Word: sovietization
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...address last week, recounting the problems his predecessors faced. "But these sad chapters do not relieve me of the obligation to try to make this a safer, better world." He proposed an expanded program of "people-to-people exchanges," spoke of "a historic opportunity" to change the course of Soviet-American relations, and dubbed his trip "a mission for peace...
...that summits are media extravaganzas, somewhat like presidential primaries, manipulating expectations is part of the walk-up. The Reagan Administration's official line was one of "tactical pessimism." The idea was to explain away in advance any failure to reach substantive accords as the fault of a new Soviet leader who, for all his pretense to the role of Great Communicator, is in fact just another dogmatic Kremlin apparatchik. For their part, the Soviets engaged in similar pre-emptive propaganda about how the Reagan Administration had all but doomed the summit's chances...
When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, large numbers of Americans shared his determination to build up U.S. armaments and take a hard stance against Soviet expansionism. But as Reagan prepared for this week's meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva, a TIME poll showed more support for reaching an accommodation with the Soviet Union than at any other time during his presidency. The U.S. public strongly favors making significant progress in talks with the Soviets, particularly on nuclear arms control, even while it is dubious about any likely success. Alkthough a majority of Americans favor development of the President...
Much of the dubiousness can be laid to misgivings about the two main players in Geneva and their willingness to strive seriously for an arms-control agreement. Despite a flurry of artfully crafted public appearances, Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev remains an unknown quantity to the American public. Some 93% of the survey group admitted knowing little or nothing about the new Soviet leader; 47% of those who know at least something about Gorbachev suspect that he cannot be counted upon to honor his end of a bargain. Gorbachev's public relations efforts and his youth (by past Politburo standards) notwithstanding...
...depth of public commitment to SDI is also suspect. Among possible goals for the summit, the survey listed, "Reaching an arms-control agreement in which the U.S. stops building the Star Wars defense system and the Soviet Union makes similar cutbacks in its military systems." A commanding 74% thought that idea to be a "very important" goal, while only 18% labeled it "not very important." If the President continues to insist that SDI offers more security than a missile cut, he will have to persuade the U.S. public as well as the Soviets of his views...