The Presidency

By Hugh Sidey

"General Secretary Gorbachev was always civil," said Ronald Reagan last week, musing over the phone to TIME about his third extended encounter with the Soviet boss, a bright political star following a succession of dingy, dying hulks. "We both got steely-eyed sometimes, and we both raised our voices. But there was no sense of bitterness. He did not bear a grudge beyond the negotiating table. He does not stalk out of the room. He is pleasant, affable. He even seemed to like the food. He put it away pretty good. Still, I believe what I said, 'Trust but verify.' That is the formula that underlies all of this. We can go forward on that formula."

Going forward to Moscow is now in the President's plans, and he dares hope for some progress on a treaty that will begin to reduce strategic nuclear missiles. Just as Reagan still wants Gorbachev to savor the America that lies beyond Washington, the General Secretary extolled Moscow and the great Russian land. "I had hoped for a few extra days for him to see this country," Reagan said. "It just did not work out. He said that he would like to come back and see some of the country. I made it plain to both of the Gorbachevs that one day they should return not for work but just to visit. He said with equal feeling that I must come and see Moscow and the Soviet Union.

"Gorbachev is a different kind of fellow than those previous leaders," the President continued. "But he is devoted to his system, just as we are to ours. He does not believe that they are violating human rights in the Soviet Union. In their system everybody has a job, and he sees that as a great thing. He does not bring up the fact that those people are told what job they can have and they do not have a free choice. He also believes that some things we do in this country deny human rights, and he raises that."

For all of this testimony to Gorbachev, Reagan is more cautious in commenting on the General Secretary than he was following the first two summits. The more the contact, the more the wariness. But there remains a unique feeling between the men, an understanding that they can confront each other and argue without the world-jarring rancor of other years.

"We can get along," said the President. "We can cooperate in this world -- but always with our guard up. I'm cautiously hopeful. I believe his desire for change is real. Their economy is the problem, and by far and away their greatest burden is arms production. If they can solve that, then maybe they can do some other things. I have to think that he means it when he talks about these things.

"And he seems sincere when he talks about his desire for peace. But you must always remember that their spokesmen back in the time of Lenin, and maybe even Lenin himself, did not want war either. They believed that they would win without war."

Reagan noted that Gorbachev mentioned that the Soviet Union next year would observe the millennium of Christian faith in Russia. "I was intrigued about his mention of the millennium and how on a number of occasions he used God's name," the President said. "One of our Russian experts explained to me that God is a figure of speech over there, and when they invoke God's name they use it with a small g. It does not mean what some may think."

Though Gorbachev was at times plainly tired from his tough travel schedule, he never lapsed into small talk or veered from the issues at hand, Reagan said. The General Secretary was at serious labor. Gorbachev showed little curiosity about the White House or the people invited to meet him, did not talk about American history or heroes. "I don't know if he knew just who Joe DiMaggio was," said Reagan, recalling how, at the Yankee Clipper's request, he had asked Gorbachev to autograph a baseball. "But I explained that Joe was one of our great athletes, and he signed the baseball."

When historians write of this summitry between once glowering superpowers, they may decide that the sense of humor shared by the two leaders played as much a part as any other human quality. "He has a good sense of humor," Reagan declared. "I told him the speeding joke. The Soviet police were told to give tickets to speeders, no matter who they were. One day Gorbachev is late leaving home for the Kremlin, and he hurries to his car and tells the driver that he will drive to save time. So the driver sits in the backseat and Gorbachev takes off lickety-split down the road and passes two cops on the side. One of the officers gives chase but in a short time returns to his partner, who asks if he gave him a ticket. 'No,' the cop answers. 'Well, who in the world was it?' asks the other cop. 'I don't know,' replies the first cop, 'but his driver was Gorbachev.' Gorbachev loved it. He just howled."

The Soviet leader was terribly guarded about Communist politics and told Reagan almost nothing of his struggles inside the Kremlin. "He did seem aware of the problems that I have with Congress and the various political factions," Reagan said. "But he does not view events in the Kremlin the same way we view our government. We all know that he has his troubles too. He does not mention them."

But Gorbachev did bring up one prickly problem that won instant sympathy from Reagan -- his treatment by the media. Now that Gorbachev is an active member of the global village, with its probing cameras and satellite network, he voices complaints that sound as though they could come from the White House. "Oh, he did talk some about the media and the difficulties he was having with them," said Reagan. "I just told him what Lyndon Johnson once said. L.B.J. claimed that if one morning he walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read, PRESIDENT CAN'T SWIM."