Reagan and Gorbachev’s First Brush with Peace
It’s been called the beginning of the end of the Cold War. But in 1986, the Reykjavik Summit was treated more like the beginning of the end of the world.
U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met in the Icelandic city by the sea in early October 1986 as sort of a pre-summit summit. They had met for the first time in Geneva, Switzerland the year before, and that event showed promise for thawing relations between the superpowers.
Geneva had been the first meeting between superpower leaders in six years. It also thrust Gorbachev on the world stage. The youngest member of the Soviet Politburo had only recently become General Secretary, and he brought with him new ideas and a fresh perspective on how the Soviet Union should conduct itself at home and abroad. Reagan, who was eager to engage the Soviets and slow down the arms race, was excited at the opportunity to finally get down to business with someone who shared his goals.
The biggest outcome at Geneva was probably that Reagan and Gorbachev had established a solid working rapport. They agreed to two more summits in Washington and Moscow in the next couple of years and became earnest pen pals.
Gorbachev wrote to Reagan about the possibility of phasing out nuclear weapons in three stages by 2000. Reagan wrote back…
