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Bush and Gorbachev will begin to address these questions at the Saltwater Summit. What can two men in a boat do when they put up their feet? Primarily, they will have the chance to assure each other that they both are eager to avoid crackdowns in East bloc states. The Club Med casualness will provide the perfect atmosphere to discuss the beneficial roles that NATO and the Warsaw Pact could play during a time of exciting but potentially dangerous transition.
When Gorbachev began waxing eloquent about a "common European home," he almost certainly did not anticipate the scenario that would unfold as the renovators plunged into the task. But unlike his predecessors, he may understand that the Soviet Union will be more secure with neighbors who tolerate free minds, free ideas, free speech, free markets and free movement. If handled properly, the revolution unfolding in one country after another opens up opportunities, unimaginable just a year ago, to create not just a new Europe but a new and far less menacing world order.