5. Editorial Note
On November 8, 1988, American voters elected Vice President George H.W. Bush to be the 41st President of the United States. The following month, the President-elect joined President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in a private meeting in the Commandant’s Residence at Governors Island from 1:05–1:30 p.m., during which time he expressed his intent “to build on what President Reagan had done,” as he had previously pledged in a meeting with Gorbachev at the Soviet Embassy in Washington in December 1987. Bush and his new team, which included Secretary of State-designate James Baker and President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs-delegate Brent Scowcroft, “would need a little time to review the issues, but what had been accomplished could not be reversed.” The memorandum of conversation of their December 7 meeting is in Foreign Relations, 1981-1988, vol. VI, Soviet Union, October 1986–January 1989, Document 180.
On December 8, Vice President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs Donald Gregg met with Soviet Ambassador Yuriy Dubinin from 5–5:30 p.m. in Room 298 of the Old Executive Office Building, following Gorbachev’s curtailment of his trip to New York to return to the Soviet Union after a massive earthquake struck Armenia. Dubinin conveyed “Gorbachev’s deep appreciation” for Bush’s phone call offering condolences and “could not have been more effusive in his praise and in relaying Gorbachev’s praise for the Vice President and his positive attitude and vision for the future of U.S.-Soviet relations.” He “noted that the serious business between us was too important for improvisation,” and that it required assurance “that we understood the messages being passed to avoid confusion and this called for having just one spokesman at each level of contact.” (Memorandum of Conversation, December 8; George H.W. Bush Library, Bush Vice Presidential Records, Office of National Security Affairs, Donald P. Gregg Files, Country Files, OA/ID 19874–014, USSR [Soviet Union] July–December 1988)
On December 22, Gregg and Dubinin met from 4:15–5 p.m. in Room 298 of the Old Executive Office Building “to confirm arrangements for the visit by the Vice President’s son, John E. Bush, and grandson, George Prescott Bush, Jr., to Soviet Armenia on Christmas Day,” on a plane loaded with medicine, medical equipment, and toys for child victims of the earthquake. After reviewing a Soviet draft press statement, Dubinin changed the subject to U.S.-Soviet relations more broadly, observing “that relations are developing [Page 21] in a great number of issue areas and that all of these could not be resolved just by the traditional ways,” and inquiring whether Gregg “was working on ideas for the future of US-Soviet relations.” Gregg replied “that it would be best to talk with General Scowcroft,” and “noted that the Vice President had stated today his intent look at all major foreign policy issues.” (George H.W. Bush Library, Bush Vice Presidential Records, Office of National Security Affairs, Donald P. Gregg Files, Country Files, OA/ID 19874–014, USSR [Soviet Union] July-December)