Download Reagan.1985-Geneva Summit

Reagan 1985
Geneva Summit
President Reagan harbored, long before and during his presidency, great distrust of the Soviet
government. In 1983, Reagan had called the Soviet Union “an evil empire”, and his numerous foreign
policy and defense speeches commonly reiterated that belief. In 1985 however, the deaths of Soviet
premier Yuri Andropov, and a short month later, his successor, Konstantin Chernenko, elevated a
younger successor to leadership. Mikhail Gorbachev, only 54, seemed like a different kind of leader.
Younger and healthier than his predecessors, the reformed-minded Gorbachev often openly criticized
Communist party excesses.
The Reagan administration wanted progress on arms, but still didn’t trust the Soviet Union.
However, the first summit of the Reagan administration was scheduled for Geneva in 1985, with both
sides cautiously optimistic of improved relations. The meeting began on November 16, 1985.
The meeting between Reagan and Gorbachev put a human face on the enemy. Reagan’s
insistence on continuing research on the Strategic Defense Initiative (“Star Wars”), and Gorbachev’s
insistence that SDI deployment presented an insurmountable roadblock to any agreement, prevented
major breakthrough. However, both sides did agree to continue to meet, and pledged to attempt reduce
nuclear arms by 50%, concurring that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must not be fought.”
While there was little accomplished at Geneva, Reagan said later that fall that there was a
“warmth to Gorbachev”, and Gorbachev seemed to agree, commenting that Reagan was a great American
and leader. In the three years that followed, the two developed a trust that finally led in 1987 to a
breakthrough agreement calling for the first reduction in nuclear arms in history. The long Cold War
slowly ended, with the seeds of that burial sowed in the first face-to-face meeting in Geneva in 1985.
PBS, News Coverage, online- Geneva Summit
Reagan memoirs-