Relations between Barbara Bush and Raisa Gorbachev were as warm as the spring sunshine Thursday.
With a gentle hand on Mrs. Gorbachev's back, the U.S. first lady guided the Soviet first lady down a line of dignitaries to their appointed place on the White House South Lawn as their husbands took center stage for the ceremonial start of the four-day summit.The two first ladies exchanged pleasantries and an occasional laugh, waved to familiar faces in the crowd and watched the pageantry unfold before them.
The last time Mrs. Gorbachev visited Washington, in December 1987, she ruffled Nancy Reagan's feathers by observing that the White House was more a museum than "a regular house."
This time, cordiality reigned supreme.
President Bush and his wife strolled out of the Rose Garden to greet Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and his wife on a driveway lined with soldiers holding American and Soviet flags.
Mrs. Gorbachev emerged from the Soviet-made Zil limousine closest to the Bushes, while her husband got out on the other side, beamed and walked around to shake hands.
Mrs. Bush wore a lime-green jacket trimmed in white over a white skirt, with her trademark triple strand of fake pearls. Mrs. Gorbachev wore a scarlet double-breasted jacket over a black skirt.
Even in her black high heels, Mrs. Gorbachev was a couple of inches shorter than Mrs. Bush, who had on white pumps.
As they walked down a line of VIPs and shook hands with Vice President Dan Quayle, Secretary of State James A. Baker III and his wife, Susan, and other guests, Mrs. Bush put her hand on Mrs. Gorbachev's back, introducing her and guiding her along. Their places were marked in white on a green runner on the lawn, a few steps from the speaker's platform.
During Bush's long opening remarks and Gorbachev's briefer response, Mrs. Gorbachev stood ramrod straight, clutching a black handbag in her right hand. Mrs. Bush, who had both hands free, often shifted from one foot to another and occasionally checked her watch. She led the applause when Bush said Mrs. Gorbachev's return to the White House "brings joy to all of our hearts."
Afterward, while the two leaders began their first round of summit talks in the Oval Office, their wives retired to the State Floor of the White House for tea with the wives of Quayle, Baker, Assistant Secretary of State Ray Seitz, Jack Matlock, the U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, and Aleksandr Bessmertnykh, the new Soviet ambassador to Washington.
Later, Mrs. Gorbachev and her husband were having lunch at the Soviet Embassy with American film stars, intellectuals and other luminaries.
This afternoon, while Gorbachev conferred again with Bush, Mrs. Gorbachev planned separate visits to the Library of Congress and the Capital Children's Museum.
Industrialist Armand Hammer is host at a reception at the Library of Congress in the afternoon for Mrs. Gorbachev and 350 guests, including Marilyn Quayle, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, and Katharine Graham, chairman of the Washington Post Co.
Later the Gorbachevs return to the White House for a formal state dinner in their honor.
The two first ladies will jet together to Massachusetts on Friday morning to address the graduates at Wellesley College and take in sights in the Boston area.