South Bend, Sunday, October 12, 1986
The Cold Wind of Reykjavik
The summit meeting over the weekend between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev, which had started with great expectations, finished in disappointment. As the two partners presented themselves in front of the Loefdi House, the tension and coolness in their demeanor could be seen. And when Secretary of State George Shultz stepped petrified before the cameras, it was clear that this summit has failed. Although an agreement on reducing strategic intercontinental as well as intermediate-range missiles in Europe was within reach, the negotiations broke down because of the Soviet insistence that the United States should give up its Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). But on that point, as he had said time and again, Reagan would not budge. After the negotiations in Reykjavik had failed, all hopes were shattered for a conference in Washington in the months ahead, which should have concluded treaties for the reduction of the nuclear arsenal.
October 14, 1986
The cold shower of Reykjavik can still be felt throughout the world, while both sides are trying to explain why the summit went wrong. The distrust that separates East and West has flared up again. In retrospect, one cannot help thinking that an historic opportunity was lost, which could have freed the world of the dreadful fear of a nuclear war. Both sides had proposed to reduce the nuclear arsenal by half, and possibly to eliminate it completely within ten years time.
Addendum
[The summit meeting in Reykjavik took place on October 11 and 12, 1986. They were bleak October days in Iceland, rain mixed with snow. Reagan and Gorbachev met at the Loefdi House, a small villa outside of Reykjavik. Gorbachev had come to the meeting well prepared. He put a comprehensive disarmament proposition on the table. The strategic nuclear weapons of all categories should be reduced by 50%, and the intermediate-range missiles deployed in Europe be eliminated altogether. Furthermore, a test-ban of nuclear weapons should be put into effect. Both sides should adhere to the ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) Treaty of 1972. The American side was taken by surprise and had to respond. It was the most comprehensive disarmament proposal ever presented by the Soviet Union. Both delegations worked through the night of October 11 in order to clarify the details. U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze were facing each other on the foreign minister level. During the day of October 12, a consensus was reached to the extent that all nuclear weapons should be eliminated by 1996. Yet Gorbachev insisted on his demand that he would approve of the accord only if the United States limited its SDI-Program to research in laboratories and would not carry out any tests in space. That would have meant to give up the SDI-Program. Reagan, with the support of George Shultz, declined and regarded the summit meeting as ended. It remains a mystery why the negotiations in Reykjavik had failed on a matter like the SDI, whose effectiveness was very often in doubt. Each side persisted obstinately on its position. Reagan left Reykjavik in anger. Gorbachev, on the other hand, appeared to be more optimistic. He considered the opening of discussions on disarmament between the two superpowers to be the beginning of bringing the Cold War to an end. In Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan (pp. 592-602), Edmund Morris describes thoroughly the tense mood that prevailed at the Reykjavik meeting. In his book, Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1993, chap. 38 “What Really Happened at Reykjavik,” pp. 751-80), George P. Shultz explains in detail the course of events of the summit meeting, mentioning the irritated argument between Reagan and Gorbachev, which led to breaking-off the negotiations.]
South Bend, October 25, 1986
A Bishop from Austria Visits South Bend
Bishop Stefan Laszlo from Eisenstadt, who, together with a delegation of the provincial government of Burgenland, is on a goodwill tour through Mexico and the United States, has come on a visit to South Bend. The Burgenland Province of Austria lies southeast of Vienna at the border with Hungary. Eisenstadt is the capital of Burgenland. Today, Bishop Laszlo celebrated an evening Mass in Our Lady of Hungary Church, the Hungarian church on the westside of town, where many people of Slavic and Hungarian origin live. Laszlo said Mass in Croatian, Hungarian, and German. It seemed as if the nations of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy have gathered in prayer under the protection of Our Lady. This Bishop from the Burgenland radiates a certain charisma - deeply human, religious, but at the same time pragmatic with a down to earth attitude. An old bond of friendship exists between the local Hungarian and Burgenlander community and Bishop Laszlo, who comes to visit here every other year.