Word: reykjavik
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Reagan recognized that prospect in his Baltimore speech last week, appealing to voters not to elect "liberals" who would "chop up" SDI and thus, in effect, hand Gorbachev, free of charge, what he could not buy at a very high price in Reykjavik. Speakes later conceded that the speech had been "too shrill." Yet those in Congress who believe SDI should be a bargaining chip do face a dilemma: if they cut back funding for the program, which has so far been valuable in wangling serious concessions from the Soviets, it loses its value as a bargaining chip...
...head off cuts in SDI, Reagan needs to demonstrate continued progress toward the kind of deal he and Gorbachev could not bring off in Iceland. That in turn raises the most pressing question left hanging at the summit: which, if any, pieces of the package that fell apart in Reykjavik can be salvaged in lower-level negotiations? When arms-control talks resumed last week in Geneva, the U.S. immediately began probing. Said Chief of Staff Regan: "Right now, Max Kampelman is saying (to the Soviets), 'Our notes from Reykjavik show that we could agree on this...
...have given contradictory answers. Negotiator Karpov told journalists in London last week that the West could still get a deal on Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces weapons without a settlement on SDI. But Gorbachev told Argentine President Raul Alfonsin, who was visiting Moscow, that all his proposals at Reykjavik -- on INF, strategic weapons and SDI -- still constitute an "inseparable" package...
...case with other issues in arms control, the difficulty of the problem may depend to a great extent on whether both sides perceive it to be difficult. That is why last week's concerted efforts by both sides to change perceptions about the arms control impasse at Reykjavik was so important: sometimes perceptions determine what is reality, instead of the other way around...
...think a real opportunity was missed in Reykjavik. SDI is not only a fantasy, it is a fraud. If the President persists in his SDI fantasy, there is no possibility of success in arms control. All the President is doing with his fixation on Star Wars is to make arms control more difficult to achieve. He is escalating the arms race, as the Soviets build more weapons to block SDI. The Soviets will not consent to limitations on their strategic missiles without receiving something in return. I'm appalled that the Administration did not understand what was at stake...