19. THE LOST SUMMER
The Americans exasperated Gorbachëv with their refusal to show
some appreciation of the scale of concessions that he was making. His
mood did not improve in the long, hot summer of 1986. Reagan’s letter
of condolence about Chernobyl made no mention of the arms talks.
Gorbachëv thought ceaselessly about the disaster in Ukraine and was
grateful for every expression of sorrow. But he deplored the President’s
refusal to move towards an agreement.
Shultz’s victory over Weinberger and Casey in June 1986 was short
lived because Reagan almost immediately had second thoughts.
Despite his desire for a summit with Gorbachëv, he worried that talks
might lead to the loss of his cherished Strategic Defense Initiative.^1
Reagan was always loath to disappoint his friend Weinberger, and
Weinberger knew how to play on this feeling.^2 Shultz, like Sisyphus,
had to push the boulder up the same old hill again. The arguments
were what they always had been: Shultz thought it high time for a seri-
ous negotiation with Gorbachëv; Weinberger believed that Gorbachëv
would exploit any American overture as proof of weakness. Weeks of
wrangling between them delayed the White House reply to Gorbachëv.
This vexed Shultz, who regarded Gorbachëv’s latest ideas as ‘substan-
tive steps forward’. He described Weinberger as someone who would
only accept ‘wholesale Soviet capitulation to our most far-out pos-
itions’. If ever Weinberger were to prevail in foreign policy, according
to Shultz, the effect would only be to prod the USSR into ‘a massive
offensive build-up’. The other consequence would be a fall-off of sup-
port for the Strategic Defense Initiative in the American Congress and
in American public opinion.^3
On 1 July 1986 at the National Security Council, Reagan laid
emphasis on protecting his Strategic Defense Initiative. Everyone
agreed with him. Weinberger reported worriedly on current attempts
in the Congress to put restrictions on space-based research. Poindex-
ter expressed his apprehension about Soviet moves to redefine what