all of us kind of grab it, we looked it over and it was a holy cow moment. this guy really wants to reduce nuclear weapons. here was a soviet leader who was not going by the script. here was a guy that wanted to do business. the first indication that some progress may have been made at today s talks at reykjavik came at a white house briefing here a few minutes ago. there s no prediction yet on the outcome of these talks, but they give rise to some optimism. i was up there as the clock was ticking down. they had worked and worked and worked on an arms control agreement and at the last minute it fell apart. mr. president. do you have an agreement, mr. president? do we have an agreement, sir? will you meet again? when i saw reagan come out of that room with gorbachev, his face was a mask of rage. and gorbachev was very stiff walking out and the guy beside me said i don t like the body language. president reagan and secretary gorbachev appear to have reached tentative agre
looked it over, and it was a holy cow moment. this guy really wants to reduce nuclear weapons. here was a soviet leader who was not going by the script. here was a guy who wanted to do business. the first indication that some progress may have been made at today s talks at reykjavik came at a white house briefing a few minutes ago. there s no prediction yet on the outcome of these talks, but they do give rise to some optimism. i was up there as the clock was ticking down. they had worked and worked and worked on an arms control agreement and at the last minute, it fell apart. mr. president. do you have an agreement, mr. president? do we have an agreement, sir? will you meet again? when i saw reagan come out of that room with gorbachev, his face was a mask of rage. and gorbachev was very stiff walking out and the guy beside me said, i don t like the body
well, i am pleased to announce that general secretary gorbachev and i will meet october 11th and 12th and reykjavik, iceland. the meeting was proposed by general secretary gorbachev, and i ve accepted. no agreements at the meeting next week? i don t know. all we ve agreed upon is we re going to have a meeting. gorbachev needs a show of progress overseas to boost his stature in moscow. the irony of reykjavik will be that when reagan, the leader of the free world, meets gorbachev, the autocrat, it will be gorbachev who most needs the publicity back home. that s a good thing, but it doesn t cover everything. only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like any of these types of plans, they could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs.
say this is any different than the way other state departments in both parties have approached at least phase one of these kind of negotiations? i d say two things, first there s a lot of hypocrisy to tear up the rain deal, the obama administration said we dealt in the iran nuclear deal with iran nuclear weapons, and they tore it up, because they didn t deal with all this other stuff. secondly it s not true that all administrations behave the same ways. in fact ronald reagan brought up human rights, he brought it up at reykjavik. they didn t link progress on arms control to progress on human rights, but they reserved the right. my colleague here george shultz,
the president has john bolton who has been in his entire career against dealing with the north koreans. he doesn t trust them. he went to war against his own george w. bush administration in over talking with north korea so he comes into the white house by all accounts if you read these interesting stories in the washington post, it s clear john bolton was advising the president about the down side, the negative consequences and off new secretary of state who is only a few weeks into the job. he s been sent to create a process that in any other presidency we would have had month or years of negotiations before we made the move to agree on a meeting. this would be like henry kissinger getting a call from nixon three weeks before nixon was going see mao and say henry, i want to make a deal. well reagan had principles and i was at reykjavik.