Word: sovietize
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...agree," he said as they came to the parking lot, "that this meeting is useful." Yes, replied Gorbachev. Then we must meet again, Reagan went on. It was then that he invited the Kremlin leader to come to the U.S. "And I invite you to come to the Soviet Union," responded Gorbachev. "I accept," stated Reagan. "I accept," echoed Gorbachev. The gloom lifted. At Gorbachev's limousine (inside of which a submachine gun rested on the rear seat), the two men parted company...
...spirit was cordial at a small dinner for the Reagans that night given by the Gorbachevs at the Soviets' squat, three-story, modern-style mission in Geneva. In keeping with the Kremlin's temperance campaign, the customary vodka toasts were dispensed with, and the guests sipped white and red wines from Soviet Georgia. Gorbachev and his wife Raisa recounted how they had met at Moscow University, and she lamented that her husband's new job gave her little time to pursue her academic career. The Reagans extolled the charms of California, and Gorbachev boasted about his grandchild, whom he professed...
During that first day Reagan was struck by Gorbachev's willingness to listen. "I'm some judge of acting," he later remarked to reporters, "so I don't think he was acting." Gorbachev looked so intently at Reagan that the President momentarily forgot that the Soviet leader does not speak English, and he kept talking without giving the interpreter a chance to catch up. Gorbachev had to hold up his hand to get Reagan to pause for translation. Reagan later recalled that he had told a couple of jokes and wondered why he did not get a laugh...
...next morning, as soon as the American delegation arrived at the Soviet mission for Wednesday's round of talks, Reagan once again asked his host if he would like to have a private chat. The touchy subject of human rights was on the President's mind. He did not want to belabor the issue for fear of stiffening Soviet resistance. But in the privacy of a small sitting room in the Soviet mission, he told Gorbachev that if the Soviets truly want to improve relations with the U.S., they must repair their record on individual freedom. It is morally repugnant...
Gorbachev did not filibuster with the usual Kremlin excuse that human rights are an internal matter for the Soviet Union and not the business of the U.S. Rather, he discoursed at length about Soviet notions of individual freedom: freedom from hunger, freedom from unemployment, freedom to secure health care--freedoms, he implied, that were not universally enjoyed by Americans. He was not sparing in his criticism of America's abuse of its own racial minorities...