Locking Eyes at the Top

By Hugh Sidey

No single human relationship in this world is as important as that between the President of the United States and the man who leads the Soviet Union. They grope for an understanding of each other through 4,800 miles of political static, at once drawn together by necessity and fascination and held apart by cultural suspicion and government bureaucracy. Their personalities become summaries of nations too vast and complex to understand in the whole.

Government at the top is human analysis. The leaders of the two superpowers try to discern each other's intentions and resolve, hoping to leave impressions of their own self-confidence and strength. At great distances, through diplomats and letters, the task is nearly impossible; in the face-to-face encounters at summits there is a chance for better understanding, even a cautious friendship.

Regrettably, Ronald Reagan and Leonid Brezhnev had never talked. The half a dozen letters that Reagan received from Brezhnev were stiff and cool. He remained in the eyes of Reagan a Communist bully. Richard Nixon, who spent days with the Soviet leader, caught the glint of a realist in Brezhnev, a man struggling within his own system to cool hot heads, a man sometimes mellowed by the memories of his father's admonition to bring peace to the world. There was a human bond.

Before he went off to meet Nikita Khrushchev in 1961, John Kennedy read every speech of Khrushchev's that had been recorded in the West. In case the Soviet leader tried to mislead him, Kennedy wanted to remind Khrushchev of his earlier statements. J.F.K. took a model of the warship U.S.S. Constitution, which was launched in 1797, to try to drive home the point that in previous centuries warfare touched few people while today it could obliterate whole societies. Kennedy found himself studying Khrushchev's clothes, his pudgy hands, his abrupt movements, his moments of insecurity followed by explosive laughter. Khrushchev, 67, bragged that the U.S.S.R. was a young nation. Kennedy, 44, told him to look across the table if he wanted to see youth.

Khrushchev evidently decided Kennedy could be pushed around, and so he ordered nuclear missiles placed in Cuba. Khrushchev badly misread Kennedy. Eighteen years later Brezhnev measured Jimmy Carter during the Vienna summit of 1979; he subsequently decided that the Soviets could invade Afghanistan without serious consequences.

In 1967 at Glassboro, N.J., Lyndon Johnson met Alexei Kosygin, one of the reigning triumvirate that replaced Khrushchev. Johnson devised an elaborate form of body language in an effort to convince Kosygin that he was dealing with a tough Texan. L.B.J. gave the Soviet one of his crusher handshakes, then hovered over the shorter Kosygin. Convinced that eye contact was a measure of a man's determination, Johnson locked eyes with Kosygin at one crucial point. Needing a sip of coffee, L.B.J. felt for his cup on the table rather than release his visual grip on Kosygin, who finally blinked and looked away. Johnson thought this singular human triumph was important. Perhaps it was. If some day we ever get a glimpse of Kremlin papers, we may find an unusual report from Kosygin on the day he locked eyes with Lyndon Johnson.

Whether or not Johnson left his mark on his adversary is beside the point. The important thing is that he and Kosygin were able to sit down and size each other up. In those moments of crisis between the superpowers, a President is better off judging a human than a legend.

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