Word: sovietizers
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...time the U.S. and Soviet support staffs had arrived in Reykjavík, stores were already brimming with summit souvenirs. There were Icelandic wool sweaters with profiles of Reagan and Gorbachev ($45), scarves with the Stars and Stripes on one end and the hammer and sickle on the other ($20) and all manner of Reagan-Gorbachev T shirts celebrating the great event ($11.44). Top of the line was a commemorative ashtray with real gold lettering ($50). Some of the stores opened their doors on Sunday to satisfy souvenir-mad summiteers...
...long-distance calls or patronize popular restaurants. They proved so obliging that some restaurant owners in town complained that their establishments were virtually empty. The Icelanders were particularly eager to please when it came to the Hofdi guesthouse, the austere, two-story building where Reagan and Gorbachev met. When Soviet cooks inspected the plain, white bone-china tea service that was to be used to serve Gorbachev, they found it, well, not elaborate enough. The Icelanders and Soviets went on a joint mission to examine three different sets, one of which proved satisfactory to Gorbachev's minions...
...black suede boots with a matching handbag, she appeared at a popular public swimming pool fed by sulfurous waters from Iceland's famed geothermal springs. The swimmers, who apparently had not been informed of the visit, paddled through the steamy mist in rubber caps and goggles to greet the Soviet First Lady. When Raisa applauded them, they clapped in return like performing seals. She then leaned over to shake the dripping hands of the swimmers...
Americans may have invented the soft science of public relations, but in Reykjavík it was the Russians who provided a textbook example of how to win friends and influence people. Soviet spokesmen went out of their way to help Western correspondents in repeated briefings. Their doors were always open--which helped give the illusion that their policies were as well...
...Soviet effort in Reykjavík is a far cry from their past stentorian sloganeering. Under Gorbachev, they have come to realize that cultivating international public opinion can boost their foreign policy. The new affability and reasonableness was first evident at the 1985 Shultz-Shevardnadze meeting in Helsinki and became more apparent at the Geneva summit. In Iceland, the style has come into...