Walking with Others, Part III

Could walking with one’s adversaries lead to a more peaceful world?

Evidently Ronald Reagan thought so. In his 1985 first summit with Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, and after several hours of somewhat stiff, unproductive talking,  our 40^th president realized the meeting was going nowhere and suggested to his counterpart that the two of them take a walk along the shore of Lake Geneva, with only interpreters present.

We don’t know all that was said on that walk, only that Reagan called it a “long, heartfelt discussion” and that the two came away agreeing that nuclear disarmament would begin with mutual inspection and verification. I suppose both staffs were pleased when their leaders returned with broad, easy smiles.

Did the walk do that?

Probably not by itself. My opinion is that Reagan, as a seasoned walker, knew the benefits of getting alone with someone in the out-of-doors. Unlike facing off over a paper strewn table alongside stuffy bureaucrats, walking side by side with one’s eyes on a beautiful lake let the two men get acquainted on another level.

In his memoir, written years later, Secretary of State George Shultz wrote, “I thought the big story [of the walk] was that they had hit it off as human beings.”