Reagan and Gorbachev Met Face to Face in Geneva
On this day · 19 November 1985
Two Cold War rivals shook hands for the first time, beginning a thaw that would help end the nuclear standoff.
On November 19, 1985, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev met for the first time at the Villa Fleur d’Eau in Geneva, Switzerland. It was the first summit between the two superpowers in more than six years, and the two men had never been in the same room before.
Much of the most consequential talk happened with almost no one else present. Reagan and Gorbachev slipped away from their delegations for long private conversations, accompanied only by interpreters, and unexpectedly built a personal rapport that cut through years of hostility.
The handshake mattered as much as any treaty: it signalled that the two could simply talk.
No sweeping arms-control treaty emerged, but the leaders issued a joint statement affirming that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” The Geneva Summit is widely seen as a turning point that set the Cold War on a path toward its eventual end.
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