Reykjavik Summit

In October 1986, US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev met in Reykjavik, Iceland, for informal discussions on nuclear weapons negotiations. At the time, relations between Washington and Moscow were frosty, with the Soviet Union's military buildup and aggressive foreign policies sparking alarm in the West.

According to Tom Zeiler, a history professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, the idea that the US and the Soviet Union were headed for nuclear confrontation leading up to the Reykjavik summit is exaggerated. Zeiler says the real fear of a nuclear exchange peaked around 1983, during the NATO military drill Able Archer.

By 1986, circumstances were changing, with several old-guard bureaucrats in the Soviet Union having died, clearing the way for a younger, energetic Gorbachev. This change in leadership led to a shift in the Soviet Union's stance on nuclear weapons negotiations.

The Reykjavik summit saw both Reagan and Gorbachev come close to achieving their shared dream of nuclear abolition, but the spirit of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) hanging over them prevented an agreement. Gorbachev could not trust Reagan's promises, and the record of the last session of the summit is almost heartbreaking as both leaders felt the weight of the missed opportunity.

Tom Zeiler sees the Reykjavik summit as both a missed opportunity for meaningful arms control negotiations and an important turning point in Cold War relations between the US and the Soviet Union. The summit marked a shift in the Soviet Union's stance on nuclear weapons negotiations and paved the way for future arms control agreements.

The failure of the Reykjavik summit to achieve a nuclear abolition agreement was a significant setback, but it also highlighted the need for continued negotiations and diplomacy. The summit's legacy serves as a reminder of the importance of arms control and the need for leaders to work towards reducing nuclear arsenals.

In the years following the Reykjavik summit, the US and the Soviet Union continued to negotiate arms control agreements, ultimately leading to the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 1987. The treaty marked a significant step towards reducing nuclear arsenals and improving relations between the two superpowers.