observed a disgusted Gorbachev. “Of course this behavior went beyond all bounds of protocol.”[151]
Everyone saw that the dinner seating assignments reflected Bush’s preference for his friend Mikhail and his continued support for his efforts to hold the Soviet Union together. But the grandstanding served Yeltsin’s purpose. It exposed the uncomfortable fact for the Americans that their hero Gorbachev was losing control over the previously subservient republics and, most importantly, Russia.
On July 31 Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachev entertained George and Barbara Bush and James Baker at a state dacha on the western outskirts of Moscow. They relaxed on wicker chairs on the sunlit veranda; Gorbachev in grey shirt, sweater, and slacks, Bush in a polo shirt. This was Gorbachev in his element, reshaping the world with his international friends. But they were rudely interrupted.
An American official, John Sununu, intruded to give Baker a note: The Associated Press was reporting that armed men had attacked a Lithuanian border post. Seven customs officials were killed execution style. Bush noted how Gorbachev visibly paled when told what was in the note. Deeply embarrassed at being informed first by the Americans, Gorbachev sent Chernyaev off to call Kryuchkov. The KGB chief dismissed the killings as an act of organized crime, or “an internal Lithuanian thing.” It would later be established that it was a covert operation by the Soviet special police force, OMON, to teach the separatists a lesson—and most likely to compromise Gorbachev during his summit.
In the course of their conversation, Bush told Gorbachev that he did not think the collapse of the Soviet Union was in America’s interests. He dismissed as extremists those in his own Republican Party who wanted the Soviet Union to break up, though the most prominent was his defense secretary, Dick Cheney. He promised to oppose separatist tendencies on his trip to Ukraine the following day.
On August 1 in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, Bush warned in a public speech that Americans would not aid those “who promote a suicidal nationalism based upon ethnic hatred.” Bush’s “Chicken Kiev” speech, as it was dubbed by American columnist William Safire, delighted Gorbachev and infuriated Ukrainians who were moving fast towards a break with Moscow. It was widely seen as evidence that Bush was as seriously out of touch about what was happening in the Soviet Union as Margaret Thatcher, who a year before said she could no more open an embassy in Kiev than she could in San Francisco.
With the Americans heading home, Gorbachev prepared to depart for a vacation at his presidential dacha at Cape Foros on the Black Sea. He told Chernyaev, using the diminutive of his aide’s first name, “I’m tired as hell, Tolya. Everywhere you look things are in a bad way…. Everything has become so petty, vulgar, provincial. You look at it and you think, to hell with it all! But who would I leave it to? I’m so tired.” [152]
He had everything riding on the new union treaty now. Before leaving on vacation, the Soviet president personally supervised preparations for a grand signing ceremony in the Kremlin’s St. George’s Hall on August 20, the day after he was due back from Foros. He spent hours with staff discussing the placing of flags, the arrangement of chairs for the republic presidents and diplomats, the state banners to be displayed behind them, the delicacies and champagne to be served, and even the typeface for the treaty document.
Before he set off for the three-hour flight to Crimea on August 4, Gorbachev had a visit from his disillusioned old friend Alexander Yakovlev, who informed him he was quitting as his adviser. He warned Gorbachev that if he didn’t get rid of the “dirty circle” around him, they would seize power. “You exaggerate,” replied Gorbachev dismissively.
A few days later a KGB source tipped off Yakovlev that hard-liners were conspiring to take control and that he and Shevardnadze were on a death list.[153] Yakovlev sought out a radical ex-KGB officer, Oleg Kalugin, for advice. They met in a busy street to avoid listening devices. Would the security organs really try to kill them? he asked. “Kryuchkov is a madman—he might resort to anything,” replied Kalugin. KGB archives would later reveal that their conversation in the roadway was monitored by more than a dozen agents.
On August 16 Yakovlev resigned from the Communist Party and wrote an explanation for his action in the newspaper
Chapter 16
DECEMBER 25: LATE AFTERNOON
Speaking in Russian and addressing the U.S. president as ty, the form used for family and close friends, Gorbachev says, “George, let me say something to you that I regard as very important. I have here on my desk a decree as the president of the USSR on my resignation. I will also resign my duties as commander in chief and will transfer authority to use nuclear weapons to the president of the Russian Federation. So I am conducting affairs until the completion of the constitutional process. I can assure you that everything is under strict control. As soon as I announce my resignation, I will put these decrees into effect. There will be no disconnection. You can have a very quiet Christmas evening.”
Palazchenko is painfully aware that he is translating the last formal consultation between the two presidents, for whom he has interpreted many times. He cannot help wondering what is going through their minds. “Was Gorbachev perhaps thinking that Bush could have done more for him? Was Bush trying to rationalize some of his decisions?” Was the American president concluding that he has “done his best” but that things in Russia are “beyond his control”?[155]
Speaking as if he still has influence over events, Gorbachev tells the U.S. president, “The debate on our [new] union [treaty], on what kind of state to create, took a different tack from what I thought right. But let me say that I will use my political authority and role to make sure that this new commonwealth will be effective.”
It is important to promote cooperation rather than disintegration and destruction, Gorbachev adds. “That is our common responsibility. I emphasize this point.”
Knowing of Bush’s concern about the security of the USSR’s nuclear arsenal, Gorbachev promises him that he will ensure the safe transfer of the nuclear suitcase to the president of the Russian Republic this evening, immediately after he has left office.
“I am pleased that already at Alma-Ata the leaders of the Commonwealth worked out important and strategic agreements…. I attach great importance to the fact that this aspect is under effective control. I’ve signed a decree on this issue that will come into effect immediately after my final statement. You may therefore feel at your ease as you celebrate Christmas, and sleep quietly tonight.”
Unable to bring himself to mention Yeltsin by name, Gorbachev promises to support the new administration in Moscow. “But watch out for Russia,” he says. “They will zig and zag. It won’t all be straightforward.” As for himself, “I do not intend to hide in the taiga. I will be active in political life. My main intention is to help all the processes here, begun by perestroika and new thinking in world affairs.”
Glancing at the ABC crew, he adds “Your people, the media here, have been asking me about my personal relationship with you. I want you to know at this historic time that I value greatly our cooperation together, our partnership and friendship. Our roles may change, but I want you to know that what we have developed together will not change. Raisa and I send to you and Barbara our best wishes.”
Bush reassures Gorbachev that their friendship is as strong as ever, “no question about that.” He lavishes praise on his Kremlin counterpart. “What you have done will go down in history, and future historians will give you full credit for your accomplishments.”
He is also delighted to hear that his friend does not plan to “hide in the woods” and will stay involved
