Perina attended the 1988 Moscow summit meeting between Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev , the third of only four total people ; he later described the tension between the two principals being rooted in different negotiating styles : The Soviet 's being deductive and the American 's inductive . And although he found the American president very gracious , Perina found the leader of the USSR the more important historical figure " among the most important of our time . " He described the former Hollywood actor as having " good instincts " but that he " clearly did not have the grasp of substance that Gorbachev had . " Perina believed the summit was significant symbolically , that it influenced Reagan , the Russian people 's opinion on Reagan , and changed the dynamics of the US-Russia relationship
1988 Moscow summit meeting
Moscow Summit (1988)
Rudolf V. Perina