Notes
Mr Gromyko has seen it all before. Foreign Minister for 27 years, he has been through more American presidents than Richard Burton wives, he is experi- enced, realistic, infinitely cunning — we are told — while Mr Reagan is just old, naive and stupid. So how come Mr Reagan has run rings round him? And why is Soviet foreign policy in such a mess? Consider. In June, the peace-loving Soviet leaders proposed talks on banning arms from space. They made Reagan an offer he was meant to refuse. But he accepted. The Peace-loving Soviet leaders then retreated from the talks they themselves had prop- osed, behind a smokescreen of bluster which barely concealed the egg on their faces. In August, we had the extraordinary soap opera of the Honecker visit to West Germany — the will-he-won't-he, the un- tulY polemics in the East European press, the Moscow arguments made public. In the end, no doubt, Soviet leaders had their Way. But a lot of dirty linen was washed in Public. Now we have a Reagan-Gromyko summit. To be sure, Gromyko has con- ceded nothing in substance. His tirade at the United Nations was vintage Tass. In his encounters with Western journalists he was quite the old Grim-Grom. But the mere act of the summit meeting, on the Soviets' initiative, was an election gift to Mr Reagan. It was just what he needed. No Matter that little was said and nothing agreed. Presentation is all. Who now dares t° claim that Mr Reagan cannot talk to the Russians? Look at the television pictures there they are, talking. Even if the l(remlin has decided that Reagan will be re-elected anyway, there is no obvious benefit to the Soviet Union in starting to talk again with the United States just before the election. So who is the old fox now? Perhaps Mr Reagan is just lucky.
Previous page
