Patio diplomacy: a time-honored tradition for breaking the ice
Bush will host Russian President Vladimir Putin in Kennebunkport, Maine, on July 1.
from the June 29, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
But both leaders may aspire to a change in tone, at the least.
"I really don't think that either of them want, as part of their legacy, a trashed US-Russian relationship," said Andrew C. Kuchins, Russia and Eurasia program director for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, at a June 27 seminar.
Add to this the fact that the Bushes historically have been among the nation's primary practitioners of the art of patio diplomacy. President George W. Bush has had a steady stream of world leaders to his Texas ranch, including Putin. And when his father George H.W. Bush was chief executive, the Kennebunkport compound was virtually an adjunct West Wing.
But not every visitor took to Maine's salty air and summer sunshine.
British Prime Minister John Major did not even roll up his sleeves. But equally stiff French Prime Minister Francois Mitterrand warmed to the rocks and sea spray of Walker's Point, the Bushes' Kennebunkport house. His visit there helped seal strong French support for the Gulf War.
On one level, it's odd that the current president is hosting Putin at Walker's Point. After all, it's not his house; it's his father's.
But on another level, it might seem natural. An invitation for a July visit to the blast furnace that is Bush's Texas property might not be well received. Plus, Walker's Point is not just a house; it's Bush headquarters.
"It's about nine acres of the most coveted spot on the Atlantic shore and it's been the center of the Bush family for several generations," says historian Herbert Parmet, who toured the compound in the mid-1990s when researching his biography of George H.W. Bush.
Similarly, President John F. Kennedy often hosted world leaders at the Kennedy family's Hyannisport, Mass., waterfront compound. In 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of England to his Hyde Park estate for a picnic that featured a food previously unknown to the royals: hot dogs.
For the record, King George ate two.
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