Edward L. Rowny
excitement and day-today involvement in Geneva, it was a satisfying job. Even
though Nitze worked more closely with the State Department, I referred my
p
situation over Nitze's.
A different relationship developed between Schultz and Eduard Shevardnadze, the
new Soviet foreign minister who had replaced Gromyko. Whereas President
Reagan had formerly put down a number of good positions, they didn't get very
far with the old Brezhnev-Gromyko team. But the foundation had been laid and
the U.S. had generated sufficient strength to give us leverage at the negotiating
table. Now there was a new set of players at the top. However, the negotiating
team in Geneva was just as obstinate and wedded to its old positions as it always
had been. It took decisions at the Schultz-Shevardnadze level to override the
Soviet negotiators in Geneva. Even so, the Soviet negotiators remained true to
type. Even when they had been overruled and some compromise had been struck
at the foreign minister level, they would try to walk the decisions back, or at least
get us to pay a price for Soviet movement.
Nevertheless, the new Soviet leadership paved the way for four summit meetings
between Reagan and Gorbachev. The first took place in Geneva-it was a
get-to-know-you meeting, which included the famous fireside chat. The second
was not to have been a summit meeting at all but simply a weekend get-together
session at Reykjavik. However, it turned out to be a very important meeting. The
third summit meeting took place inWashington in December 1987. At this summit
meeting there was some progress made on START, but the main accomplishment
was an agreement on the terms of the INF treaty. The fourth summit took place
in Moscow in late May 1988. At this meeting the instruments of ratification of the
INF treaty were exchanged.
As I mentioned earlier, the first summit was a get-to-know-you meeting.
Gorbachev, although less dogmatic than Brezhnev, lectured Reagan on the evils of
capitalism. He admitted some hints that the socialist economy was not working,
yet revealed his ideological indoctrination. He seemed thoroughly convinced that
Soviet-style socialism, with some changes, would make the grade. He talked about
greed and dishonesty which he felt were inherent in Western capitalism. Reagan
reminded him, gently yet firmly, that greed and corruption were more rampant, and
less controllable, in the Soviet Union. Raisa Gorbachev, perhaps even a stronger
ideologue than her husband, gave Nancy Reagan similar lectures.
At a postmortem after the summit, Secretary Schultz told Reagan he was going to
Brussels to debrief the NATO allies on what had transpired. He mentioned that
Gorbachev was going to Prague to debrief the Warsaw Pact ministers. Reagan
asked if anyone thought the Warsaw Pact ministers would be interested in our
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