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In addition to this influence of the new thinking, another factor that facilitated the change in the
nature of international relations was the conscious application of ―the human factor‖ by the
leading protagonists of the end of the Cold War. While recognizing the role of Margaret
Thatcher, François Mitterand and Helmut Kohl, most of the credit for this should, in my view, go
to Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan. As I was able to see during their interaction during
1985-1989, they persevered in building a personal, human rapport, regarding this as an important
political goal — despite ―dogmatic communist heritage within‖ Gorbachev, noted in Anatoly
Chernyayev's essay, and Reagan's strong ideological views about the Soviet Union as an ―evil
empire.‖
Unlike their predecessors, Reagan and Gorbachev did not allow the inevitable setbacks and
incidents such as the death of US Major Nicholson, killed by a sentry at a Soviet military base in
the GDR, and the arrest of US reporter Nicholas Daniloff in response to the arrest of Soviet UN
official Zakharov in New York, to distract them from the pursuit of this goal. Many fascinating
details of the relationship between the two leaders, and much of what was happening behind the
scenes, are described by Ambassador Jack Matlock both in this book and in his other writings.
To add to the recollections and accounts contained in this book: as early as September 1985,
when I first saw Ronald Reagan in person, interpreting at his White House meeting with Eduard
Shevardnadze, he struck me as a warm and forthcoming person anxious to engage and even
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please his guest. The reason, in retrospect, seems to be that Reagan, though deeply conservative,
was not dogmatic or aggressive. This is what Gorbachev has often emphasized in his
recollections of Reagan, including this interesting letter on the occasion of the ceremony
awarding Ronald Reagan the Congressional Medal of Honor: ―While adhering to his convictions,
with which one might agree or disagree, Ronald Reagan was not dogmatic. He was ready to
negotiate and cooperate. That is what enabled us together to take the first steps toward ending the
Cold War.‖
For both Reagan and Gorbachev, intuition played an important role in shaping their attitudes and
actions. Of particular interest in this regard is the remark François Mitterand made to Gorbachev
in the summer of 1986, quoted by Chernyayev: ―Reagan is among those leaders who intuitively
want to put an end to the existing status quo.‖ I think it is intuition that made Reagan support the
inclusion, in the final communiqué of the Geneva summit in 1985, of the phrase ―nuclear war
cannot be won and must never be fought,‖ though at least the first part of it contradicted the
views of some of his advisers. While Gorbachev is usually regarded as a politician for whom