The Presidency: On a Free Stage

Ronald Reagan's best friend is freedom. It did most of the work for him in Geneva. It was on his shoulder when he was walking Mikhail Gorbachev down toward the lake. It was tiptoeing around the room in the Château Fleur d'Eau and may even have whispered in Gorbachev's ear.

The thing one has to understand is that when others doubt and hesitate, Reagan trusts freedom--in politics, in trade, in prayer. When the Soviet double defector Vitaly Yurchenko spilled his story in Moscow to embarrass Reagan just before the summit, the President leaned back and listened. Yurchenko said the CIA drugged...

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