George H.W. Bush: “I'm going to leave Marlin to discuss that, but that subject did not come up. But I'd rather he brief you on the whole…”

“I'm going to leave Marlin to discuss that, but that subject did not come up. But I'd rather he brief you on the whole substantive part of that conversation, a conversation which I think was good. We initiated it, as I did a couple of weeks ago with President Gorbachev. They're working very hard--he is--this ``nine-and-one'' agreement, other agreements they're working on. Primakov and his associate will be here this week, and President Gorbachev told me that they were prepared to talk in detail about economic reform, and I told him I personally would be delighted to see both of them after they've had a chance to visit with our experts. We did talk arms control, and both of us agree that we must get these differences on CFE worked out, which are now very narrow, and START, which Moiseyev told me--I asked him in the Oval Office how he felt about it, and he went like this: He said--[at this point, the President gestured]--this much difference. I think our people agree. So, there's no reason if the Soviets will move a little bit on CFE that we can't get agreement on CFE and then move quickly to close the START. I want to go to Moscow, and I've said that, and I don't know that the Soviets have believed this all along because there's speculation in our papers that we're pulling away. So I had an opportunity to tell him that we're not moving away from him or the Soviet Union, that we want to do what's right; we want to see their reform continue. And as you all know, I guess if I'm criticized on the Soviet relationship it's for staying what some would say is too close to Gorbachev, and I don't think so. I think our administration is on the right path here, and I'm not about to forget the significant reforms already taken in the Soviet Union, and I'm not about to forget what President Gorbachev did in his role in the freeing of Eastern Europe. So we're going to stay this course, and we're going to iron out these difficulties, and then we'll see how we go on some of these technical matters like MFN and credits and these points that are very important. But I think if we can get our arms control agreements, get our summit going, we can accomplish a lot.”