Word: williamsburg
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Having achieved his prime goal of a statement on arms policy, Reagan was content to settle back and allow the vaguest possible economic declaration to emerge from the Williamsburg conference, mainly because any detailed document would probably have dwelt on the problems caused by high U.S. budget deficits and interest rates. Reagan was offered some protection from criticism by the implicit protocol of such conferences, in which members refrain from trying to dictate specific internal policies to other participants. Neither West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl nor Mitterrand pressed for any direct steps to tackle the problem of high interest rates...
...seven world leaders came, ostensibly, to thrash out differences in trade policy and currency rates. But the most important consensus emerging from the ninth annual economic summit in Williamsburg, Va., last week had nothing to do with economics at all. In the hall that once reverberated with Patrick Henry's revolutionary oratory, the U.S., with the stout help of the British, forged an agreement among the allies to support resolutely NATO's plan to deploy nuclear weapons in Western Europe this year if no arms agreement can be reached with the Soviets...
...unified stand was, in part, an acceptance of President Reagan's oft-repeated contention that the Soviets would not seriously pursue arms control until the West resolved to build up its own nuclear arsenal. In Williamsburg, Reagan made a 20-minute plea for solidarity on the missile question. "We've fought together and we've fought each other and now we must stand together," he said. If the allies backed away from their deployment plans, he warned, "there will be laughter in the Kremlin tonight...
...minutes with Soviet Leader Yuri Andropov and quoted him as saying that "the Soviet Union is ready and interested in searching for joint initiatives, which would make the present situation easier." There was no way of knowing whether Andropov's conciliatory tone was prompted by Williamsburg, or whether it was even genuine. Some diplomatic sources were cynical about Andropov's arms, suggesting that he was merely firing another salvo in his "peace offensive" to undercut support for the missile deployments this fall...
Each of the leaders left quaint, historic Williamsburg in a position to claim at least token success. The French, fearful for their falling franc, won an agreement, albeit a decidedly vague one, that measures would be studied to stabilize currency markets. The Japanese escaped direct criticism of their own trade policies while joining in a general condemnation of protectionism. And all of America's trading partners extracted an admission from Washington that uncontrolled budget deficits contribute to rising interest rates and threaten to sap the strength of the budding global recovery. The conferees made no concrete pledges about...