440 THE END OF THE COLD WAR
not mean that America would remove its entire nuclear stockpile and
conventional forces from Europe. Their presence, he stressed, was cru-
cial to ‘long-term European stability’. Baker also announced that Bush,
in a spirit of conciliation, would be cancelling several scheduled sec-
tors of America’s programme of strategic military modernization. He
mentioned Washington’s rising concern about the charged atmosphere
in Moscow. He expressed regret that Gorbachëv was failing to push
forward rapidly towards a market economy. He was perplexed about
how to help Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania without boxing Gorbachëv
into a corner. Baker voiced optimism about Gorbachëv’s chances of
political survival despite the growing public criticism in Moscow. His
hope was that the Soviet leadership would accept that it was in every-
one’s interest that the new Germany should belong to NATO.^90 Much
remained for America and the USSR to negotiate. There was no longer
any disagreement about the German state’s eastern frontier, but
months of wrangling had produced no covenant on the geography of
European military security. The campaign to end the Cold War stood
at risk.