Word: summiter
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...proposal was to slash in half the long-range nuclear missiles in the arsenals of the superpowers and eventually eliminate them altogether. Until a half-hour before the meeting broke up on Sunday evening, virtually all the pieces seemed to be in place. Yet in the end, the Iceland summit broke down over a single word: laboratory...
...unravel. To the Soviets, every element of the deal, it seemed, hinged on the curtailment of Star Wars. When that proved impossible, there was nothing left to do but offer grim handshakes and go home. The original purpose of the meeting--to set a date for a full-scale summit in the U.S. and work out a frame work for an agreement on medium-range missiles that could serve as its centerpiece--was lost in the dust. No deal, no date, no plans for future summits...
...memories of the Icelandic sagas, populated by heroes with unpronounceable names who made elegant speeches and went at one another with axes. More recent memories: news analyses assuring the public that Reagan and Gorbachev definitely are and definitely are not going to accomplish anything substantive at this presummit summit. Most recent memory: the underground Broadway disco in Reykjavík, an Icelandic rock group called Strax, led by a woman with her black hair done up to look like a crow in flight, singing about U.S. and Soviet journalists vying for scoops...
...sound bites? And what better way to capture the limelight than to play host to a meeting of the two most powerful men in the world? There were times last week when it seemed as if publicity-savvy Icelanders, not Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, had initiated the summit that was not a summit strictly to promote their little island: Iceland the beautiful; Iceland the restful; Iceland, home of friendly blond-haired people with unpronounceable names who believe in elves...
...despite what often seemed like a trade fair for Iceland, the summit was an international magnet attracting a constellation of groups competing for attention and airtime: peace demonstrators, the families of refuseniks, Jewish activists, and summit perennials like Waluliso, 73, a fixture at last year's Geneva meeting, who wanders around the streets in his trademark bed-sheet toga, with plastic laurels around his head, shrieking for the need for world peace...