In Friday's debate, when the issue of direct diplomacy came up McCain said:
The point is that throughout history, whether it be Ronald Reagan, who wouldn't sit down with Brezhnev, Andropov or Chernenko until Gorbachev was ready with glasnost and perestroika. Or whether it be Nixon's trip to China.... Look, I'll sit down with anybody, but there's got to be pre-conditions...
What McCain said about Reagan and the Russians is not true at all. Reagan was not just willing to meet with Brezhnev, et. al -- he actually tried to arrange these meetings, but the Soviets kept putting off these requests (largely because their elderly ruling circle kept dying). And, of course, Nixon flew to China without knowing whether or not Mao was willing to meet with him.
Time magazine, April 26, 1982:
In an interview with Pravda, the Communist Party newspaper, Brezhnev rejected President Reagan's proposal, made earlier this month, that the two leaders meet informally in New York this June after the disarmament talks at the United Nations General Assembly...
Republicans of sanity deserve a better candidate to vote for.
