Word: thatcherism
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...such tactics is that unless wealthy nations begin to open their markets to food exports, markets for industrial and service exports could soon close down. That could break the world into rival trading blocs, each dominated by the strongest economic power in the region. As British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher observed, "There are three regional groups at this summit: one based on the dollar, one based on the yen, one on the deutsche mark...
Though a division into rival trading zones would pose a threat to future U.S. economic expansion, Bush implicitly seemed to accept Thatcher's analysis. He noted that the U.S. could no more dictate what West Germany does to help Moscow than Bonn, London or Paris could dictate Washington's policy in Latin America. "I don't feel that everybody has to march in lockstep," Bush said. "We're dealing with entirely different times...
...summit, Bush proposed another compromise: NATO would consider nukes "weapons of last resort." Just how much change that represents is unclear. National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft says it merely implies using nuclear weapons "later rather than earlier." Thatcher and Mitterrand fought against it nonetheless, and the communique wound up throwing the "last resort" doctrine into the future; it would be adopted only "with the total withdrawal" of Soviet forces stationed in Eastern Europe. That satisfied Thatcher that any change was merely semantic, and she signed. Mitterrand had misgivings even then, but went along for the sake of alliance solidarity...
...most contentious issue of all was, and remains, whether to extend economic aid to Gorbachev's government. The Soviet President for the first time explicitly asked for such assistance in letters to Bush and Thatcher before the NATO meeting. But the subject evidently was considered too hot to handle: it was not on the summit agenda and went unmentioned in the communique, despite much discussion...
That debate, in turn, was a sort of warmup for what is likely to be an even sharper dispute at this week's seven-nation Western economic summit in Houston. That meeting will reunite Bush, Thatcher, Mitterrand, Kohl and Prime Ministers Brian Mulroney of Canada and Giulio Andreotti of Italy, plus Toshiki Kaifu of non-NATO Japan...