Geneva Summit Conference (1985)

Reagan and Gorbachev during the 1985 Geneva Summit

The so-called Geneva Summit Conference took place on November 19 and 20, 1985 in Switzerland . It was the first meeting between the 74-year-old US President Ronald Reagan and the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) Mikhail Gorbachev, who was 20 years his junior . They met in Geneva to hold talks on nuclear weapon reduction and to seek a partnership between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Starting position

The two superpowers faced each other in the Cold War . After the death of Konstantin Chernenko , Mikhail Gorbachev was appointed General Secretary of the CPSU to succeed him in March 1985. He immediately started his new policy of openness ( glasnost ) and transformation ( perestroika ). Just one day after taking office, Gorbachev had the arms control talks between the Soviet Union and the United States that had been interrupted at the end of 1983 resumed. For the US President Ronald Reagan, the Soviet Union had been "the evil empire" (the evil empire ) that he wanted to equip dead. That is why he launched the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) , a space-based missile defense system, in 1983 . The last summit of the two superpowers took place on June 18, 1979 in Vienna between Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev .

Host Switzerland

The renewed meeting of the leaders of the two superpowers took place after months of preparation in the international city of Geneva in neutral Switzerland. The host was the Swiss President Kurt Furgler . The Federal President expressed the wish that Geneva, as a city of peace, would accompany the negotiations with his spirit. The discussions took place in the Maison de Saussure . The Swiss Army did active duty to protect the summit.

expectations

Gorbachev later said of his expectations for the summit: "We saw the meeting in Geneva realistically and without great expectations, but we hoped to lay the foundations for a serious dialogue in the future." Reagan, like former President Eisenhower at the 1955 Geneva Summit , believed that good personal relationships between leaders were the necessary first step in easing tensions between the two countries. Reagan's goal was to convince Gorbachev that America wanted peace above all else. Reagan called his trip to the summit a "peace mission".

Summit program

First meeting of Reagan and Gorbachev

Meeting of the two leaders

On the first day of the summit, US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev met to discuss international diplomatic relations and the arms race. The Soviet intervention in Afghanistan was also discussed. At the beginning of the meeting, Reagan said to Gorbachev: “The United States and the Soviet Union are the two largest countries on earth, the so-called superpowers. They are the only ones who can start World War III, but also the only two countries that can bring peace to the world. " He further emphasized the personal similarities between the two leaders. Both were born in similar “rural villages in the middle of their respective countries” and both have great responsibilities in their office.

Mikhail Gorbachev criticized the United States for not trusting the Soviet Union. The ruling class in the US wants to hold on to this difficult situation. Ronald Reagan replied that the Soviet Union had acted aggressively, in particular by refusing to allow American aircraft to use Soviet airfields after World War II. After lunch, the two guides took a two-hour stroll outdoors. The discussions revolved around SDI. However, both persisted in their positions. Reagan invited Gorbachev to a state visit to the United States the following year. Gorbachev accepted the invitation and returned the favor with a return invitation. Reagan accepted this invitation to visit Moscow in 1987.

On the second day, Reagan spoke about the human rights situation in the Soviet Union, particularly the restrictions on emigration. Gorbachev claimed that the Soviet Union was comparable to the United States and quoted some feminist extremists. The next round of talks started with arguments about the arms race and then moved back to the discussion about SDI.

In the course of their exchange of views, the two politicians talked in private for a total of five hours.

Summit exit

After the official talks were over, the outcome of the summit was on a knife edge. An end to the dispute was quite possible. The two delegations could not agree on a joint communiqué. The main point of dispute between the two negotiating delegations was the central demand of the Soviet Union: a ban on all research into a space weapon system should be laid down. The Americans, in turn, urged that the agreement to reduce strategic nuclear weapons and medium-range missiles by fifty percent be included in the final declaration. In the end, the two delegations were able to agree on a compromise. The joint declaration states that "a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought." They advocated a 50% reduction in nuclear weapons and an interim result for medium-range nuclear weapons.

Ladies program

As both parties agreed on a news blackout during the summit, the 3,000 journalists from all over the world who were present concentrated on the women's program. The two first ladies Nancy Reagan and Raissa Gorbatschowa met five times during the summit and, according to their own statements, they liked each other straight away. Together with Ursula Furgler, the wife of the Swiss Federal President, they also laid the foundation stone for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva.

Consequences of the summit

The symbolic meaning of the summit should ultimately be much more important than its concrete results. It brought about a climatic change in East-West relations. Although the two politicians could not resolve any of the main conflicts, they wanted to save the friendly spirit of Geneva into everyday political life. Just one year later, on October 11, 1986, Reagan and Gorbachev met for the disarmament summit in Reykjavik . In 1987 Gorbachev agreed to be the first to begin disarmament. Two years later the Berlin Wall fell and in 1991 the Soviet Union dissolved. In 1993 SDI was officially discontinued. The Cold War was over.

literature

• Jack Matlock : Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended. Random House, New York 2004.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Annual review 1985: Summit in Geneva on tagesschau.de
2. ↑ Summary of the summit in Geneva by the ARD Tagesschau
3. ↑ The summit was just a promise. In: Die Zeit of November 29, 1985.
4. ↑ Summit: When Jimmy Carter kissed Comrade Brezhnev. In: Die Presse from November 24, 2014.
5. ↑ When Kurt Furgler spoke Russian. In: 20 minutes from November 19, 2010.
6. ↑ Reagan's reception in Geneva. Video from Télévision Suisse Romande TSR.
7. ^ Reception of Gorbachev in Geneva. ( Memento of the original from October 23, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Video from Télévision Suisse Romande TSR. 
8. ^ Matlock, Reagan and Gorbachev: How The Cold War Ended , 2004, p. 149.
9. ↑ Anderson and Anderson, Reagan: A Life in Letters , p. 288.
10. ↑ ^{a b} The Reagan Diaries , 11/19 / 85-11 / 20/85, pp. 369-371.
11. ↑ Cold War: Geneva (Reagan-Gorbachev) Summit (Shultz memoirs). On: Margaret Thatcher Foundation November 20, 1985, accessed October 22, 2017.
12. ↑ Paolini. Histoire d'une négociation. In: Politique étrangère N ° 1 - 1988 - 53e année pp. 27-46, p. 40. doi : 10.3406 / polit. 1988.3741 , online
13. ↑ October 11, 1986 - Disarmament summit begins in Reykjavik On: WDR from October 11, 2011.