ABSTRACT
18 November 1985. An Aeroflot jet touches down at the world’s peacemaking capital of last resort, Geneva, bringing General Secretary Gorbachev—accompanied, Western style, by his wife Raisa—for the first meeting of the Soviet and American leaders since Jimmy Carter got a bear hug from Leonid Brezhnev in Vienna six years before. Already waiting for him is President Ronald Reagan, who has been relaxing for a day and a half after arriving all smiles together with the First Lady. Nancy Reagan is flushed with success for her part in making this event come to pass in order to assure her husband’s “place in history,” 1 while the arch-hawk, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, has been left back home vainly writing out warnings about Soviet cheating and leaking them to the press. The Evil Empire and the citadel of capitalist imperialism have come together to attempt a “fresh start” in Soviet-American relations, in Reagan’s words, and, as Gorbachev said on his arrival, “to halt the unprecedented arms race” and “avert the threat of nuclear war.” 2 They are beginning a process of diplomacy that will revolutionize the configuration of world politics.
