“This is a turning point”

The first show of goodwill by the leaders of the two camps against the background of the Iron Curtain meant that the world’s Cold War pattern began to change and had a profound impact on subsequent global politics. It had a profound impact

On January 1, 1986, then-US President Ronald Reagan expressed New Year greetings to the Soviet Union on the radio; Soviet leader Gorbachev also expressed greetings to American listeners. This is the first time since 1973 that the top leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union exchanged greetings.

“We cannot continue to live like this,” Mikhail Gorbachev decided at the beginning of the year. “Ensuring security is increasingly becoming a political task, and this task It can only be solved through political means."

The first "Fireside Dialogue" between the two sides in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1985, broke the ice of the Cold War. Nine months after the New Year of 1986, Gorbachev and Reagan held their second meeting in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland.

Gorbachev recalled that meeting in his memoirs as "a real breakthrough"; Reagan said in his memoirs that it was "a turning point." This was indeed the case, even though the meeting ended on bad terms.

Song Yimin, a senior researcher at the China Institute of International Studies, said in an interview with China News Weekly: "The meeting was Gorbachev's initiative. Shortly after he became General Secretary of the Soviet Union, He was determined to end the arms race with the United States so that he could concentrate on domestic reforms and improve the economy. After taking office, he proposed new diplomatic thinking and advocated easing the international situation and large-scale arms reduction. In August 1986, he proposed to meet with Reagan in Iceland. It is to start the large-scale disarmament process."

Song Yimin said that after Reagan came to power, on the one hand, he strengthened the establishment of the United States' military superiority and proposed the "Strategic Defense Plan" (Star Wars) in 1983, and on the other hand, he pursued peace. Evolution, that is, using peaceful means to "democratize" a country that he considered authoritarian.

At that time, Reagan believed that the Soviet military power was becoming less and less of a military threat to the United States. The temporary "Soviet offensive and American defensive" situation had been completely reversed, so he also wanted to address the issue of arms control. reached an agreement and promoted social reforms in the Soviet Union. He conditionally agreed to the meeting in September.

During the meeting, Gorbachev proposed substantial nuclear disarmament and tried to move closer to the United States' ideas. He proposed to reduce the offensive weapons of both sides by half within five years and completely eliminate them in the next five years; to destroy all medium-range missiles in Europe and 80% of them in Asia; to no longer demand a halt to comprehensive nuclear tests; to agree to verification measures, and It is recommended to strengthen this measure by reducing the period for not exercising the right to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to 10 years.

Gorbachev also expressed his willingness to significantly reduce the Soviet Union’s dominant conventional weapons. Regarding the “regional issues” raised by Reagan during the meeting, namely, the Afghan issue and the Soviet Union’s presence in the Third World, He basically adopted a "listen, don't argue" attitude on issues involving activities elsewhere, as well as human rights issues in the Soviet Union.

Reagan was even surprised by Gorbachev's sincerity. The two sides have achieved important political knowledge: each side will reduce its nuclear weapons by half within five years, reduce the number of tactical missiles deployed in Europe to zero, and both sides will not withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty within 10 years. In the history of arms control negotiations between the two countries, there is no precedent for these major similarities.

But at the last moment of the meeting, Gorbachev said that everything must be linked to the restrictions on the US "Strategic Defense Plan". Reagan was very angry. He later said in his memoirs that he "understood that the reason why they asked me to come to Iceland was just for one purpose-to kill the Strategic Defense Plan."

"Facts The Iceland meeting became a major turning point in the East-West arms race and the easing of international tensions. After that, the two countries gave up the arms race and began to compete in comprehensive national strength. Their mutual trust was enhanced and dialogue was further established. Mechanism. In other words, four years before the Soviet Union disintegrated and the Cold War officially ended, the United States and the Soviet Union embarked on the road to ending the Cold War from Reykjavik.

With the drastic changes in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 - one of the once powerful world superpowers disappeared overnight.

"But there is no direct connection between the meeting and the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The disintegration of the Soviet Union was the outbreak of various internal contradictions and difficulties. The consequences of the meeting cannot be considered to be the cause of the Soviet Union's disintegration." Song Yimin said.

Gorbachev advocated ending the arms race with the United States in order to concentrate on accelerating the economic construction of the Soviet Union, which was fundamentally in line with the national interests of the Soviet Union. Moreover, the meeting ended the military confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union and created a favorable international environment for Gossip's domestic reforms, which cannot be said to be bad. However, there were problems with Gorbachev's reform strategy. The people did not benefit directly from it. Massive and violent disarmament caused dissatisfaction among the Soviet military. Coupled with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, this caused him to lose all important foundations and pillars and change. He became a lonely man, thus dooming his downfall.

In addition to Gorbachev, the official member of the Soviet delegation that participated in the meeting was the then Foreign Minister Shevardnadze. He later served as Georgia's first president before being ousted by opponents in 2003. There are also Ambassador Dobrynin to the United States, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Yakovlev in charge of ideological work, and A. Chernyaev who has served as Gorge’s assistant on international issues since February 1986. The latter two were Goliath's most influential and longest-serving think tanks in foreign relations, and they had an important influence on the formation of Goebel's "new thinking." Yakovlev served as a member of the Politburo. In 1991, he announced his withdrawal from the Soviet Union and became chairman of the Russian Social Democratic Party. He passed away not long ago. Chernyayev played an important role in formulating the policy for Gorbachev for the Reykjavik meeting. The book "Six Years with Gorbachev" he wrote was published four years ago. Published in China, it details the inside story of the meeting.

It is worth mentioning that the delegation included Primakov, then director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, who attended a meeting between Soviet diplomats and officials from the U.S. State Department. The group meeting once caused surprise in the United States because he was not a government official at the time. Primakov later became a prominent figure in politics during both the Yeltsin and Putin eras. ★

Although Reagan was already 69 years old when he was first elected president by a large margin, defeating Carter and becoming the oldest head of state in modern American history, he still successfully reshaped the country from 1981 to 1989. *** and the party's "conservative" image. While seeking re-election in 1984, Reagan created a miracle by successfully winning 49 of the 50 states in the United States with his powerful slogan of "America Renewed" and his optimistic and people-friendly style. On March 30, 1981, Reagan was assassinated and shot several times. One of the bullets almost hit his heart. However, the old man miraculously escaped from danger and recovered quickly. During Reagan's second term, he was plagued by the "Iran-Contra scandal." There have been accusations that his administration authorized arms sales to Iran in exchange for the release of American hostages held in Lebanon. Despite this, Reagan remained the most popular president in modern history when he left the White House, and was regarded by Republicans as a role model and role model for conservative political power.

In order to establish the super hegemony of the United States, Reagan continued to increase various budgets, which eventually tripled the debt level of the United States. However, he still achieved his goal of bringing down the former Soviet Union through the arms race. Reagan's more famous strategy at that time was to actively expand U.S. armaments on the one hand, and to actively discuss "disarmament matters" with the former Soviet Union on the other. In addition, Reagan also proposed the idea of ??streamlining government. Before entering the White House, Reagan served as a sportscaster, actor, television entertainer, spokesman for General Electric, and two-term governor of California.