Last week's Moscow summit had been billed as the final act of the cold war. But within hours after Air Force One touched down at Sheremetyevo Airport, it was clear that the last vestiges of East-West tension had dissolved long before George Bush's arrival. In what both sides agreed was the friendliest U.S.-Soviet summit ever, Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev laughed and joked their way through the signing of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which will reduce the two superpowers' nuclear arsenals, and a series of other agreements covering everything from agriculture to the arts. Bush agreed to try to provide Moscow with additional economic and technical aid. He also did his part to keep Gorbachev's restive empire from flying apart by traveling to Kiev to warn the Ukrainian legislature against any adventures in "suicidal nationalism."
As the Bush motorcade arrived in Kiev, the streets were crowded with nationalist spectators, many of them waving the blue-and-yellow flag of the once independent Ukrainian state. But he made it clear that the U.S. would not intervene in the disputes between the republics and Gorbachev's central government. "We will not try to pick winners and losers in political competitions between republics, or between republics and the center," said the President. "((That)) is your business, not the business of the U.S."
But Bush's comments on Soviet internal politics were overshadowed by the hope that the new spirit of U.S.-Soviet cooperation might spread to the Middle East. Secretary of State James Baker, with some important help from Moscow, persuaded Israel to sit down with its Arab neighbors in face-to-face peace talks that could begin in October. Bush hailed the coming peace conference as a "historic opportunity" for a comprehensive Arab-Israeli settlement after 43 years of war and confrontation.
Bush and Baker traveled to Moscow with every intention of bringing Israel to the table. Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria had already accepted Israel's long-standing demand for bilateral talks. But Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir had one last concern: the composition of the Palestinian delegation to the meetings. Israel rejects any participation in the talks by Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization. It also opposes the inclusion of any resident of East Jerusalem, a step that in Shamir's view might imply that the city's status as Israel's capital is open to negotiation.
To overcome Shamir's qualms, Bush and Gorbachev staged a diplomatic squeeze play. Baker holed up in Moscow and spent hours on the telephone trying to bring Shamir around. When Bush and Gorbachev announced on Wednesday -- before any public announcement from Shamir -- that they would issue invitations to an October peace conference, it seemed like a classic bit of diplomatic arm twisting directed at the recalcitrant Israelis. Bush said he was sending Baker to Jerusalem immediately "to obtain Israel's reply."