What the broadcaster did not know was that among the gifts Gorbachev would carry back to the Soviet Union that night was a letter from Dean Jaedicke inviting the president to select a Soviet executive from industry or government to attend the Stanford Executive Program next summer. After a 30-minute exchange in the Wattis Room, Gorbachev and his retinue cut across the Bechtel Courtyard, walked a few steps down Memorial Way past the main GSB building, and slipped through a back door of Memorial Auditorium. Each of our two countries bears its share of responsibility for the fact that the postwar period took on the character of an exhausting and dangerous confrontation. It is now our common responsibility to make sure that the mechanisms of East-West military confrontation are dismantled as soon as possible. For a new type of progress to become reality, everyone must change.
Tolerance is the alpha and omega of the new world order.
Without tolerance and respect for one's partner, without understanding each other's concerns and problems, we are bound to fail. And there, once again, was George Shultz with the final word. A new world order is forming. We are at a moment in history when there is a chance to design the shape of what's ahead of us. And you, Mr. President, as a man of action, but also obviously a man of ideas, have a key part in this new drama.