Word: chernenko
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Nuclear weapons are the central fact of the U.S.-Soviet relationship. But incipient entente, although modest, is also showing up elsewhere. Mikhail Gorbachev, heir apparent to Soviet Leader Konstantin Chernenko, will visit Britain for a week in December (see box). As Shultz arrives in Geneva in January, a U.S. Commerce official will be in Moscow for quieter talks about how to expand U.S.-Soviet trade. This week Soviet Minister of Agriculture Valentin Mesyats will begin a twelve-day tour of the American heartland; aside from Gromyko, no Soviet minister has visited the U.S. since 1979. Last week Pop Singer John...
...days after reelection, Reagan sent an earnest note to Chernenko. A week later, surprisingly swift for the Soviet bureaucracy, the White House received a letter from Chernenko proposing the Shultz-Gromyko conference. "There had been positive signals," says a presidential adviser, "but nothing this explicit." Perle, probably the most influential arms-control critic in the Administration, had his calculations thrown off. Said he: "I'm amazed the Soviets came back to the table so soon. I hadn't expected them until spring...
Nixon met three times with Leonid Brezhnev, first in 1972 to sign the SALT I pact. McFarlane said it was "premature to speculate" that the January meeting might lead to a Reagan-Chernenko encounter. Before last week's announcement, Chernenko told NBC News in answer to written questions that he did not think "conditions now are ripe for a Soviet-American summit meeting." Still, U.S. officials have bandied about the idea of a summit next fall...
Even if the President manages to establish a single negotiating strategy for his Administration, arms-control agreements will surely be elusive. Chernenko's health and his mastery of the Soviet state remain uncertain. The Kremlin may simply want to observe the forms of negotiation for propaganda purposes. "We're not there yet," concedes a White House adviser, with epic understatement. "It may take the whole second term to get there...
...speech to the Politburo last week, Soviet President Konstantin Chernenko called for an increase in his country's defense capability. Then, in answers to written questions submitted by NBC News Correspondent Marvin Kalb, Chernenko suddenly appeared more conciliatory. If Washington is sincere about arms-limitation talks, he said, "we could, at last, start moving toward more normal relations between our two countries...