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19th November 1985: Reagan and Gorbachev meet for the first time at the Geneva Summit

2,794 views · Published 19 November 2018 · 2:49 · Indexed 9 October 2026

Channel: HistoryPod · 2018 · Education

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The 54 year old Gorbachev had been elected on 11 March, and quickly began to address the economic, social, and political problems facing the USSR. In terms of foreign policy, his ‘new thinking’ doctrine moved away from adopting nuclear deterrence and the accumulation of nuclear weapons and instead sought common security. This would demand cooperation with the United States in order to bring about bilateral reduction of nuclear arms.

Meanwhile Ronald Reagan, who had served as President of the United States since 1981, referred to the USSR as the ‘evil empire’. Despite adopting a hard line against the Soviet Union, he similarly sought to end the nuclear arms race albeit by the development of the Strategic Defense Initiative (also referred to as “Star Wars”) that would make a first-strike advantage impossible and render nuclear weapons obsolete.

Since both countries wished to reduce their nuclear stockpiles, arrangements were made for a summit conference in Geneva. The first meeting took place on 19 November and, over the course of the next two days, Reagan and Gorbachev spoke at length about nuclear arms reduction and other issues of international diplomacy. Although the two leaders achieved little in terms of formal agreements, they developed a personal connection that led to further meetings over the next two years.

These summits eventually led to the negotiation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Signed in Washington D.C. on 8 December 1987, the INF eliminated an entire class of nuclear weapons.

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