Nancy Reagan, left, and the Soviet First Lady, Raisa Gorbachev, both smile politely during a tension-filled tea in Geneva in 1985, while their husbands discussed nuclear disarmament.
Dieter Endlicher/AP
Nancy Reagan, the influential and stylish former first lady who died on Sunday at 94, was fond of saying: “A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong it is until it’s in hot water.”
Reagan was merely quoting a line attributed to another first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt (though historians have never confirmed whether Roosevelt said it.)
Reagan got a chance to test that quip at the 1985 Geneva Summit, when she met the first lady of the Soviet Union, Raisa Gorbachev, over tea, at two tensely choreographed tête-à-têtes.
While their husbands discussed nuclear disarmament – this meeting was the first step in …