The meeting of Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan in Geneva in 1985 was long-awaited. The picture looks somewhat dark. But this gloomy and solemn-looking photograph actually symbolizes a warming point in international politics. Finally, the leaders of the USSR and the United States have thawed out after the long years of the Cold War and stepped towards each other.
Gorbachev and Reagan managed to reload the relationships of two nuclear-weaponed states. Not so long ago, Reagan called the USSR an “evil empire,” and it seemed that the world was on the verge of a nuclear war. However, the world was on the brink so many times after WWII that it seemed like everyone got used to this risky state of life and stopped worrying. And here you are: the year of 1985, Geneva, Reagan has a nice conversation with Gorbachev.
Margaret Thatcher convinced Ronald Reagan of the adequacy of the new Soviet ruler. The British Prime-minister visited Moscow a few months before and spent a lot of time with Mikhail Gorbachev. That was a key prerequisite for this summit. Of course, the conversion of Gorbachev and Reagan was held with translators’ assistance. In this historical photo, the leaders of the countries are talking to them.
The nuclear matter
US President Ronald Reagan aimed the 50 percent reduction in nuclear weapons of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev responded to president Reagan and his colleagues that the US SDI project is in the way of a 50% reduction. The American administration had to do something with it, otherwise, it will not be possible to achieve a nuclear weapon cut.
Soviet and US leaders met several times during the Cold war. Nikita Khrushchev and Dwight Eisenhower met several times in the 1950s, including Camp David’s famous meeting in 1959. Later, in the 1970s, President Gerald Ford visited Vladimir Brezhnev in Moscow. But none of that summits were as efficient as a meeting of Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan in Geneva.