Word: summiteer
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Nonetheless, in painting the summit as a success, the Administration got an assist from, of all people, Gorbachev. The Soviet leader launched his own spin-doctoring campaign as soon as the summit broke up, dispatching 15 diplomats to 35 countries from Austria to Zimbabwe. On successive days, Max Kampelman and Victor Karpov, the heads of the American and Soviet arms- negotiating teams in Geneva, turned up in Bonn to conduct briefings for the West German government. Tuesday night Gorbachev, like Reagan a day earlier, went on television to give his version of the summit events to his fellow countrymen...
...world history." In his TV speech the Soviet leader at times took a condescending, almost derisive tone toward Reagan, portraying the President as a confused leader "demonstrating his complete ignorance and misunderstanding of . . . the socialist world." But Gorbachev was as insistent as any Reaganaut in denying that the summit had failed. Said Gorbachev: "The work that went on during the meeting will not be wasted . . . We have cleared the path toward developing further struggle for peace and disarmament...
...week's end the Administration had reason to believe that its publicity campaign was paying off. In a poll for TIME by Yankelovich Clancy Shulman, 45% of the respondents thought Gorbachev was primarily to blame for the failure to reach agreement at the Iceland summit, while only 14% said Reagan was mainly at fault. A thumping 69% said the President was right in refusing to restrict Star Wars as the price for a deal that would reduce nuclear arms. Day-to-day surveys taken for the White House by Richard Wirthlin showed Reagan's general approval rating jumping sharply from...
...automatically at any time of intense concentration on foreign affairs, but usually disappears in a fortnight or so. Some aspects of the Administration's explanation of "what really happened" at Reykjavik seem inconsistent or even contradictory. Poindexter at first implied that it was Reagan who in effect brought the summit to an end by picking up his papers and walking out; later the White House amended that to say that Gorbachev reached for his briefcase before Reagan stood up in response. Poindexter, Shultz and others contend that they went to Reykjavik fully prepared for anything that might come...
Critics already are raising some questions about the summit. Would confining SDI to laboratory research for ten years really kill all prospects of eventually deploying the defense shield? Reagan is on record that it would. Not all experts agree, but at the very least the ten-year proposal would give the Soviets more of a chance to catch up with U.S. technology. Are both sides absolutely clear on just what it was that they almost agreed to in Iceland -- specifically, would the near-deal on strategic weapons have eliminated only ballistic missiles or bombers and cruise missiles too? In either...