he began to appreciate the russian culture and suzanne massie was an expert on gorbachev. she explains to reagan that she believes gorbachev was a man of some faith, having been influenced by a christian mother. reagan sees an opening. he's going to develop this relationship based on shared values, even though gorbachev often lectured reagan on the extraordinary values of communism and socialism. that is a whole other evening of stories. that was reagan's approach to this meeting. so we are waiting for gorbachev to arrive and reagan and i are sitting in front of this fire, smalltalk, relaxing, and i said, turning to a serious note, mr. president, what do you think will really bring the death knell to soviet style communism and eastern locke totalitarianism? he said, jim, the way it will be done is through the people's own desire to know freedom, the people's own desire to know god. well, that was a little bit startling for me, but another revelation about reagan. even while we were pursuing this strategy of assertive military buildup, economic sanctions, and aggressive dip