signed by Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev,
a treaty to destroy some superpower nuclear missiles,
even as they talk of an even bigger missile deal.
This is the CBS Evening News.
Dan Rather reporting again tonight
from our anchor position overlooking the White House.
Good evening.
Some of the outlines of how the private summit sessions are
going may be emerging tonight.
Gorbachev says that he pressed President Reagan
for a moratorium on nuclear testing now
while their talks are in progress.
US officials are stressing sticking
to the subject of strategic arms reduction.
President Reagan's people are portraying the face-to-face
sessions as lively, saying Mr. Reagan was forceful.
The day began with red carpet and cannon fire
here at the White House.
Reagan and Gorbachev the third time around.
The salute to open the summit.
Serdechno, blagodaryo u vas, gospedin prezident.
Opening statements reflected substance
beyond ceremony, real hope and real risk.
Then the public pomp gives way.
They retire to talk privately face-to-face.
The arms race, the human race, human rights.
Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States
and the General Secretary of the Central Committee
of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
This summit is framed around today's signing
of a superpower missile deal.
Now the great expectation for some dread
is of a possible higher stakes deal
to cut the long-range nuclear missiles the United States
and Soviet Union now aim at each other.
And to help us try to sort out the summit substance of this
day too, our more experienced CBS News correspondent,
Moscow correspondent Wyatt Andrews is here,
and Bill Plantar, White House correspondent is here.
Bill, this on the first day that Ronald Reagan signed
his first deal with the communists, what happened?
Well, Dan, for Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev,
that trip to the White House East Room
represented a journey that many people thought
could never be completed.
The very idea of eliminating an entire class of nuclear weapons
originally appeared to some, as President Reagan observed,
to be nothing more than a propaganda ploy.
To some, the zero option was impossibly visionary
and unrealistic.
But with patience, determination, and commitment,
we've made this impossible vision a reality.
Nancy Reagan and Raisa Gorbachev looked on,
joined by members of the senior leadership of both nations,
as President Reagan told the Soviet leader
and a worldwide television audience
that despite fundamental moral differences between the two
societies, he envisions further agreements.
The key to making any deal work, said Mr. Reagan,
lies in his favorite Russian proverb.
The maxim is, dovayai, no provayai, trust but verify.
You repeat that at every meeting.
I like it.
Then, for the first time, leaders of the US and the Soviet
Union fixed their signatures to a treaty which will actually
cut nuclear arsenals, each signing the document eight
times, then turning it over to the other to countersign.
Under the terms of the treaty, which must now be ratified
by two-thirds of the US Senate, the United States
will destroy more than 300 foreign countries
and will destroy more than 350 warheads
and all medium-range missiles.
The Soviet Union must dispose of more than 1,500 warheads
and their launchers.
This treaty signing on the first day of the summit
symbolized the desire of both sides
to move toward the next step, reducing
long-range strategic missiles.
But Mr. Reagan, in the formal address
to US and Soviet audiences which followed the signing,
and in every other speech today, signaled
that there is more on his agenda than arms control.
Let us remember that genuine international confidence
and security are inconceivable without open societies
with freedom of information, freedom of conscience,
the right to publish, and the right to travel.
Dan, sources are telling us tonight
that the chemistry is very good and the two leaders
are now calling one another Ron and Mikhail.
But today was a preview day and the hard bargaining
is really yet to come.
And now Moscow correspondent Wyatt Andrews
reports on Gorbachev's own portrayal
today of what he wants and what makes him tick.
Wyatt?
Good evening, Dan.
Dan, today Americans saw for the first time really
in his first time visit here, they
saw what the Soviets have seen all along, Mikhail Gorbachev
as their new burst of energy.
We got more of a glimpse than ever before
about what motivates Gorbachev.
We heard from him personally on why he wants arms control.
For everyone.
And above all, for our two great powers,
the treaty whose text is on this table
offers a big chance at last to get onto the road leading away
from the threat of catastrophe.
The threat of catastrophe.
It is not just a Gorbachev propaganda line,
but the expression of a deep-seated fear.
Gorbachev's generation of Soviet leaders
is educated enough to understand nuclear overkill.
May December 8, 1987, become a date
that will be inscribed in the history books.
A date that will mark the watershed separating
the era of a mounting risk of nuclear war
from the era of a demilitarization of human life.
The treaty signed today was born of a Ronald Reagan proposal
made more than six years ago.
But it was Gorbachev who said yes to a deal
his predecessors had rejected.
Some politicians and journalists are already speculating
as to who has won.
I reject this approach.
It is a throwback to old thinking.
Common sense has won.
Reason has won.
Now on the table, a 50% cut in long-range missiles,
but also on the Soviet agenda, is total nuclear disarmament
by the turn of the century.
Today, the Soviets circulated an outline
calling for a ban on all tactical and space weapons
by the year 1990.
And by 1995, the phased elimination
of all nuclear warheads.
Pipe dream or not, that's the Soviet plan.
But it's a strategy, but tactics, stages can be discussed.
This is the program.
Gorbachev even explained further why he wants disarmament.
Next year, the Soviets begin a radical new economic plan.
Sovereign foreign policy today is most intimately
linked with Perestroika, the domestic restructuring
of Soviet society.
And Gorbachev did not limit today's sales pitch
to the White House.
In two separate meetings at the Soviet embassy,
he courted a select group of scientists and academics,
and this group of American celebrities.
Much has been said of an aging president
facing a young Soviet leader and feeling pressure.
But today's self-portrait from Mikhail Gorbachev
is of a leader fighting for the survival of the very system
that brought him to power.
Of the two men, it could be Gorbachev
who feels the pressure, Gorbachev who most
needs this summit to succeed.
Dan?
Well, Andrew.
Bill Plant.
Thanks.
US Secretary of State Schultz has
been in on this arms deal with the Soviets
from the very start.
He helped put together the treaty signed today.
He's deeply involved in the arms dealings
now going on at the Reagan-Gorbachev summit.
I talked with Secretary of State Schultz here a few moments ago
when he stopped off on his way to tonight's big formal White
House dinner.
Mr. Secretary, you saw the president
after he saw the general secretary.
What's the news?
Well, the news is that they are having
very serious substantive discussions.
And that started in this morning,
and it's carried on with a tiny little interlude
of signing a treaty.
Anything new?
Well, I'm not going to talk about the content of what they
are saying.
The mood is good.
Was the president's move when he came out of it?
Good.
Yeah, fine.
What did he say?
Say he was up, aggressive?
Oh, he didn't talk like that.
Now, the Soviets are saying that they
can see a nuclear weapon-free world
by the turn of the century.
And they're circulating an outline today.
The tactical and space weapons eliminated by 1990,
phase out of nuclear warheads by 1995,
and total elimination of nuclear weapons
by the turn of the century.
Is that a pipe dream or not?
I think it's very unlikely.
It seems to me that we have to say to ourselves,
nuclear deterrence, which has kept the peace,
will be with us for a long time.
But the president has felt, and I agree with him,
that we should do everything we can
to reduce the threat of a nuclear onslaught.
And that's what the Strategic Defense Initiative is about,
and that's what reducing these nuclear weapons is about.
We have to take it a step at a time.
Did mean interrupt.
A step at a time.
One step is this intermediate range treaty.
The next step is to do everything
we can to get a 50% reduction in strategic arms,
and at the same time to try to get a better
grip on conventional arms and perhaps chemical weapons.
And then we can come up from there
and see where we go from there.
A chance to get a 50% reduction in the long range ballistic
missiles by the end of the spring?
Too optimistic.
Well, that's what we're pointing for.
It's a possibility.
And what we're trying to do in our talks
is turn the possibility into a probability.
Mrs. Schulz spent some of the day with Raisa Gorbachev.
What did she say about that to around the city?
Well, she felt she enjoyed it, but she felt it was too fast.
And they didn't have a chance to get out and really see things.
You don't see very much of it just
right around and look out the window.
Why not stop the car and get out and take a look?
Well, I think Mrs. Gorbachev wanted to, and so did my wife.
But the people who were running things
didn't seem to want to do it.
Mr. Secretary, what should we look for in the next 24
to 48 hours?
Tell us signs of how it's going.
Well, 24 hours will still be very much
in the midst of things.
And on Thursday afternoon, there'll
be some sort of statement probably issued
that says what was accomplished.
And I think both the leaders are likely to make
some kind of a statement at the end,
and then you'll have a better idea.
Any chance that the trip will be to arms control summits
and better relations with the US?
A discouraging word is hard to find.
In towns like this, in the state where the nuclear freeze
movement started, there is real hope
that what is happening in Washington
really will slow down the arms race.
For Brattleboro, all of this is the payoff.
After years of working to reduce the nuclear arsenals.
I think it's a very fragile thing,
and not something that we can really count on yet,
until it's really sealed and signed.
While Ronald Reagan was getting good reviews yesterday
from the kids in Moscow, Mikhail Gorbachev
was getting the same treatment last night at Vermont's
Brattleboro High, where the Gorbachev charm offensive seems
to be working.
Gorbachev is right up there, and he's getting criticism at home,
but he's also getting a lot of support.
He's done a lot for himself.
He is by far the most radical leader the Soviet Union
has ever had, and he's making so many changes.
At the Ladies Beauty Parlor at number 7 Kuznetsky Street,
Russian women are cultivating the new Moscow look
and contemplating new ways of looking at America.
This Cold War, how we say in Russia, I think it was too long.
And I believe that now it's time to change.
As Brattleboro staunchest Republicans,
Joy and Dard-Everett watched Gorbachev arrive,
their feeling was a good treaty for both sides
must be based on more than trust alone.
We must have it.
It must be passed, but it must be passed with safeguards,
and it must be seriously questioned before it's passed.
For Russians watching the summit back home,
something less tangible is at stake.
For us, it's very nice to feel that the other people will not
be scared of us, will trust us.
Here there is hope that a more relaxed atmosphere
between the superpowers will lead to more relaxed conditions
at home.
And here, recognition that can only
happen if the two leaders come to better understand each other.
And that's the CBS Evening News.
Until our special broadcast about today's summit events
tonight at 1130, 1030 Central Time,
Dan Rather reporting, looking smooth as glass nose,
playing down talk of a rift.
This is the CBS Evening News.
Dan Rather reporting again tonight
from our summit headquarters overlooking the White House.
Good evening.
More indications emerging tonight
of what seems to be going on in the private summit talks.
The Soviets reportedly are talking up
what amounts to a summit sweetener on Afghanistan.
Mikhail Gorbachev reportedly came
with a fairly detailed timetable for Soviet withdrawal
from eight years in the killing fields.
Gorbachev is said to have pressed for a kind of linkage.
Getting out of Afghanistan linked to a fast deal
with the US on cutting superpower
long range strategic missiles.
President Reagan is believed to have said no.
He argued for Afghanistan first and pressed Gorbachev
for a starting date on troop withdrawals.
The official White House spin, Reagan and Gorbachev,
had a roll up your sleeves session.
Gorbachev had more on his agenda today
than Afghanistan or Ronald Reagan.
Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev wasted no summit time.
Meeting with movers and shakers outside the White House.
Just about anyone who'd listen.
The leader of the Kremlin got together
with the leaders of Congress on his own turf,
the Soviet embassy.
Gorbachev also found time to bring his brand of glasnost
to lunch at the State Department
and directly to media representatives.
Playing every bit the Soviet leader who knows
the image he wants to project to the global village.
Perhaps one of today's most telling moments,
the White House photo opportunity.
Gorbachev did all the talking.
Now for the latest on this second day of the summit,
two of our most experienced CBS News correspondents
are here again tonight.
Moscow correspondent Wyatt Andrews.
When the president and the general secretary began,
Mr. Gorbachev hinted that he might have
a new proposal on Afghanistan.
The fact that we are ready to withdraw from Afghanistan
is something that I have said some time ago.
So what we are going to discuss will be more specific.
But neither side is willing to supply those specifics,
at least in public.
Mr. Gorbachev did say that an earlier meeting
with congressional leaders makes him believe
that senators will vote to ratify
the Nuclear Weapons Treaty,
which he and the president signed yesterday.
Yesterday they assured that it will be
and they welcomed the treaty.
As soon as reporters were ushered out,
the president took the Soviet leader
into his private library adjacent to the Oval Office
for an 11 minute meeting.
The two of them alone, except for interpreters.
The decision to do that was essentially spontaneous.
That the president, as he was preparing this morning,
just felt that would be a good way to begin the day.
Secretary of State Schulz
and Soviet foreign minister Shevardnadze
continued the show of cooperation
by signing agreements covering
a nuclear testing verification experiment,
commercial air travel and ocean research.
This morning his audience was the leadership of Congress.
It was a tough audience,
which told Gorbachev to get out of Afghanistan.
I pointed out that when we had the SALT II treaty
under discussion in 1979,
that the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union
made it impossible for us to proceed with that.
But the congressmen were also impressed.
If Gorbachev is a salesman, he's a good one.
In Wyoming, we like guys who get right
with a number of things and he likes to do that.
Three times he said that they had made a decision
to move forward.
And what he was basically saying is that
we've decided to improve the relationships
with the United States.
Gorbachev is sophisticated enough
to know how American opinion is shaped.
So this afternoon he met a select group of publishers
and broadcasters.
The blunt give and take here came over human rights.
What moral right does America have
to assume the pose of a teacher?
Who has given it the right to teach us moral lessons?
I told the president yesterday,
Mr. President, you are not the prosecutor
and I am not the accused.
Gorbachev in fact is doing so well,
one question is why?
How can a man who brought so few answers
on the question of human rights
and whose troops are still in Afghanistan,
get away with it?
Well, I would hope before he leaves,
there is some raw meat out there
that he does say something.
So far it's been pretty much public relations.
Despite reported progress at this summit
and yesterday's historic treaty,
most of Gorbachev's time will be spent outside
of negotiations with President Reagan.
Autographs in his book, receiving lines
and toast making will dominate this summit.
Mankind is beginning to realize
that it has had enough of wars,
that an end must be put to wars for good.
But for Gorbachev this...
After a friendly greeting at the White House,
Mrs. Reagan tried to keep her guests
from approaching the press,
but Mrs. Gorbachev broke loose,
merely to say they had much to discuss.
But then it happened again during a tour
of the White House.
And regrettably, I think we're gonna have to move on.
Not so fast, Raisa wanted to answer more questions.
Earlier, Mrs. Reagan was asked if the two are rivals.
We're very good, tell us silly, tell us silly.
Mrs. Gorbachev agreed and the White House
called today's meeting very pleasant.
But it's no secret that the two women
haven't gotten along since Geneva,
when Raisa preached to Nancy about Marxism.
I think she was a little bit miffed
by that kind of lecturing.
And then Mrs. Gorbachev stole the spotlight in Reykjavik,
while Nancy stayed in Washington steaming.
Good morning, good morning, good morning.
Raisa's visibility and fashionability
are also controversial at home,
where chauvinism and communism go hand in hand.
There's a general feeling that she doesn't belong
at the center of the political stage.
Her predecessors weren't even on the stage.
Most Russians learned for the first time
that Yuri Andropov was married at his funeral.
When Soviet first ladies were known, like Nina Khrushchev,
they were not known for their beauty.
Mrs. Gorbachev is different.
In fact, she's the first wife of a Russian leader
to weigh less than he does.
Raisa and Nancy get the same criticism
for having too much influence on their husbands.
At home, they call her Tsarina.
As one Russian woman said to me,
maybe she's wearing the pants in that family.
She asked Gorbachev to hang some art on Berlin Wall.
And next day, 40 guys named Art,
when she asked for China, everyone got nervous.
What also makes them nervous is her wardrobe,
especially when she shows up haute couture at a farm
or changes her outfits four times in one day
as she did in Iceland.
Many women simply envy her.
They ask, why does she wear such fashionable clothes?
Mrs. Gorbachev toured the National Gallery of Art today,
but Russians won't see much of her on Soviet TV.
Because of her image problems,
the high fashion Raisa is having a low profile summit.
And Dan, there may have been a glitch after all
in the Raisa Nancy meeting.
Sources tell us that Raisa brought up the homeless
and American blacks in a lecturing way,
and Mrs. Reagan was not entirely pleased.
And David Martin with an unprecedented look
inside the Soviet army training for chemical warfare.
Afghan refugees were making their presence
felt again today at the summit.
Some wounded refugee children led a march
to the Soviet embassy to plead for peace,
but police stopped them short of the embassy gate.
From inside Afghanistan,
foreign correspondent Mark Phillips reports tonight
the summit comes as the Soviets are looking for a way out.
No one will ever mistake Kabul for Saigon.
But the longer the Soviet Union stays stuck
in the quagmire of Afghanistan,
the more parallels emerge between its experience here
and the American one in Vietnam.
Afghan pilots now fly Soviet helicopters,
part of the Afganization of the war,
and so far about as successful as Vietnamization was.
Efforts to shape the 40,000 strong Afghan army
into a real fighting force have not met with much success.
Like the so-called pacification program in Vietnam,
the government here has been trying to bring people
into the few areas it controls.
Here they call them peace zones.
Soviet troops are pulled out in exchange
for a ceasefire promise from the Mujahideen.
In the battle to win the hearts and minds of the people,
the Soviet-supported regime now says it has God on its side.
Afghan President Najibullah attends Friday prayers
and declares that his party is, in fact, not communist.
The hope of the regime is that the appeal to traditional values,
particularly religious values,
and the undeniable war-weariness of the country,
will win the people over.
Soviet soldiers here say the same things
their American counterparts once said in Vietnam.
We're helping the people fight off a foreign aggressor, they claim.
They asked for our help.
The final analogy, the body count,
and an Afghanistan veterans movement back home
that has demanded that a monument be built
to those who died in an unpopular war.
Like the United States once did,
the Soviet Union is trying to find an honorable way out.
Mark Phillips, CBS News, Kabul.
I proposed to the President here in Washington
to provide new political momentum,
like the momentum which was given in Reykjavik
to the problems of nuclear disarmament
when we saw that negotiations in Geneva
had practically been deadlocked.
And this did yield some benefits.
And now we have the first treaty on the elimination
of nuclear armaments.
And today, on the basis of this experience,
we can proceed in the same way with regard to conventional weapons.
We think that this is precisely how we must proceed.
Sit down at a table,
put all our cards on the table,
and this will enable us to see who's cheating
and who's playing fairly,
because the American side and the Western Europeans,
and we and our allies, know everything very well,
not only how much, but where things are.
And I think it's a good thing that everybody knows everything,
our partners, the West, and we and our partners know what's going on.
Knowledge is a very important thing.
Put our cards on the table,
exchange all the data, assess them,
do away with asymmetry in forces,
and proceed to solve the problems.
That's our approach.
Now, for our part, I will say frankly,
we are ready to get down to this work without delay.
In fact, we'll insist on it.
This is the view of our allies, too.
In this case, I am expressing the views which we hold in common.
Further, we are ready for the most cardinal reductions,
radical reductions.
Here again, too, we want to be realistic.
No doubt, this is a process which will have its own stages.
You can't decide everything at once.
But to begin this process by sitting down at the table
and putting your cards on it, and dealing with asymmetries,
the elimination of imbalances and asymmetries,
to talk about forming corridors,
and having a lower level of confrontation,
that would be something, that would be some achievement.
And we can do this very soon.
In other words, we have to carefully, in a businesslike way,
must deal with the concerns of the parties.
In negotiations with the President, in this area,
we raised the question of chemical weapons.
The importance of getting rid of them is important, is obvious.
It's long been discussed, and recently, I would say,
we've had a certain amount of progress in this area.
I found it necessary, in talking with Mrs. Thatcher
and here with the President, to point out the contribution of Britain
to the Federal Republic and other European countries
to this problem, or to solving this problem.
I would even say it this way,
that it helped to stimulate us in the Soviet Union.
In that case, we've also taken more constructive action,
particularly in matters affecting verification
and the destruction of stockpiles of chemical weapons.
Incidentally, I would remind you that we've ceased producing chemical weapons,
and there was a positive statement by the United States.
But recently, we have been discovering the process of progress
towards a treaty has slowed down.
And frankly, we pointed this out to the Presidents and other participants
in the negotiation on the American side.
We think that it slowed down because of the United States.
We mentioned this, and we were frank about it.
We felt that the American side wanted to depart from the goal
agreed upon in Geneva, full and complete prohibition of chemical weapons,
but leaving the binary weapon outside.
The US also, in the case of the signing of a convention,
even with these gaps, wanted to limit the sites of verification
and inspection to national means for the Soviet Union.
That would be everything.
But for America and Western Europeans, practically nothing.
What equal approach is this?
What account here is taken?
Perhaps somewhat misleading to have said that this was going to be
a completely Western-style news conference,
Mr. Gorbachev has now been making that opening statement for 37 minutes.
And as we look more closely at the auditorium at the new Soviet compound
in northwest Washington, the great majority of journalists there appear to be Soviets.
Now, let's see.
This is World News Tonight with Peter Jennings.
Tonight, reporting from the site of the summit in Washington.
Good evening.
The summit meeting between Mr. Gorbachev and President Reagan has ended
with both men saying there has been considerable progress on issues
which divide them and both men saying there is much work to be done.
It is not by any means a dramatic conclusion to this series of meetings
here in Washington, but the first impressions are,
and they are only impressions, are that both men are committed
to keeping the momentum going.
We have a number of reports this evening.
We begin with our White House correspondent, Sam Donaldson.
Lawn, but the two principals, particularly the president,
tried to portray a sunny conclusion.
I am pleased to report that upon the completion of our business,
that this summit has been a clear success.
We note with satisfaction that the visit to Washington
has on the whole justified our hopes.
The significant event of the week, of course, was the signing of the new treaty
to eliminate medium-range and shorter-range missiles.
Since that notable achievement had already been negotiated,
the emphasis from the beginning of this summit has been on what else would be accomplished.
The scorecard looks like this.
On the central issue of the Next Step Arms Control Agreement,
to reduce long-range strategic missiles by 50 percent,
some headway was made, but no big breakthrough.
On Afghanistan, there was vigorous, sometimes heated debate,
but the Soviets set no new timetable for their withdrawal.
On human rights, more heated debate, but still fundamental, strong disagreement.
But on the level of personal harmony, understanding, and trust between the two leaders,
who began to call each other by their first names,
both sides pointed to real accomplishment.
My goal, which I believe you share, Mr. General Secretary,
is a more constructive relationship between our governments.
These meetings have confirmed the impression that there is a growing desire
in American society for improved Soviet-American relations.
On Capitol Hill, Secretary of State Schultz, briefing congressional leaders,
said he has the feeling that something very important had taken place,
an assessment that drew quick agreement.
I think they've made a major step forward with respect to disarmament
and with respect to world peace.
Others saw the summit differently.
The question, Sam, is whether we have a change of heart
that's commensurate with a change of face.
And I haven't seen the evidence of it yet.
The president believes we do. I don't think so.
In any event, as the two men said goodbye, the president's spokesman
confidently predicted they would meet again within the next six months.
They have agreed that a summit will be held in Moscow.
That is the intention.
Of course, you will recall that they agreed to that originally in Geneva.
The last summit between these two men in Reykjavik broke up
over Gorbachev's opposition to the president's Star Wars strategic defense initiative.
Now Gorbachev appears to have eased that opposition somewhat,
at least delinked it from the cause of cutting strategic arms.
So the road appears to be open to progress in that area.
But whether that road will lead to Moscow by the end of President Reagan's term
has yet to be determined.
Sam Donaldson, ABC News, The White House.
Mr. Gorbachev is still giving a news conference here in Washington.
We will monitor that in case there is any new development there.
ABC will provide live coverage of Mr. Gorbachev's departure from Washington later tonight.
And we will also carry the president's speech to the nation from the Oval Office live
beginning at 9 Eastern time.
Well, Mr. Gorbachev may not have seen much of America,
but he certainly made sure that a lot of Americans saw him.
Motorcades don't very often turn a lot of heads in this city,
but when they stop on a dime, so does everyone else.
That was Mr. Gorbachev today just a few blocks from the White House.
Here's our Moscow bureau chief, Walter Rogers.
The Gorbachev motorcade on the way to the White House for lunch.
But Mikhail Gorbachev decided the president could wait.
He wanted to meet the American people.
I would like to say hello to you.
I want to say hello to you.
Nervous Secret Service agents ordered everyone to keep their hands out of their pockets.
Hardly anyone noticed Vice President Bush, who had been riding with Gorbachev.
I just couldn't believe it. It's great that he came out to meet us all like that.
That was very special. He didn't have to do it, and he did it.
I am very surprised and pleased.
What do you think of Gorbachev?
The guy is a PR genius. I mean, jumping out of the car like that.
Unbelievable.
They must have some type of trust in the American people.
They can let him get out and talk to us like that.
Kind of softens up my view of the Soviet Union, I suppose.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Gorbachev, once free of the White House's discipline,
was also practicing politics and her English.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Raisa Gorbachev was having lunch at the home of Pamela Harriman,
widow of the former American ambassador to Moscow, Avril Harriman.
And the Soviet First Lady gave her assessment of the summit and the arms control agreement.
This is the first real step towards destruction and annihilation of nuclear weapons.
That is a victory of both the American and the Soviet people.
Later, at this meeting with business leaders, Mr. Gorbachev made it clear
he thought it was a thumping good summit.
Jack Valenti of the Motion Picture Association told him so.
You are now running third in the Iowa primary.
Gorbachev responded, thanks, but I already have work.
This news conference was Mr. Gorbachev's last scheduled event in Washington,
and he seemed to suggest the worst in Soviet-American relations is behind us.
I could say that at the highest level of our two states,
it has been recognized that they are now emerging from the long-drawn-out confrontation,
that they are prepared to leave it behind us.
Mr. Gorbachev will be in East Berlin tomorrow to report to his allies.
He can boast that he has persuaded the Americans to remove all medium-range nuclear missiles from Europe,
a victory that has eluded all of his predecessors.
Walter Rogers, ABC News, across from the Soviet Embassy in Washington.
A lot of talk today about the strategic weapons,
when we come back, the problems of trying to cut down on the long-range nuclear forces,
as our broadcast from this summit city continues.
Admiral William Kraut, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
welcomed his Soviet counterpart, Sergei Akhomeyev, to the Pentagon again this morning.
Both preside over military establishments that favor cutting long-range nuclear weapons by nearly 50 percent.
But three solid days of working group sessions at the summit still leave much to be done.
Most progress in recent days has come in the area of sublimits or ceilings on various levels.
For example, on big land-based missiles, the Soviets have agreed to cut in half their force of multiple warhead SS-18s,
thereby reducing somewhat the first strike threat to the smaller force of American land-based missiles.
On mobile missiles, Pentagon sources say the U.S. is retreating from its insistence that mobiles be banned because they're tough to verify.
The U.S. would now allow mobiles in restricted areas.
These kinds of questions, including tough verification problems, can be solved.
The biggest obstacle remains the relationship between the president's SDI or Star Wars program
and a 1972 treaty which bans anti-ballistic missile systems in space.
The agreement reached today commits both parties to abide by the ABM Treaty as signed in 1972.
It's being interpreted by the Russians as preventing the testing of SDIs in the United States.
It's preventing the testing of SDI components in space and thus forestalling the day when the U.S. can deploy its defense
against a Soviet missile force thinned out by a START agreement.
The Reagan administration still adheres to its broad ABM interpretation, which could permit SDI tests in space.
It's still not clear whether negotiators must resolve this dispute before a START agreement is signed
or whether the Russians would use SDI testing by the U.S. as an escape hatch from the START missile cut.
Building on the momentum of the INF accord, the two leaders pledge to continue their search for a START agreement, too.
But administration sources say the odds of achieving one next year are no better than 50-50.
The Soviets still seem to be telling Mr. Reagan he can have SDI or deep cuts in offensive missiles, but not both.
Bob Zelnick, ABC News at the Pentagon.
Joining us briefly to talk about what's been going on here in the last few days are White House correspondent Sam Donaldson,
over at the State Department, John McQuethy, and outside the Soviet Embassy, ABC's Walter Rogers.
Sam, let me go to you first. Have we been in?
They will have a tougher time attacking President Reagan now.
So for Democrats, the only thing that they can do is stand back and applaud Reagan.
There is one other thing Democrats can do. Enjoy the disarray among Republicans over dealing with the Soviets.
Barry Seraph at ABC News, Washington.
One other thing about the media and politics here.
Two Soviet news media pictures today of a Moscow woman and her two newborn baby boys.
The babies, twins, we're told, were born on Tuesday, just as Mr. Reagan and Mr. Gorbachev were signing the arms treaty,
and the parents have decided to name the twins Mikhail and Ronald.
We will be back with the rest of the day's news in just a moment.
The scene of foreign cars being loaded for shipment to the U.S. has come to symbolize the American trade deficit problem.
And imported cars are also a good example of why it's so hard to whittle down the deficit.
For example, in the first 10 months of last year, 3.8 million cars came into this country at a cost of $37.7 billion.
Over the same period this year, the number of imported cars came down by 100,000.
But because of the dollar's falling value, the cost of that smaller number of cars went up by more than $2 billion.
The same thing is happening with hundreds of other imported products.
We have to first see the dollar, the prices increasing,
if we're to realistically get the demand for these goods reduced in the United States.
But when those price increases are attached to the goods as they come in,
that in itself makes the deficit appear worse.
Today's figures sent the dollar down again on world currency exchanges and halted the three-day stock market rally in its tracks.
After falling sharply in early trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered in the early afternoon, but then plunged again.
At the close, the index was down more than 47 points in active trading, and among all stocks, losers outnumbered winners by 2 to 1.
Economists were surprised at the big increase in the trade deficit, but even so, many of them saw some good news in the report.
Exports of American goods continued to grow last month, and that's the best hope for bringing the trade figures back into balance.
Dan Kortz, ABC News, New York.
Mr. Gorbachev, the world is watching, and we've got something to show them.
This is the world that our people, the people of all countries, are striving for.
This will, of course, be the first step down the road leading to a nuclear-free world.
It's an historic day, actually. Maybe it will be remembered.
We want freedom! We want freedom!
So what moral right does the U.S. have to preach to us, to the rest of human society? Who gave them the right, the moral right?
The maxim is, doviyai, no proviyai, trust but verify.
You repeat that at every meeting.
What we have seen here is a movement matching the mood that has long been prevalent among Soviet people.
Just a final note from here in Washington. For some people, the way in which this summit ended was something of an anticlimax. Perhaps that was the result of so many symbolic highs, while Mr. Gorbachev, that other great communicator, was here.
But these summits are very much about symbols, and remember what it all looked like just a fraction more than a year ago, as the summit was breaking up in Reykjavik.
Arms control and goodwill then seemed as far away as a full day of sunshine in Iceland.
And look again at those goodbyes this afternoon. Two men who really seem determined that the adversarial relationship between the two countries not get out of control. Two men who say they will try harder to do better to keep the world away from war.
That's our report on world news tonight. We'll be back in New York City tomorrow night. We'll also have our Person of the Week. I'm Peter Jennings. Have a good evening. Good night from Washington. We'll be back with the president when he speaks to the nation at night.
About a five minute walk from the White House about 10 or 15 minutes ago, and so he should be arriving there shortly. I must tell you his motorcade not only has the required 10 motorcycles, but has 46 cars or other vehicles in it. So it moves with a certain presence.
The residents of the District of Columbia and the adjoining areas of Maryland and Virginia were quite put out the other day because when Mr. Gorbachev arrived, it was announced they were going to close his route from Andrews Air Force Base to Washington.
They didn't tell anybody what route he was going to tell so many thousands of people were put out on his way. Now there are going to be no statements at the airport itself. He's basically made his last number of statements, including one at the White House with he and President Reagan during the formal official
goodbyes and then in which on an occasion which many of us touted myself included touted as a Western style news conference. He went an hour and 17 minutes before answering any questions from reporters at the new Soviet Embassy up in Northwest Washington.
As we wait, John McCleffy, because you listen to the news conference. Was there anything else there that caught your eye or ear?
Well, there were a lot of interesting things that the Gorbachev news conference. Peter, one of the things he said was that the Soviets have a satellite technology whereby they can scan our warships and tell how many nuclear weapons are on board, which is something that surprised supporters that reporters at the press conference. They never heard of such a technology before.
In fact, he also said, as I recall, he could tell how powerful the nuclear weapons were on board and it was technology he would share with us. Yes, he did indeed. I might just note while we're watching these pictures out at Andrews Air Force Base that about two hours ago, Secretary Schultz left from Andrews while Gorbachev is going to report to the Eastern Bloc allies. Secretary Schultz is going to report to NATO, both giving their versions of what this summit produced.
Sam Donaldson, listening to what John has just said about Mr Gorbachev and the satellite technology reminds me again of the number of occasions on which President Reagan has said he would share Star Wars or SDI technology with the Soviets. Is there anybody else you know in the political apparatus of the nation which believes that would be the case?
Well, I know a lot of officials around the president, of course, give lip service to supporting what he's just said and what you just quoted him as saying. But I think there's not really a will here to want to share SDI technology with the Soviets. Certainly not in the first instance at all.
SDI, of course, is something which is really in the president's mind a dream at this point, Peter. I'm not talking about what elements of it may or may not work. But the president has often referred to it in various ways. Once he referred to it as if it were a world shield, one that would shield everything.
Others believe that SDI will come down to something which will shield our missile sites and perhaps certain other installations, but not a world shield. So what we would share with the Soviets is at this moment just to anyone's guess.
Sam, we are looking at the longest single political motorcade I think I have ever seen for any leader anywhere. It was described to us earlier as 46 cars or other vehicles and 10 motorcycles. Quite extraordinary. Mr. Gorbachev arrived at Andrews Air Force Base to lead the country.
So in the strictest terms, because Mr. Gorbachev is not a head of state, he should have got a 19 gun salute when he arrived at the White House. Sam Donaldson, who very kindly counted for us, said it was 21 nonetheless, which was an indication of the importance that President Reagan put on Mr.
Gorbachev's arrival here in the United States. Program reminder by the way as we wait for Mr. Gorbachev to board his elution, later this evening on Nightline, a real opportunity to get the European perspective, which on this occasion particularly relevant.
The agreement that Mr. Gorbachev and Mr. Reagan signed to get rid of all medium range nuclear weapons affects more than anybody else, the Europeans. That is of course Vice President Bush. It affects more than anybody else, the Europeans in both the Warsaw Pact and in the NATO alliance.
And tonight Ted Koppel will be talking to a number of our colleagues from Europe as to how they think this will play as this historic agreement is gradually put into effect over the next three years.
Mr. Gorbachev has not seen very much of the United States. In fact, he has seen quite a number of Americans. He has seen the press tonight, up at the Soviet Embassy, though he did much more talking than journalists did inquiring.
He has seen American businessmen and the Soviets have been extremely interested in this trip in encouraging the idea of joint ventures between the United States and the Soviet Union. Great many American businessmen are encouraged but not some are not encouraged because they don't like the terms which the Soviets have laid down.
He has seen of course broadcasting and publishing executives. He has at the White House met people from Hollywood from the world of sport. He very very astutely met with the leadership of the Congress.
And almost without exception.
He has impressed those people with whom he has had some kind of dialogue.
He has lectured them on some occasions, lectured them quite vociferously on some occasions. When he was talking to the leadership of Congress the other day. He asked, how was it that the United States what moral right that the United States have to lecture the Soviet Union about its behavior.
Vice President Bush has has benefited in political terms from Mr. Gorbachev presence he was with Mr. Gorbachev today when in downtown Washington. Mr. Gorbachev ground his limousine cavalcade to a halt, leapt out and had a brief chat with people who were standing on the side of the street.
It is about. It is about a seven or eight hour flight. I think from here to East Berlin, where Mr. Gorbachev will go overnight. It was about a eight hour flight from London and then it's about from East Berlin on to Moscow, it should be three or four hours.
It's about 12 hours all told for him to get home. We have no idea whether or not this solution is outfitted as the same fashion Air Force One is that by the way with that peak cap is Anatoly Dobrynin the Soviet ambassador in the white haired slightly balding person on the left is the Soviet former Mr. Edward Shevardnadze and that is Mrs. Bush.
Mr. Shevardnadze and Mr. Schultz have become very good friends over the period of time in which they have negotiated this intermediate range nuclear weapons deal and other aspects of the Soviet American relationship.
The entourage.
Mr. Gorbachev brought with him has been considerable, but at the very core of it, Anatoly Dobrynin the man who spent 24 years in the United States.
Edward Shevardnadze, the man who almost came out of nowhere to become the foreign minister.
Mr. Akrameev the chief of staff of the Soviet Armed Forces who has paid not one but two trips to the Pentagon while he has been here and Alexander Yakovlev a member of the Central Committee and a leading member of the Politburo who was at one point an exchange student at Columbia University in New York.
Mr. Dobrynin saying goodbye to Mrs. Bush and the vice president.
And in the background, the Gennady Gerasimov the chief spokesman of the Soviet foreign ministry who did polite battle with the president spokesman in briefing the American and the international press all week while in Titswater.
And Mrs. Gorbachev who in her own right, as the saying goes, has been as effective here as she was in Paris and in London and in Geneva beforehand.
Who was given a lunch in Washington today by Pamela Harriman the widow of the late Averill Harriman former governor of New York former distinguished ambassador to the Soviet Union whose name some of the most effective study of the Soviet Union is done in this country at the Harriman Institute at Columbia in New York.
It has been a week on which a week in which the focus on the Soviet Union and Soviet American affairs has been we hope to everyone's benefit.
And I think the Soviet ambassador going in to say goodbye Mr. Dobrynin
saying goodbye and perhaps going for the ride Vice President Bush and Mrs. Bush on their way home after a very busy not just a busy political week but a very busy ceremonial week.
Sam Donaldson you you and John McCarthy and I and Walter we've all followed people around the world. I'm always amazed at the stamina that that these leaders have you may recall when we came back from Geneva.
We were all exhausted and the president was as fresh as a daisy. Well Sam Peter there was a reason for that that goes beyond I suppose the ages and all of that but the president's bags are carried by someone else.
You and I carried our own bags and the president wasn't running to catch a press plane that was taxing away as you go screaming through the great saying wait for me.
So I think there's maybe a difference between the energy put out as well as other factors. Sam I thought I carried your bag at any rate.
Well Walter Rogers tell us whether you know whether or not this illusion has any of this internal comfort configuration that Air Force One has one must assume it does.
Peter I think that's all we can do is safely assume that it does. Mr. Gorbachev is going to greet his allies in the morning.
There better be a bet on that plane after that marathon press conference he gave and after the day he put in in Washington.
You may assume that that has the best technology the Soviets are capable of producing which is sometimes quite good. I assume that thing is every bit as well configured as Air Force One.
Okay Mr. Gorbachev will pull away in a moment the president will be along in a couple of minutes to brief the nation and we shall be right back.
Eyes over the last few days. Peter there's no way to measure that I know that there have been polls in the US about Mr. Gorbachev but I have not seen any corresponding polls about Mr. Reagan's popularity here.
There was that poll that Newsweek did in conjunction with the Soviet Institute before the summit but there hasn't been anything during the summit to sort of get the pulse of what people are thinking.
What about on television for example I'm sure you've been watching television every now there's been a lot of Americana on hasn't there.
Well there has been I mean everything ranging from last night Johnny Cash had a country in Western performance.
Mr. Rogers has been on with his neighborhood talking to Soviet children at bedtime.
An Ingrid Bergman movie was was on just the other night.
There's been a lot of American related television that Soviet viewers have rarely seen that they've got to see that they've been able to see as a result of the summit.
And of course a lot of live from Washington for the summit and every night on the evening news broadcast Bremia.
So they have gotten a very big dose of Washington in the US during the summit.
And on one occasion which has been fascinating for people in both countries a connection between Nightline and the Soviet morning program called 90 minutes as the Soviets are eight hours ahead of us.
The two programs kind of melded together the other night with Ted Koppel and his guests as guests in the Soviet Union and Soviet guests here on Nightline as well.
Nightline tonight will talk to European journalists because the focus of this summit we probably need not tell you again has been the thing they signed on the very first day the agreement to get rid of all the intermediate range nuclear weapons.
Not only does the general secretary go to Europe tonight but the Secretary of State George Schultz already on his way to Brussels the Belgian capital where he is going to be briefing the NATO allies and be carrying with him among other things we're told the 73 page memorandum to the treaty which is called the memorandum of understanding
which has in it among other things all of the arrangements that have been made between the Soviet Union and the United States in this case on the question of verification. If you have been following the political verification battle here over the last few days perhaps the hardest statement in public we have heard has been from Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming who after seeing Mr. Gorbachev the other day gave a brief news conference on Capitol Hill and said he thought there were only about 10 hard votes.
In the Senate against the treaty itself our own political analysis.
His departure marks the end of three historic days here in Washington, in which Mr. Gorbachev and I continue to build a foundation for better relations between our governments and our peoples.
During these three days we took a step only a first step but still a critical one toward building a more durable peace indeed a step that may be the most important taken since World War Two to slow down the arms buildup.
I'm referring to the treaty that we signed Tuesday afternoon in the East Room of the White House. I believe this treaty represents a landmark in postwar history because it is not just an arms control but an arms reduction agreement.
Unlike treaties of the past this agreement does not simply establish ceilings for new weapons. It actually reduces the number of such weapons. In fact it altogether abolishes an entire class of US and Soviet nuclear missiles.
The verification measures in this treaty are also something new with far reaching implications. On site inspections and short notice inspections will be permitted within the Soviet Union.
Again this is a first time event a breakthrough. That's why I believe this treaty will not only lessen the threat of war but can also speed along a process that may someday remove that threat entirely.
Indeed this treaty and all that we've achieved during this summit signals a broader understanding between the United States and the Soviet Union.
It is an understanding that will help keep the peace as we work toward the ultimate goal of our foreign policy. A world where the people of every land can decide for themselves their form of government and way of life.
Yet as important as the INF Treaty is there is a further and even more crucial point about the last three days in the entire summit process.
Soviet American relations are no longer focused only on arms control issues. They now cover a far broader agenda. One that has at its root realism and candor.
Let me explain this with a saying I've often repeated. Nations do not distrust each other because they're armed. They are armed because they distrust each other.
And just as real peace means the presence of freedom and justice as well as the absence of war. So too summits must be discussions not just about arms but about the fundamental differences that cause nations to be armed.
Dealing then with the deeper sources of conflict between nations and systems of government is a practical and moral imperative.
And that's why it was vital to establish a broader summit agenda. One that dealt not only with arms reductions but also people to people contacts between our nations and most important the issues of human rights and regional conflicts.
This is the summit agenda we've adopted. By doing so we've dealt not just with arms control issues but also with fundamental problems such as Soviet expansionism and human rights violations.
As well as our own moral opposition to the ideology that justifies such practices. In this way we have put Soviet American relations on a far more candid and far more realistic footing.
It also means that while there's movement, indeed dramatic movement, in the arms reduction area, much remains to be done in that area as well as in these other critical areas that I've mentioned.
Especially, and this goes without saying, in advancing our goal of a world open to the expansion of human freedom and the growth of democratic government.
So much work lies ahead. Let me explain. On the matter of regional conflicts, I spoke candidly with Mr. Gorbachev on the issues of Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Cambodia, Angola, and Nicaragua.
I continue to have high hopes and he assured me that he did too, that we can have real cooperation in resolving regional conflicts on terms that promote peace and freedom.
This is essential to a lasting improvement in our relations. So too on human rights there was some very limited movement.
Resolution of a number of individual cases in which prisoners will be released or exit visas granted. There were assurances of future more substantial movement which we hope to see become a reality.
And finally, with regard to the last item on our agenda, scientific, educational, cultural, and economic exchanges, we agreed to expand cooperation in ways that will break down some of the artificial barriers between our nations.
For example, agreement was reached to expand and improve civil air service between our two countries.
But let me point out here that while much work is ahead of us, the progress we've made, especially in arms reduction, does reflect a better understanding between ourselves and the Soviets.
It also reflects something deeper. You see, since my first meeting with General Secretary Gorbachev in 1985, I have always regarded you, the American people, as full participants in our discussions.
Though it may surprise Mr. Gorbachev to discover that all this time there's been a third party in the room with us, I do firmly believe the principal credit for the patience and persistence that brought success this year belongs to you, the American people.
Your support over these last seven years has laid the basis for these negotiations. Your support made it possible for us to rebuild our military strength, to liberate Grenada, to strike hard against terrorism in Libya, and more recently, to protect our strategic interests and bolster our friends in the Persian Gulf.
Your support made possible our policy of helping freedom fighters like those in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Angola, Cambodia, and other places around the globe.
And when last year at Reykjavik I refused Soviet demands that we trade away SDI, our strategic defense initiative that could erect a space shield against ballistic missiles,
your overwhelming support made it clear to the Soviet leaders that the American people prefer no deal to a bad deal, and will back their president on matters of national security.
In short, your support for our foreign policy goals, building a safer peace as we advance the cause of world freedom, has helped bring the Soviets to the bargaining table.
It makes it possible now to hope for a real fundamental improvement in our relations.
You know, the question has often been asked whether democratic leaders who are accountable to their people aren't at a grave disadvantage in negotiating with leaders of totalitarian states who bear no such burden.
Well, believe me, I think I can answer that question. I can speak from personal experience. Over the long run, no leader at the bargaining table can enjoy any greater advantage than the knowledge that he has behind him of people who are strong and free and alert and resolve to remain that way.
People like you. And it's this kind of informed and enlightened support, this hidden strength of democratic government that enabled us to do what we did this week at the Washington Summit.
Now that the treaty has been signed, it will be submitted to the Senate for the next step, the ratification process.
I will meet with the leadership of Congress here tomorrow morning, and I'm confident that the Senate will now act in an expeditious way to fulfill its duty under our Constitution.
To this end, let me explain the background in the mid and late 1970s.
The Soviets began to deploy hundreds of new mobile intermediate range missiles capable of destroying major cities and military installations in Europe and Asia.
This action was an unprovoked new dimension of the threat against our friends and allies on both continents, a new threat to which the democratic nations had no comparable counter.
Despite intense pressure from the Soviets, NATO proceeded with what we called a two track policy.
First, we would deploy a limited number of our own INF missiles as a deterrent, but at the same time, push hard in negotiations to do away with this entirely new nuclear threat.
And we set out to do this with a formula I first put forward in 1981. It was called the zero option.
It meant the complete elimination of these missiles on both sides.
At first, many called this a mere propaganda ploy, some even here in this country, but we were persistent.
Our allies steadfast, and eventually the Soviets returned to the bargaining table.
The result is our INF Treaty.
As you see from the map on the screen now, the Soviet missiles which will be removed and eliminated under the Treaty have been a major threat to the security of our friends and allies on two continents,
Europe and Asia.
Under the terms of this Treaty, we will be eliminating 400 deployed warheads, while the Soviet Union eliminates 1,600, or four times as many.
Now let me also point out that this does not, however, leave NATO unprotected.
In fact, we will maintain a substantial deterrent force on the ground, in the air, and at sea.
Our commitment to NATO's strategy of being able to respond as necessary to any form of aggression remains steadfast.
And with regard to verification, as I've mentioned, we have the breakthroughs of on-site inspections and short notice inspections,
not only at potential missile deployment sites, but at the facility where the Soviet SS-20 missiles and their components have been assembled.
We have a verification procedure that assures each side that the missiles of the other side have been destroyed and that new ones aren't built.
Here then is a Treaty that shows how persistence and consistency eventually can pay off in arms negotiations.
And let me assure you, too, that this Treaty has been accomplished with unprecedented consultation with our allies and friends.
I have spoken personally with the leaders of the major democracies, as has Secretary Schultz and our diplomats.
This Treaty has full allied support.
But if persistence is paying off in our arms reduction efforts, the question of human rights and regional conflicts are still problems in our relations.
But I'm pleased that some progress has been made in these areas also.
Now, in addition to these candid exchanges on our four-part agenda, Mr. Gorbachev and I did do some important planning for a Moscow summit next year.
We agreed that we must redouble our efforts to reach agreements on reducing the levels of U.S. and Soviet long-range or strategic nuclear arms, as I have proposed in the START negotiations.
He and I made real progress toward our goal, first agreed to a Geneva, to achieve deep 50 percent cuts in our arsenals of those powerful weapons.
We agreed that we should build on our efforts to achieve agreement on a START Treaty at the earliest possible date.
And we've instructed our delegates in Geneva accordingly.
Now, I believe deep reductions in these offensive weapons, along with the development of SDI, would do much to make the world safer.
For that reason, I made it clear that our SDI program will continue and that when we have a defense ready to deploy, we will do so.
About the future, Mr. Gorbachev and I also agreed that as nuclear weapons are reduced, it becomes all the more important to redress the disparities in conventional and chemical weapons,
where the Soviets now enjoy significant advantages over the United States and our allies.
I think then from all of this, you can see not only the direction of Soviet-American relations, but the larger framework of American foreign policy.
As I told the British Parliament in 1982, we seek to rid the world of the two great nightmares of the post-war era, the threat of nuclear war and the threat of totalitarianism.
And that's why by pursuing SDI, which is a defense against offensive missiles, and by going for arms reduction rather than just arms control,
we're moving away from the so-called policy of mutual assured destruction by which nations hold each other hostage to nuclear terror and destruction.
So too, we're saying that the post-war policy of containment is no longer enough, that the goal of American foreign policy is both world peace and world freedom.
That is a people we hope and will work for a day when all of God's children will enjoy the human dignity that their creator intended.
I believe we gained some ground with regard to that cause in these last few days.
Since my first days in office, I've argued that the future belongs not to repressive or totalitarian ways of life, but to the cause of freedom,
freedom of the marketplace, freedom to speak, assemble, and vote.
And when we see the progress of democracy in these last years, from Latin America to Asia, we must be optimistic about the future of our children.
When we were together in Iceland, Mr. Gorbachev told me that this sort of talk is sometimes viewed in the Soviet Union as a threat.
Well, I told him then, and I've said since then, that this is no threat at all, but only a dream, the American dream.
And it's a dream that has meant so much to so many, a dream that still shines out to the world.
You know, a couple of years ago, Nancy and I were deeply moved by a story told by former New York Times reporter and Greek immigrant Nicholas Gage.
It's the story of Eleni, his mother, a woman caught in one of the terrible struggles of the post-war era, the Greek Civil War at the end of World War II,
a mother who was tried and executed because she smuggled her children out to safety in America.
It is also the story of how her son secretly vowed to return to Greece someday to take vengeance on the man who had sent his mother to her death.
But at the end of the story, Nicholas Gage finds he cannot extract the vengeance he promised himself.
Mr. Gage writes, it would have relieved the pain that had filled him for so many years,
but it would also have broken the one bridge still connecting him to his mother, that part of him most like her.
As he tells it, and her final cry was not a curse on her killers, but an invocation of what she died for, a declaration of love.
These simple last words of Mr. Gage's mother, of Eleni, were, my children.
How that cry echoes down through the centuries, a cry for all children of the world, a cry for peace, for a world of love and understanding.
And it is the hope of heeding such words, the call for freedom and peace spoken by a chosen people in a promised land,
the call spoken by the Nazarene carpenter, standing at the Sea of Galilee,
the carpenter whose birth into the poverty of a stable we celebrate.
It is these words that we remember as the holiday season approaches and we reflect on the events of this week here in Washington.
So let us remember the children and the future we want for them.
And let us never forget that this promise of peace and freedom, the gift that is ours as Americans,
the gift that we seek to share with all the world, depends for its strength on the spiritual source from which it comes.
So during this holiday season, let us also reflect that in the prayers of simple people, there is more power and might
than that possessed by all the great statesmen or armies of the earth.
Let us then thank God for all his blessings to this nation and ask him for his help and guidance
so that we might continue the work of peace and foster the hope of a world where human freedom is enshrined.
To sum up then, this summit was a clear success.
We made progress on each item in our four-part agenda.
Mr. Gorbachev and I have agreed to meet in several months in Moscow to continue what we've achieved during these past three days.
I believe there is reason for both hope and optimism.