Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 27, 1990 TAG: 9005270147
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Newsday
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
But the Garsts' relationship with the Soviets was not a one-time affair. The family had sold them sorghum and bushels of hybrid seed corn before the famous visit, and they have been trading with them ever since.
Now, with another Soviet leader, President Mikhail Gorbachev, preparing to visit the United States, some of the remaining Garst family members say they are not necessarily looking for big results from Gorbachev's upcoming meeting with President Bush.
Instead, they would be happy to see the two leaders engage in another of the kind of ongoing, business-like contacts the Garsts say have kept them speaking and trading with the Soviets through all the thaws and the quick refreezes in Soviet-American relations since the late Roswell Garst began doing business with the Soviets in 1955.
"What I would really want out of this trip is a lessening of tension and a lessening of fear," said David Garst, 63, one of the two Garst sons who now help to operate the Garst Seed Co. in Coon Rapids.
"Any contact allays the fear," Garst said.
Garst's feelings mirror those of many who know and have dealt with both the United States and the Soviet Union. These businessmen, cultural leaders and politicians are not looking for breakthroughs during the summit: The mere fact that the two countries are continuing to talk is enough for them.
Former Vice President Walter Mondale recalled that he proposed annual summits during his campaign for president in 1984 because, "I wanted to unburden these summits from too-high expectations and too much of a cost if you had a failure or a disappointment.
"The fact that these are becoming more routine is the most hopeful thing of all," Mondale said.
The Smithsonian Institution's Secretary, Robert McC. Adams, who said he saw the Smithsonian's contacts pay off in the Soviets' quick approval in sending an SS-20 missile to stand side by side with a U.S. Pershing missile at an exhibit that opens here during the summit, said that, to him, "The specific agreements are not of particular importance."
Rather, Adams said he is hoping that the mere image of Bush and Gorbachev going one-on-one will help to strengthen Gorbachev's political flanks at home.
"The introduction of a degree of stability, through evidence provided by the summit, that Gorbachev is in continuing constructive communication with the president is of considerable importance," Adams said.
"What I'm looking for and what most people I talk to here are looking for is the sense of constructive dialogue with agreements that are emerging," Adams said. "All those things are more important than the agreements themselves because of the shoring-up that they will provide to the present Russian regime."
The Bush-Gorbachev meeting will be the fifth summit that the United States has hosted since Khrushchev met with President Eisenhower at Camp David, Md., in September 1959, after first visiting the West Coast, the Garst farm and Pittsburgh.
by CNB