Word: geneva
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...while more scrutiny, if possible, on their wives, who dutifully worked their way through a crowded schedule. Raisa Gorbachev, 53, still largely unknown and more unpredictable, attracted particular journalistic interest, and she did not disappoint, peppering her hosts with rapid-fire questions and spontaneous comments. At the University of Geneva, Raisa, a Ph.D. in Marxism-Leninism who has lectured in Communist theory at Moscow State University, startled the rector by engaging him in a conversation about the relationship between philosophy and physics. At a clock museum, she jokingly inquired whether one ceremonial item was a Swiss watch; the director sheepishly...
...other appearances, both women acquitted themselves well. Raisa Gorbachev remained unflustered when heckled loudly by a Soviet émigré outside the Geneva city hall. Nancy Reagan momentarily lost her train of thought while conversing with addicts at a drug treatment center but recovered and launched into a warm pep talk. In a joint appearance at a Red Cross ceremony, Nancy Reagan carefully read a prepared speech; Raisa Gorbachev had largely memorized hers, impressing the audience with the resulting sincere eye contact. At a second tea party, this one given by an increasingly confident Raisa Gorbachev at the Soviet mission...
Soviet journalists ignored the tea functions as insufficiently newsworthy. But their reports of Raisa Gorbachev's other appearances in Geneva found a receptive audience back home. She was featured in action at the Red Cross ceremony, and her name was mentioned for the first time on Soviet television. In Moscow citizens took obvious pride in her stylishness. Said a Soviet artist: "You Westerners must have thought all our women were barrel-shaped grannies like Brezhnev's wife." Some observers thought that the First Lady's performance might lead to a more formal role, heretofore unheard of, in Soviet public life...
What was most significant about the imagery in Geneva last week was not that two men were meeting at the summit--that is, at the peak of personal and national power--but that they were, for nearly five hours, meeting off to one side alone. Their apparent personal rapport, or at least civility and restraint, made the meeting a symbolic success. But on the most important issue confronting them, controlling the arsenals of nuclear weapons, there is no assurance that the "fresh start" and "momentum" they spoke about will actually lead anywhere. Not only was there no resolution...
Some of the U.S. officials who came to Geneva with Reagan had hoped the final document would include another reaffirmation, that of the antiballistic-missile (ABM) treaty of 1972. Advocates of arms control within the Administration want to seize every opportunity to commit the U.S. to keeping SDI within the bounds of that treaty. Doing so, they hope, might allay Soviet concerns and induce concessions. Why was there no mention of the ABM treaty in the joint statement...