The Geneva Summit of 1985 was a Cold War-era meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. It was held on November 19–21, 1985, between U.S. president Ronald Reagan and Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. The two leaders met for the first time to hold talks on international diplomatic relations and the arms race.
Leadup to the summit After Gorbachev became general secretary in March 1985, only two months elapsed before the first mentions were made of a possible summit between Reagan and Gorbachev. While meeting with Secretary of State George Shultz in Vienna in May 1985, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko approached Shultz discreetly asking to begin the process of planning for the two leaders to meet. Subsequent discussion over the following months established possible topics for negotiation. As to the location, Reagan had wanted Gorbachev to select Washington, D.C. as the site for the summit, arguing that it was the Soviets' turn to come to the United States, since two previous American presidents, Nixon and Ford, both went to the Soviet Union in 1974. Gorbachev instead preferred a neutral site, so the city of Geneva was agreed upon sometime in June 1985.
Reagan's advisors Bud McFarlane and Jack Matlock in preparation for the summit had identified weaknesses in Reagan's understanding of the Soviet Union, as Reagan "still tended to base many of his judgments more on generalities, even slogans, than on a nuanced understanding of Soviet reality." Beginning in June 1985, a series of papers were written for him, "organized to give Reagan a rounded picture of the country and its people".
In July 1985, the White House summit advance team identified two possible residences in Geneva for the Reagans to reside in during their stay, but Nancy Reagan vetoed the first choice. After consulting with the astrologer Joan Quigley, Nancy Reagan insisted on Maison de Saussure, the same residence President Eisenhower used during his stay at the Geneva Summit of 1955.
Meeting schedule
Reagan was convinced that the personal assessments he and Gorbachev would make of each other at their meetings would be crucial to the outcome of the summit. It was Reagan's understanding that the 1961 Vienna Summit between President Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev failed due to a lack of chemistry between the two leaders, where Khrushchev "walked over Kennedy and Kennedy knew it". In order to foster a more personable environment, the Geneva summit was structured with the first two days consisting of a series of private meetings with only Reagan and Gorbachev present (and their interpreters) interspersed with a series of plenary meetings with Reagan and Gorbachev accompanied by their major advisors. A third day consisting of a concluding joint press conference and signing ceremony was also scheduled. Each day's events occurred at different locations in and around Geneva:
November19Fleur d'EauNovember20Soviet MissionNovember21CICGFirst private meeting, 60min First plenary meeting, 48min Second plenary meeting, 70min Second private meeting, 65min Dinner hosted by the Gorbachevs at the Soviet Mission, 150minThird private meeting, 70min Third plenary meeting, 70min Fourth plenary meeting, 45min Diplomatic reception at La Gandole, 40min Dinner hosted by the Reagans at Maison de Saussure, 150minJoint press conference Signing ceremony
Having departed Andrews AFB on Air Force One at 8:35 in the morningthe exact time suggested by the astrologer QuigleyPresident Reagan arrived in Geneva ahead of the summit on the evening of November 16, 1985. The next day, Reagan and his retinue toured the grounds of Fleur d'Eau, the villa in Versoix where the first day's meetings were to take place. On November 18, Reagan was officially received by Swiss president Kurt Furgler at Le Reposoir.
First day First private meeting
On November 19, 1985, Reagan and Gorbachev met for the first time at Fleur d'Eau. When the Soviet motorcade deposited Gorbachev at the driveway of Fleur d'Eau's eastern facade, Reagan emerged from the villa without his coat to greet him. Commentators later contrasted the image of Reagan in a blue suit next to Gorbachev in an overcoat, seemingly as a sign of Reagan’s vitality. Reagan had been wearing an overcoat and scarf, but was urged by his personal aide, Jim Kuhn, to take them off for appearance’s sake.
Gorbachev later said: "We viewed the Geneva meeting realistically, without grand expectations, yet we hoped to lay the foundations for a serious dialogue in the future". Reagan's goal was to convince Gorbachev that America desired peace above all else. Reagan described his hopes for the summit as a "mission for peace". The first thing Reagan said to Gorbachev was "The United States and the Soviet Union are the two greatest countries on Earth, the superpowers. They are the only ones who can start World War 3, but also the only two countries that could bring peace to the world". He then emphasized the personal similarities between the two leaders, with both being born in similar "rural hamlets in the middle of their respective countries" and the great responsibilities they held.
During their first private meeting, Gorbachev told Reagan of information he had received from the Soviet Academy of Sciences, specifically the Institute for Earth Studies, where the scientists had become convinced that there would be a major earthquake in an area of California and Nevada by 1988. This forecast was based on a computer analysis of patterns of seismicity worldwide. Reagan replied that he realized that such an earthquake was considered to be overdue.
According to Secretary of State George Shultz, Reagan and Gorbachev's first private meeting exceeded its scheduled time by "over a half an hour". After being urged by White House Chief of Staff Don Regan to intervene, Reagan's personal aide Jim Kuhn asked Shultz whether he should interrupt the meeting. Shultz replied, "If you think so, then you shouldn't have this job". Despite melodramatically rebuking Kuhn, the actual reason for the meeting going past its scheduled time was likely more prosaic than Shultz imagined. While Reagan and Gorbachev's plenary meetings all featured simultaneous translation, their private meetings instead featured consecutive translationa mode of interpretation which, by its very nature, tends to double the time spent on communicationrendering the first meeting's initial time allotment of 15 minutes as unrealistic.
Second private meeting
Reagan and Gorbachev's second private meeting was held at Fleur d'Eau's pool house, where a fireplace provided the backdrop to a seated Reagan and Gorbachev, leading some to call Geneva's summit the "fireside summit".
Speaking with a group of Maryland high school students shortly after the summit about his second private meeting with Gorbachev, Reagan disclosed that he had discussed the topic of an alien invasion, saying, "I couldn't help but say to him, just think how easy his task and mine might be if suddenly there was a threat to this world from some other species from another planet outside in the universe." Reagan explained that his remarks to Gorbachev were meant to further a sense of togetherness, as "we'd forget all the little local differences that we have between our two countries, and we would find out once and for all that we really are all human beings here on this Earth together", adding that "I don't suppose we can wait for some alien race to come down and threaten us, but I think that between us, we can bring about that realization." In a 2009 interview, Gorbachev confirmed that during their second private meeting Reagan had asked if the Soviet Union would help if the U.S. was invaded by aliens from space. Gorbachev said yes, and that Reagan said, "we would too".
Reagan also presented to Gorbachev at their second private meeting two pages of nine separate arms control deals which Gorbachev took to be a package deal, a "take it or leave it" proposition. Gorbachev indicated that the items on their face were not acceptable. While the walk to the pool house was spent talking about Reagan's films, the walk back from the pool house saw Reagan and Gorbachev agreeing to continue to meet at further summits.
Second day Strategic Defense Initiative
On November 20, 1985, Reagan and Gorbachev began their second day of meetings, this time at Geneva's Soviet Mission. The main focus of the third plenary meeting held there was the Strategic Defense Initiative, with Gorbachev insisting that SDI represented a new phase of the arms buildup in space and Reagan insisting that SDI was merely "a shield" against ICBMs. Reagan replied that, where Gorbachev saw a threat, "we saw an opportunity", and that both sides first ought to be seeking to reduce offensive arms by 50 percent, since the US would ultimately not "miss the opportunity to develop a defense because of fear that it might have an offensive potential".
Human rights Members of the Reagan Administration were said to have privately lamented what they considered to be an insufficient focus on human rights issues at the summit. Reagan stressed in interviews before the summit that he would deal with that issue privately with Gorbachev, on the grounds that he had decided the best way to deal with it was through "quiet diplomacy".
Much of Reagan and Gorbachev's third private meeting at the Soviet Mission was spent on the subject of human rights, with Reagan focusing on "the desire of Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel", because of the "large Jewish community in the U.S., which had an influence on Congress". Reagan emphasized that "we would express our appreciation for what was done [on emigration]", reiterating that there would be "no hint that this was done as a result of U.S. efforts". Reagan stated that handling emigration in this manner "would make it easier for the President to do the type of things which the two countries could do together, such as in the area of trade, for which the President needed Congressional support". Gorbachev countered by stating his belief that the issue of human rights was "being used for political purposes, not only by representatives of various political organizations which were anti-Soviet, but also by officials of the U.S. Administration, including the President." Gorbachev stated that "the fate of Jewish people was of concern to the Soviet government", adding that "after what the Fascists had done to the Jews, the Soviet Union had done everything it could to give them special attention, and it had not regretted doing so."
Gorbachev mentioned what he saw as examples of personal discrimination occurring in the United States, to which Reagan stated that "there were individuals, perhaps employers in factories, with personal prejudices about hiring women, blacks, and so on", but that according to the law, "there can be no discrimination".
Don Regan's Washington Post interview As if to underline Gorbachev's mention of discrimination in the United States, White House Chief of Staff Don Regan courted controversy when an interview he gave on the eve of the summit to the Washington Post brought fresh condemnation on the summit's second day from the media and American politicians such as Patricia Schroeder and Bella Abzug. Regan had said that news coverage of the American and Soviet first ladies' interactions during the summit would have particular appeal to women because women would not understand the summit’s political, diplomatic and military intricacies, saying "they’re not ... going to understand throw-weights or what is happening in Afghanistan or what is happening in human rights", adding that "some women will, but most womenbelieve me, your readers for the most part if you took a pollwould rather read the human interest stuff of what happened".