Meeting of Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev
The Geneva Summit of 1985 was a Cold War-era meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. It was held on November 19‑21, 1985, between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. The two leaders met for the first time to hold talks on international diplomatic relations and the arms race.
Background.
In the mid-1980s, both the Soviet Union and the United States were engaged in a Cold War struggle, but both nations sought to reduce the total number of nuclear weapons. The Soviets sought to halve the number of nuclear-equipped bombers and missiles, and the U.S. sought to ensure that neither side gained a first-strike advantage, and that the protect rights of defensive systems were not endangered. Diplomats struggled to come up with planned results in advance, with Soviets rejecting the vast majority of the items that U.S. negotiators proposed.
The Geneva Summit was planned months in advance, so both superpowers had the opportunity to posture and to stake their positions in the court of public opinion. Reagan's security advisor Robert McFarlane said that the United States was having "real trouble establishing a dialogue" with the Soviets, and announced that the U.S. would be conducting its test of the missile defense system known as the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). The Soviets, in turn, announced a unilateral moratorium on underground nuclear tests and invited the Americans to also cease such testing, a request that was rebuffed.
Meetings.
 
The Versoix municipality as it appears on the north-west shore of Lake Geneva. , where the principal meetings of the first day were held, is circled.
President Reagan arrived in Geneva ahead of the summit on the evening of November 16, 1985. The next day, Reagan and his retinue toured the grounds of , the villa in Versoix where the first day's meetings were to take place. On November 18, Reagan was officially received by Swiss President Kurt Furgler at .
Reagan had come to Geneva convinced that the personal assessments he and Gorbachev would make of each other at their meetings would be crucial to the outcome of the summit. It was Reagan's understanding that the 1961 Vienna Summit between President Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev failed due to a lack of chemistry between the two leaders, where Khrushchev "walked over Kennedy and Kennedy knew it." In order to foster a more personable environment, the Geneva summit was structured with the first two days consisting of a series of private meetings with only Reagan and Gorbachev present (and their interpreters) interspersed with a series of plenary meetings with Reagan and Gorbachev accompanied by their major advisors. A third day consisting of a concluding joint press conference and signing ceremony was also scheduled. Each day's events occurred at different locations in and around Geneva:
On November 19, 1985, Reagan and Gorbachev met for the first time at Fleur d'Eau. When Reagan emerged outside without his coat, commentators took it as a sign of Reagan’s vitality. Reagan had been wearing an overcoat and scarf, but was urged by his personal aide, Jim Kuhn, to take them off for appearance’s sake. Gorbachev later said: "We viewed the Geneva meeting realistically, without grand expectations, yet we hoped to lay the foundations for a serious dialogue in the future." Reagan's goal was to convince Gorbachev that America desired peace above all else. Reagan described his hopes for the summit as a "mission for peace". The first thing Reagan said to Gorbachev was "The United States and the Soviet Union are the two greatest countries on Earth, the superpowers. They are the only ones who can start World War 3, but also the only two countries that could bring peace to the world." He then emphasized the personal similarities between the two leaders, with both being born in similar "rural hamlets in the middle of their respective countries" and the great responsibilities they held.
During their first private meeting, Gorbachev told Reagan of information he had received from the Soviet Academy of Sciences, specifically the Institute for Earth Studies, where the scientists had become convinced that there would be a major earthquake in an area of California and Nevada by 1988. This forecast was based on a computer analysis of patterns of seismicity worldwide. Reagan replied that he realized that such an earthquake was considered to be overdue.
According to Secretary of State George Shultz, Reagan and Gorbachev's first private meeting exceeded their time limit by over a half an hour. A Reagan assistant asked Shultz whether he should interrupt the meeting to end it by its allotted time. Shultz responded, "If you think so, then you shouldn't have this job."
Reagan and Gorbachev's second private meeting was held at Fleur d'Eau's pool house, where a fireplace provided the backdrop to a seated Reagan and Gorbachev, leading some to call Geneva's summit the "fireside summit". Speaking with a group of Maryland high school students shortly after the summit about his second private meeting with Gorbachev, Reagan disclosed that he had discussed the topic of aliens, saying, "I couldn't help but say to him, just think how easy his task and mine might be if suddenly there was a threat to this world from some other species from another planet outside in the universe." Reagan explained that his remarks to Gorbachev were meant to further a sense of togetherness, as "we'd forget all the little local differences that we have between our two countries, and we would find out once and for all that we really are all human beings here on this Earth together," adding that "I don't suppose we can wait for some alien race to come down and threaten us, but I think that between us, we can bring about that realization." In a 2009 interview, Gorbachev confirmed that during their second private meeting Reagan had asked if the Soviet Union would help if the U.S. was invaded by aliens from space. Gorbachev said yes, and that Reagan said, "we would too".
Newer Soviet proposals that Gorbachev had brought to Geneva were also discussed, according to White House spokesman Larry Speakes, who said that senior arms control adviser Paul Nitze and Assistant Defense Secretary Richard Perle had joined in appurtenant meetings of U.S. and Soviet senior advisers at the Soviet mission in Geneva. While the walk to the pool house was spent talking about Reagan's films, the walk back from the pool house saw Reagan and Gorbachev agreeing to continue to meet at further summits.
On November 20, 1985, Reagan and Gorbachev began their second day of meetings, this time at Geneva's Soviet Mission. The main focus of the third plenary meeting held there was the Strategic Defense Initiative, with Gorbachev insisting that SDI represented a new phase of the arms buildup in space and Reagan insisting that SDI was merely "a shield" against ICBM's. Reagan replied that, where Gorbachev saw a threat, "we saw an opportunity," and that both sides first ought to be seeking to reduce offensive arms by 50 percent, since the US would ultimately not "miss the opportunity to develop a defense because of fear that it might have an offensive potential."
Human rights.
Members of the Reagan Administration were said to have privately lamented what they considered to be an insufficient focus on human rights issues at the summit. Reagan stressed in interviews before the summit that he would deal with that issue privately with Gorbachev, on the grounds that he had decided the best way to deal with it was through "quiet diplomacy."
Much of Reagan and Gorbachev's third private meeting at the Soviet Mission was spent on the subject of human rights, with Reagan focusing on "the desire of Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel," because of the "large Jewish community in the U.S., which had an influence on Congress." Reagan emphasized that "we would express our appreciation for what was done [on emigration]," reiterating that there would be "no hint that this was done as a result of U.S. efforts." Reagan stated that handling emigration in this manner "would make it easier for the President to do the type of things which the two countries could do together, such as in the area of trade, for which the President needed Congressional support." Gorbachev countered by stating his belief that the issue of human rights was "being used for political purposes, not only by representatives of various political organizations which were anti-Soviet, but also by officials of the U.S. Administration, including the President." Gorbachev stated that "the fate of Jewish people was of concern to the Soviet government," adding that "after what the Fascists had done to the Jews, the Soviet Union had done everything it could to give them special attention, and it had not regretted doing so."
Gorbachev mentioned what he saw as examples of personal discrimination occurring in the United States, to which Reagan stated that "there were individuals, perhaps employers in factories, with personal prejudices about hiring women, blacks, and so on," but that according to the law, "there can be no discrimination."
Conclusion and agreements.
On November 21, 1985, at Geneva's International Conference Center (CICG), Reagan and Gorbachev held a joint press conference announcing several agreements, including implementation of the already signed Northern Pacific Air Safety accord that aimed at preventing a repeat of the Soviet downing of Korean Airlines Flight 007 in September 1983. A signing ceremony followed, with an agreement on the opening of consulates in Kiev and New York being signed, as well as agreements to renew regular U.S.‑Soviet dialogue on future summit meetings. Forty‑one cultural exchange agreements were also signed, including the restart of exchanges of theatrical and artistic groups and major art exhibits that were suspended after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979.
At the end of the summit, Reagan gave Gorbachev a Colonial Williamsburg Chippendale-style mahogany box and desk set with fountain pens, carrying the theme "peace through communications," selected in honor of the 10th anniversary of the U.S.‑Soviet Apollo–Soyuz space mission. Gorbachev gave Reagan a set of bronze medallions in a leather case representing the 15 republics of the Soviet Union.
After a stop in Brussels to brief allies, Reagan returned to Washington to give an address on the summit to a joint session of Congress.
References.
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