The US-USSR summit in Reykjavik, Iceland. The meeting is a moment of extraordinary possibility and optimism. From the documents: “The President agreed this could be sorted out… cruise missiles, battlefield weapons, sub-launched and the like. It would be fine with him if we eliminated all nuclear weapons. Gorbachev said we can do that. We can eliminate them. The Secretary of State said “Let’s do it!” The euphoria that Reagan and Schultz share at this moment does not last long: moments later Gorbachev asks that the Star Wars anti-missile initiative also be shelved and never tested. Reagan does not understand why an anti-missile system should be an obstacle to removing all nuclear weapons, and refuses to place limits on anti-missile tests. But he promises to share the technology with the Soviets. But in reality, the Soviets are trying to develop exactly the same technology to defend Moscow. Gorbachev does not give in on this point and the summit ends there. In any case, the ice has been broken and an agreement will soon be reached for the removal of all intermediate-range nuclear missiles (SS-20, Pershing II and Cruise (in Europe). The following days will see the arrival of messages from Thatcher and Mitterrand, furious that Reagan, even for a few moments, had questioned nuclear deterrence, the strategy that had kept Western Europe safe from Soviet invasion for four decades. Although the greatest protests against nuclear weapons were in Europe, the greatest pressure to retain them came from European leaders themselves.
