildup...