Reagan At Reykjavik

The dramatic, first-hand account of the historic 1986 Reagan-Gorbachev summit in Iceland—the definitive weekend that was the key turning point in the Cold War—by President Reagan’s arms control director, Ken Adelman. In October 1986, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met for a forty-eight-hour summit in Reykjavik, Iceland. Planned as a short, inconsequential gathering to outline future talks, the meeting quickly turned to major international issues, including the strategic defense initiative and the possibility of eliminating all nuclear weapons—negotiations that laid the groundwork for the most sweeping arms accord in history the following year. Scrupulously researched and based on now-declassified information, Reagan at Reykjavik tells the gripping tale of this weekend that changed the world. Filled with illustrative accounts of the private discussions between Reagan and his team, Ken Adelman provides an honest and up-close portrait of President Reagan at one of his finest and most challenging moments. Reagan at Reykjavik includes 16 pages of black-and-white photos and 11 illustrations.

A dramatic account of the historic 1986 Reagan-Gorbachev summit in Iceland -- the turning point in the Cold War -- by President Reagan's arms control director, a key player in that world-changing event. In October 1986, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met for a forty-eight-hour summit in Reykjavik, Iceland. Planned as a short gathering to outline future talks, the meeting quickly turned to major international issues, including SDI ("Star Wars") and the possibility of eliminating all nuclear weapons. Both men were at the height of their powers, and they had a rare opportunity to move toward peace. The meeting laid the groundwork for the most sweeping arms accord in history, adopted the following year, and the end of the Soviet Union half a decade later. From his position as a participant, Adelman is able to reveal the motivations, relationships, and conversations that led to the breakthroughs.

A dramatic account of the historic 1986 Reagan-Gorbachev summit in Iceland -- the turning point in the Cold War -- by President Reagan's arms control director, a key player in that world-changing event. In October 1986, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met for a forty-eight-hour summit in Reykjavik, Iceland. Planned as a short gathering to outline future talks, the meeting quickly turned to major international issues, including SDI ("Star Wars") and the possibility of eliminating all nuclear weapons. Both men were at the height of their powers, and they had a rare opportunity to move toward peace. The meeting laid the groundwork for the most sweeping arms accord in history, adopted the following year, and the end of the Soviet Union half a decade later. From his position as a participant, Adelman is able to reveal the motivations, relationships, and conversations that led to the breakthroughs.

When Reagan and Gorbachev sat down in Reykjavik in 1986, George Shultz said that it was “the poker game with the highest stakes ever played.” It was the last time the world had a chance to do away entirely with nuclear weapons. This is the behind-the-scenes story of this remarkable summit conference. An Impossible Dream is the first exploration of recently-available archives of both sides—top-secret archives of the Kremlin, the personal papers of Gorbachev, as well as Reagan's archives. These chronicles, personal diaries and previously classified memoranda are deeply enriched by the personal reminiscences of many of the key players at this era. But above all, the stage is set with a personal and exclusive preface from Gorbachev himself. An Impossible Dream is the deeply important examination of the present and the future. The hazards of the nuclear age are legion, from aging weapons to new software that is vulnerable to terrorist attacks. With elements of the Trump administration considering a unilateral abrogation of the intermediate range nuclear missile (INF) treaty, the roots of which were laid at Reykjavik. Serina lays out this pivotal moment in history clearly and dramatically in this landmark work, as the world stands poised on the edge of a potential new arms race.

This book publishes for the first time in print every word the American and Soviet leaders – Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev, and George H.W. Bush – said to each other in their superpower summits from 1985 to 1991. Obtained by the authors through the Freedom of Information Act in the U.S., from the Gorbachev Foundation and the State Archive of the Russian Federation in Moscow, and from the personal donation of Anatoly Chernyaev, these previously Top Secret verbatim transcripts combine with key declassified preparatory and after-action documents from both sides to create a unique interactive documentary record of these historic highest-level talks – the conversations that ended the Cold War. The summits fueled a process of learning on both sides, as the authors argue in contextual essays on each summit and detailed headnotes on each document. Geneva 1985 and Reykjavik 1986 reduced Moscow's sense of threat and unleashed Reagan's inner abolitionist. Malta 1989 and Washington 1990 helped dampen any superpower sparks that might have flown in a time of revolutionary change in Eastern Europe, set off by Gorbachev and by Eastern Europeans (Solidarity, dissidents, reform Communists). The high level and scope of the dialogue between these world leaders was unprecedented, and is likely never to be repeated.

“[Matlock’s] account of Reagan’s achievement as the nation’s diplomat in chief is a public service.”—The New York Times Book Review “Engrossing . . . authoritative . . . a detailed and reliable narrative that future historians will be able to draw on to illuminate one of the most dramatic periods in modern history.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review In Reagan and Gorbachev, Jack F. Matlock, Jr., a former U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R. and principal adviser to Ronald Reagan on Soviet and European affairs, gives an eyewitness account of how the Cold War ended. Working from his own papers, recent interviews with major figures, and unparalleled access to the best and latest sources, Matlock offers an insider’s perspective on a diplomatic campaign far more sophisticated than previously thought, waged by two leaders of surpassing vision. Matlock details how Reagan privately pursued improved U.S.-U.S.S.R. relations even while engaging in public saber rattling. When Gorbachev assumed leadership, however, Reagan and his advisers found a willing partner in peace. Matlock shows how both leaders took risks that yielded great rewards and offers unprecedented insight into the often cordial working relationship between Reagan and Gorbachev. Both epic and intimate, Reagan and Gorbachev will be the standard reference on the end of the Cold War, a work that is critical to our understanding of the present and the past.

Drawn from presentations at the Hoover Institution's conference on the twentieth anniversary of the Reykjavik summit, this collection of essays examines the legacy of that historic meeting between President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. The contributors discuss the new nuclear era and what the lessons of Reykjavik can mean for today's nuclear arms control efforts.

p>Picture the scene: the Republican President of the United States credited with christening the Soviet Union an 'Evil Empire', and that country's own President, the General Secretary of the Communist Party, sitting down together. It was Reykjavík, 1986, and the meeting between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev really did happen—even after the agonising escalating tensions of the arms race—as the world waited with bated breath to see if a compromise would be achieved by the two leaders to secure the future of the planet. Now, thanks to access to previously unavailable archives, historian Guillaume Serina chronicles the build-up and aftermath of that momentous summit, and employs contemporary diaries and memoranda to tell the remarkable story of how the agreement to abolish all nuclear weapons was reached. With an introduction by Gorbachev himself, An Impossible Dream turns to the Trump administration's own foreign and defence policy, in a daring examination of the past, present and future dangers of our coexistence with nuclear weapons.