Gorbachev Guest List a Hot Ticket : Diplomacy: Soviet leader’s Bay Area visit prompts intense jockeying for invitations. The Reagans have theirs.
As Soviet advance teams honed President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s itinerary for his trip to the Bay Area on Sunday and Monday, former President Ronald Reagan announced plans for a breakfast with the Soviet leader, officials said Tuesday.
Leaders in business, politics, academia and other fields competed for a chance to see and hear the Soviet leader on his first trip to the West Coast. But most will be denied an audience during the tightly planned visit of roughly 21 hours.
Reagan and his wife, Nancy, will spend about an hour with Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, over breakfast Monday morning at the Soviet consul general’s home in the exclusive Pacific Heights district of San Francisco. The Gorbachevs are scheduled to arrive Sunday night and stay with the consul general.
In a statement Tuesday, a spokesman for Reagan said the former president is “looking forward to discussing U.S.-Soviet relations, events in the Soviet Union, and other recent developments.”
After the breakfast, the Soviet entourage will leave for Stanford University. Former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Stanford President Donald Kennedy will head the university’s welcoming committee.
Gorbachev will tour Stanford’s art museum. There, Cynthia Schuman, an artist from nearby Hillsborough, will present the Gorbachevs with her enamel, “Creation of Peace,” and Sausalito artist George Sumner will present his painting, “The Peacemakers.”
Gorbachev, however, has canceled a visit to the Hoover Institution on the Stanford campus, disappointing many research fellows at the stridently anti-communist think tank who had wanted an opportunity to talk policy with the Soviet leader. Shultz and many other former Reagan Administration officials and advisers now have offices at the institution.
After touring the art museum, Gorbachev will walk a short distance to Stanford’s business school, where he will meet with students and faculty. He also will speak at Stanford’s Memorial Auditorium before returning to San Francisco for lunch at the Fairmont Hotel with West Coast business and political leaders.
Competition is intense to get on the guest list for the luncheon. “This is unparalleled,” Scott Shafer, spokesman for Mayor Art Agnos, said of the interest. “The guy is a superstar.”
Gov. George Deukmejian and Agnos will welcome Gorbachev at the Fairmont, and the Soviet president will address the audience of about 200, including top executives of 15 major companies such as Apple Computer, Pacific Telesis, Bank of America, Bechtel, Chevron, Hewlett Packard and Wells Fargo Bank.
Republican Sen. Pete Wilson is expected to attend, but Sen. Alan Cranston, a Democrat, will be unable to be there, said Stacy Walters of PBN Co., a San Francisco public relations firm that is helping to coordinate the visit. The governors of Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington also have been invited.
The Gorbachevs are scheduled to leave from San Francisco International Airport about 6 p.m. Monday.
GORBACHEV’S TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
Here is Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s tentative schedule for his visit to the Bay Area next Sunday and Monday: SUNDAY
8:45 p.m.--Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachev arrive at San Francisco International Airport on Taxiway Quebec (near Coast Guard station).
9:30 p.m.--Gorbachevs arrive at home of Soviet consul general, 2820 Broadway.
MONDAY
9 a.m.--Former President Ronald Reagan leaves Fairmont Hotel to have breakfast with Gorbachev at consul general’s home.
10:15 a.m.--Gorbachevs leave for Stanford University.
11 a.m.--Gorbachevs are scheduled to meet Stanford President Donald Kennedy and former Secretary of State George P. Shultz in University Quadrangle.
11:15 a.m.--Gorbachevs tour Stanford art museum, receive gifts of art to Soviet people.
Noon--Gorbachevs visit Stanford Graduate School of Business and meet with students and faculty at Littlefield Center.
12:30 p.m.--Gorbachev delivers address to students and faculty at Memorial Auditorium.
1:05 p.m.--Gorbachevs leave Stanford to return to consul general’s home.
2:30 p.m.--Soviet president arrives at San Francisco Chamber of Commerce luncheon at Fairmont Hotel.
3:10 to 4 p.m.--San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos and Gov. George Deukmejian welcome Gorbachev to California. Soviet president addresses Fairmont luncheon, participates in a question-and-answer session, then meets with West Coast business executives.
4 p.m.--Gorbachev returns to consul general’s home.
5:30 p.m.--Gorbachevs leave for airport.
6 p.m.--Airport departure.
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