ABSTRACT
The tenor of American diplomacy was cautious, watchful, and largely reactive. Boris N. Yeltsin’s view was to reduce nuclear weapons at the fastest possible rate, and he supported Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Eduard A. Shevardnadze in their diplomatic efforts to conclude arms-control agreements with the United States. US diplomatic relations with Yeltsin and his Russian government, however, were delicate, difficult, and not always successful. Protocol required that President George Bush and Secretary James Baker give precedence to the USSR and Gorbachev; Russia was formally a constituent part of the USSR. But American diplomats tried to execute a diplomatic dance of formal behavior that reflected how power was shifting. President Yeltsin traveled to Washington and was received warmly by the White House and the Congress as the leader of Russia and as a possible successor to Gorbachev. The trip was a diplomatic and political success for Yeltsin, in marked contrast to his previous trip to the United States in September 1989.
