A Very Private Plot (28 page)

At that moment the television showed Gorbachev reentering his car. His caravan proceeded at a quick pace up Pennsylvania Avenue toward the White House. Reagan's schedule called for him to greet Gorbachev at the entrance to the White House. Reagan decided he would skip that—let the aide bring him right into the office. He picked up the telephone and gave instructions.

Five minutes later, Mikhail Gorbachev walked into the Oval Office. The President rose and shook hands warmly. The two interpreters filed in, and the door was closed. Reagan gestured Gorbachev to the couch opposite his own, and the interpreters took their places.

Gorbachev was flushed by his democratic exchange with the people of Washington. He told the President that he very much appreciated “the friendliness of your people.”

“Well, Mikhail, they obviously like you. I'm glad you're not a Democratic candidate for President! I assume you saw the polls this morning. You have a favorable rating of fifty-nine percent. I am only four points ahead of you. I hope the Russian crowds treat me half as enthusiastically as the Americans have treated you!”

Gorbachev smiled. The smile that communicates That's-enough-of-that-kind-of-thing. “Ronald, I wish to ask you a very direct question. And I wish to pledge to you my word that your answer to that question will never be given to any other human being alive, not even to Raisa.”

What on earth could Gorbachev have in mind?

“Why of course, Mikhail. If I can answer your question, I most certainly will. Just don't ask me how many spies we have in Moscow.”

Gorbachev did not smile. “My question isn't that, but it is not entirely unrelated to that. Ronald, you are aware, even though we have not given it publicity, that two attempts have recently been made on my life.”

Reagan was cautious. “Yes,” he said. “We were told about it. We were all very pleased that they weren't successful. But things like that are hardly surprising, Mikhail. I nearly died a few years ago from an assassin's bullet, and President Ford was shot at two times, and of course there was Kennedy.”

“Yes, Ronald. I know there are always risks in being a chief of state. But what I want to hear from you is one thing: that you were not personally involved in either of those two attempts on my life.”

Ronald Reagan paused. He would give himself the few seconds' time he desperately needed. He leaned over and touched a buzzer on the coffee table between them. Instantly the door opened and an aide said, “Mr. President?”

“Er, bring us a little tea. I think that would be nice, Mikhail, no?”

Gorbachev nodded.

Well, this is it
, Reagan thought.

He did not know what evidence the Kremlin had got together on Cyclops. He decided he dared not risk saying to Gorbachev anything that Gorbachev could establish to be false. So he said, “Mikhail. Let me give you, in turn, my personal and most solemn word that no American official was in any way involved in the attempts on your life.”

“Did any American official know there would be attempts on my life?”

The killer question
. But he could handle it by just the slightest shift in perspective. “I can tell you this, Mikhail. That when at one point I got wind of what was being planned I sent our top man to Moscow with instructions to take any measure necessary—including the betrayal of our Soviet contact—to abort the operation. That he did not arrive in time I deeply regret. There now, you have my word, and I know that you will never uncover a scintilla of evidence that contradicts anything I have told you. I would therefore appreciate it if we could call it quits on this discussion.”

The tea materialized at this moment, and Gorbachev was now making routine comments to his interpreter, or so Reagan judged, because they were not relayed to him by his own interpreter. A steward served the tea.

Reagan said, “Mikhail, let me show you something Frank Sinatra showed me. Here”—Reagan advanced his freshly poured tea to within reach of Gorbachev. “Stick your finger in my tea. Yes, your finger, your index finger. Go ahead! Don't hesitate.” Gorbachev did so, and quickly withdrew his finger.

“Now look,” Reagan said, lifting the teacup to his lips. “Watch me. I can drink from the teacup”—he took a few sips. “It's quite incredible. The tissues in the mouth are stronger, more resistant to heat than even the finger of somebody like you and me … both of us men who, in our youths, toughened our hands with hard work. Quite amazing, no?”

Gorbachev nodded. “Yes. It is quite amazing.” He looked directly at Ronald Reagan. “I shall try it on Raisa.”

CHAPTER 36

JUNE 1995

Ronald Reagan dictated most letters, but often he liked to compose letters he particularly cared about by hand—on yellow legal pads, to be typed later by his secretary. This sunny California morning, after reading the reports on Senator Blanton's speech in the Senate, on reaching his office in Los Angeles he pulled out a pad from his drawer. “Dear Mikhail,” he began.

Ten days later he was handed a letter—unopened, because the sender's name was among the dozen his staff knew were privileged. These letters went to the former President's desk.

Reagan took the ornate, jeweled mini-sword, a gift from King Hassan, and slit open the envelope, on the back of which was engraved in English,
THE GORBACHEV FOUNDATION
*
MOSCOW
.

He read first the covering letter, then the second letter. The first letter read, “Dear Ronald: I quite understand, and indeed I agree with your analysis. Accordingly, I am enclosing a second letter. Do with it as you like. Raisa joins me in warmest regards to you and Nancy.”

Reagan called in his secretary, indicating that he wished to dictate. She turned on his dictaphone.

“Dear Senator Blanton: I have read the newspaper accounts of your speech on the matter of the Blanton bill and your arguments to forbid covert operations. In that speech you said that although you had no concrete evidence to back you up, you were morally certain that a covert operation undertaken during my Administration ‘shook the Kremlin to the point that President Gorbachev actually contemplated a demonstration nuclear strike in protest.'

“I thought these to be matters of common concern, not only to Americans but also to Russians, and others who were once a part of the Soviet Union. Accordingly, I wrote to Mr. Gorbachev, forwarding the account of your remarks.

“I have today a reply from him touching on the matters you raise. Since the vote on your bill is scheduled for sometime in the next few days, I am faxing you a copy of the letter from Mr. Gorbachev. A copy is also going to the editor of the
Washington Times
.

“With all good wishes,

“I am sincerely,

“Ronald Reagan”

The next day's headline in the
Washington Times
ran across the entire front page. Directly under it the text appeared of the letter from Mikhail Gorbachev to Ronald Reagan dated June 10, 1995. The letter read:

President Ronald Reagan

11000 Wilshire Boulevard

Los Angeles 90024

Dear Ronald:

Thank you for sending me the notice of the speech by Senator Hugh Blanton. What the Congress does about the bill is, needless to say, entirely the business of Congress. But since you solicit my own views on the question, they are that covert activity is a very useful weapon of defense in a world in which there are both terrible tensions, and terrible weapons. I have previously acknowledged that your covert U-2's discovery of the nuclear missiles Mr. Khrushchev dispatched to Cuba was a fine example of useful covert action. Both of us, when we occupied high offices, were objects of attempted assassination. I am sure that you wished, as I certainly did, that covert action had protected us against these attempts by disorderly men. If our agents in America had learned that an attempted assassination was in prospect, we would certainly have advised you even as, I am certain, as much would be true in reversed circumstances.

On one point I must speak out, and do so with unique authority. Senator Blanton has evidently charged that I was so greatly angered by one CIA operation during my tenure that I contemplated ordering a demonstration nuclear strike in protest. Please feel free to communicate to Congress, and to the American people, that no such wild irresponsible impulse ever so much as entered my mind. Both your country and mine have engaged in covert actions, and I do not doubt that you retroactively regret some things that were authorized, even as I do. But it is not my judgment that the defensive advantages of covert action, given the variety of threats to world peace, should be eliminated.

With all good wishes to you and Nancy, from both of us.

Mikhail Gorbachev

The news story in the
Washington Times
said that Senator Blanton was not commenting on the letter. “The consensus among congressional leaders,” the story ended, “is that the Blanton bill is dead.

Blackford Oakes took the entire front page of the paper, stuffed it into an envelope, and addressed it to Professor and Mrs. Nikolai Trimov, Department of English, University of Toronto, Canada.

Acknowledgments

Historical episodes involving Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev are drawn from the biography of Ronald Reagan by Lou Cannon,
President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime
, from Mr. Reagan's autobiography,
An American Life
, and from other current accounts. Chronological and other liberties have been taken. The technical detail dealing with the attempted assassination was provided by my old friend and consultant, Alfred Aya, Jr., whose ingenuity in matters scientific reminds us how fortunate we are that he is loyal to the United States.

This is the first book by me published by William Morrow [Editor's note: 1994 hardcover edition], though I have worked before under the benevolent auspices of Howard Kaminsky and am happy to be once again in his company. Adrian Zackheim, the editorial director of Morrow, made important suggestions for which I am grateful. Dorothy McCartney did a resourceful job of research, and is considering a new career as a guide to Moscow. Tony Savage did his usual excellent job of handling the manuscript as it came in; Chaucy Bennetts once again came out of retirement to discipline my prose in her inimitable and authoritative way; Joe Isola read the galleys and advises that this is his twenty-eighth outing with my books; and Frances Bronson, as always, brought everything together and, as with so many enterprises, made it all possible.

Friends and family read the manuscript and made valuable suggestions. In particular I am grateful to Sophie Wilkins, Professors Thomas Wendel and Chester Wolford, Charles Wallen, my agent, Lois Wallace, my brother Reid, my sister Priscilla, and my wife, Pat, for their careful and instructive readings.

It is discouraging to seek fresh ways to record my indebtedness to my editor, Sam Vaughan. But I suppose if Mr. Clinton can reinvent government, I can say that every time I come out of the experience with the sense of a book reinvented, so extraordinary are his contributions. This time around he even made a trip to Switzerland to check the book's progress and to encourage its author. He is unique.

W.F.B.

Stamford, Connecticut

October 1993

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 1994, 2005 by William F. Buckley, Jr.

Cover design by Barbara Brown

Cover illustration by Karl Kotas

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