212 THE END OF THE COLD WAR
his officials stayed at the nearby Holt Hotel and set up offices in a
neighbouring school building. The President met with his senior
officials early next day.^18 He and Shultz talked at length in the ‘bubble’
- this was an anti-eavesdropping device made of translucent plastic
five inches thick and capable of seating up to six people. Reagan
quipped: ‘My God, look at this, if we put a little cement statue there
and fill it up with water, we could have goldfish here.’ Space was tight
and officials touched knees at they sat opposite each other.^19 Shultz
went over the details of the agreed negotiating position, which was to
stick to what the President had put forward at the Geneva summit.^20
Other government departments were jealous of Shultz’s access to
Reagan at such a distance from America. Shultz expected mischief.
Sure enough, a CIA report was placed in front of the President imply-
ing that Soviet commanders were contemplating the possibility of
assassinating Gorbachëv. This hardly brought peace and quiet to the
American delegation. It was not meant to.^21
The delegations spent the whole of the next day making prepara-
tions for the meeting between the two leaders. A vast pile of briefing
papers was handed round on board the Georgi Ots and at the Holt
Hotel.^22 Gorbachëv and Reagan made the last adjustments to their
negotiating tactics. Reagan had dinner with Shultz, Poindexter and
Regan. The excitement grew in the embassy residence and aboard ship.
President and General Secretary felt the pressure of expectation even
though it was not scheduled as an official ‘summit’. Both of them liked
to have their wives with them, but only Raisa made the trip. She spent
her waking hours touring Iceland’s geysers.^23 Nancy Reagan regretted
that she missed out; she blamed Raisa for ‘a bit of one-upmanship’.^24
The President, by agreement, was to act as host for the first meet-
ing on the ground floor of the Höfdi House on 11 October 1986, and
he greeted the General Secretary at 10.40 a.m. They talked privately
for an hour and agreed to make verification an important feature of
any new treaty. It was a good start. Shultz and Shevardnadze then
joined them. It was at this point that specific proposals were laid on
the table, and Gorbachëv took the initiative in line with the recent
discussion in the Politburo. He called for an immediate halving of
stockpiles of strategic nuclear weapons as well as for the instant total
elimination of intermediate-range missiles in Europe. He refrained
from insisting that French and British weaponry should be included in
the process; and in return he asked Reagan to drop the demand that
the USSR should remove all its missiles from its Asian territory. He