Summit in New York (1988)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bush, Reagan and Gorbachev at the New York Summit in 1988
Admiral's House

The summit in New York took place on December 7, 1988 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York City . It was the fifth and final summit meeting between the outgoing US President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), who was 20 years his junior . The meeting also took elected president of the United States George Bush in part.

Summit planning

Originally, Bush had only wanted to meet the Kremlin chief after a NATO summit planned for early summer. But Moscow, frustrated by the deadlock in arms control during the last Reagan months, pressed for an early meeting.

Summit course

In a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York, Gorbachev announced unilateral disarmament steps in his country. The USSR would unilaterally reduce its troops by half a million men over the next two years.

Immediately after his speech, Gorbachev took a ferry to Governors Island on the southern tip of Manhattan . Reagan and Bush had arrived on the island independently by helicopter. In a bright December sun and a comparatively mild temperature, Reagan greeted the Soviet guest in front of the classicist columned entrance of the Admiral's House . Then Bush stepped out of the house and greeted Gorbachev. This was followed by lunch together.

As a result of the devastating Spitak earthquake in the then Armenian Socialist Soviet Republic , Gorbachev left the summit prematurely for his homeland.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ First Choice In: Spiegel online from November 28, 1988
  2. ↑ Mini-Summit on Governors Island In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , page 1 of December 8, 1988
  3. ↑ Reagan, Gorbachev and Bush at Governor's Island Auf: National Security Archive

literature

  • Jack F. Matlock, Jr. | Matlock, Jr., Jack F. Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended , (New York: Random House Inc., 2004)