Mikhail Gorbachev and George Bush: The Summit Goodfellas

The scene will be familiar and, partly for just that reason, comforting. The two Presidents will take their seats at a table in the St. Vladimir Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace and sign a treaty concluding a nine-year negotiation known as the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks. Television will broadcast the ceremony around the world. A sense of deja vu will sweep through the global village. The predecessors of these two men went through much the same ritual at numerous earlier summits. Here, once again, are the leaders of the "superpowers," as we've long called them, smiling, shaking hands and exchanging...