Word: shultz
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...Reagan pored over briefing books and prepared for his first eyeball-to-eyeball summit with a leader of a nation he has made a career of denouncing, Secretary of State George Shultz flew to Moscow with National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane and a dozen-odd other U.S. officials last week to lay the final groundwork for the meeting. The American team was whisked to Osobnyak, the czarist-era mansion where Soviet diplomats often conduct business. "We always expect good results from meetings," said Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze before escorting his visitors into the white marble meeting room...
...eight hours, broken only by a brief working lunch, Shevardnadze and Shultz, along with their advisers, reviewed thick documents that laid out the rival positions of each country. No new common ground emerged. "The positions are like black and white," said one American present, "and it is hard to see a shade of gray." It was a disconcerting prelude to Shultz's meeting the next day with Gorbachev...
...session the Soviet leader has ever held with top American officials was that of Lenin, whose brooding fervor seemed to pervade the exchange. Huge portraits of him decorated Red Square in anticipation of last week's anniversary parade of the Bolshevik Revolution; a portrait of Lenin even peered over Shultz's shoulder in the austere Kremlin conference room where the talks were held. Gorbachev opened with a comment that "most often misunderstandings come from a lack of knowledge." Shultz replied: "That's right, although sometimes I know cases where I wish I didn't know as much...
...four hours of private talks that followed, neither side budged an inch. On the American side were Shultz, McFarlane and U.S. Ambassador Arthur Hartman. Sitting with Gorbachev were Shevardnadze and Soviet Ambassador to Washington Anatoli Dobrynin. The meeting got straight to business, but it quickly became apparent that no one was ready to modify set positions. Shultz had come to Moscow largely to probe for possible Soviet concessions, but found Gorbachev unyielding on almost every point. Human rights? That subject was "discussed rather fully," Shultz told reporters later, "but I have nothing to report as to what possible constructive outcome...
More disconcerting even than Gorbachev's substantive positions was his tone. The Soviet leader who met Shultz last week was not at all the affable crowd pleaser who toured London, Paris and Soviet farms and factories; he was a tough executive used to dominating a discussion. One American described the Soviet chief's demeanor as "intellectually curious, vigorous, active, articulate, argumentative, self-assured, occasionally impulsive." Suspicious too. According to Shultz, Gorbachev "suggested all that happens results from a conspiracy of the [U.S.] military and Big Business." Another American official reported Gorbachev seemed convinced that U.S. policy "was heavily influenced...