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 40th 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.”