Gorbachev And Reagan The Capitalist And Communist Who Helped End The Cold War Mikhail Gorbachev

“Mikhail Gorbachev and my wife and I became friends over the years,” Reagan said from Los Angeles on Tuesday after learning of the Russian’s death at age 91. “What I remember most is him telling me that whenever he and my father met. My father always ended every meeting with ‘If it is God’s will,’ and Mikhail Gorbachev would say to me, ‘I looked around the room for to see if God was there.” Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev, a capitalist and a communist, were an unlikely pair, but their series of high-profile summits have been praised for helping to end the Cold War. Together they negotiated a landmark agreement in 1987 to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles. Former Reagan administration officials spoke Tuesday about the leaders’ chemistry and shared a determination to pull the world back from the brink of a superpower war. They praised Gorbachev as a Soviet leader who, unlike his ruthless predecessors, was willing to work constructively with Washington.

A new kind of Soviet leader

Reagan had labeled the Soviet Union an “evil empire,” but his political soul mate, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, said in 1984: “I like Mr. Gorbachev. We can do business together.” In the following years, Reagan and Gorbachev held their first summit in Geneva. Ken Adelman, who as Reagan’s arms control director and attended the summit, recalls: “I was at lunch with him and he walks in and says, ‘This is a new kind of Soviet leader.’ I was kind of amused because he had never met an old Soviet leader, but he was absolutely right.” He added: “Reagan saw himself as a great negotiator and saw his life as a great negotiation. He was very sad that, he said, he could not speak to all the Soviet leaders before Gorbachev “because they keep dying against me”. What should I do?’” Adelman, 76, author of Reagan at Reykjavik: Forty-Eight Hours that Ended the Cold War, would not describe the men as friends, but said they were always polite to each other. “What did Ronald Reagan show great backbone at the Reykjavik summit in 1986 when he walked away without destroying SDI — the Strategic Defense Initiative — when Gorbachev’s top priority was to destroy SDI. “So I think Gorbachev admired Reagan. Reagan certainly liked Gorbachev because he was a new type of Soviet leader he could relate to, and they saw their futures intertwined and their greatness. That was certainly the case when they came up with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which was the first treaty to eliminate an entire class of nuclear weapons.” Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev wear cowboy hats as they enjoy a moment at Reagan’s Rancho del Cielo north of Santa Barbara in 1992 Photo: Bob Galbraith/AP Another witness to the incredibly high-profile negotiations was Jim Kuhn, then an assistant to the president. Now 70 and based in Alexandria, Virginia, he recalls Thatcher coming to Camp David to discuss her meeting with Gorbachev and convincing Reagan that he was different and willing to listen. Kuhn said: “What made the most difference to Reagan was when Thatcher told him she never interrupted me, she never interrupted me whenever I spoke my mind. This opened Reagan’s mind to Gorbachev, so he went there with an open mind. He knew that this summit could lead to another and maybe another and maybe there was some way to start curbing the nuclear arms race.”

“There’s a chemistry between us”

The first one-on-one meeting in Geneva was supposed to last 20 minutes, but lasted an hour and a half, Kuhn continued, and Reagan’s first impression was positive. “His words were, ‘There’s a chemistry between us, we listen to each other, we don’t agree, but maybe there’s a way to continue. We have a long way to go here and we hope to find some common ground.’ “We had worked out that Reagan, in the second session, would take Gorbachev for a ride in Geneva along the lake there. There was a little house on the lake, and once the two met with interpreters, that’s when Reagan said to Gorbachev, “Mr. Secretary General, you can never win a full arms race with the United States because we will always have the ability to get over”. “This set the tone for future summits. Gorbachev was very intelligent and prepared. He understood that things had to change and that Reagan was the guy he could work with, and one summit led to another and then another.” But Kuhn noted that the leaders, whose wives “didn’t do so well,” also had major disagreements, especially on human rights. “Reagan would give Gorbachev a list of people being held against their will and mistreated in the Soviet Union. It just made Gorbachev’s blood boil: you say, why are they hitting me with this? “So he came back and attacked Reagan, saying, don’t lecture me about how to run my country or how we treat our people. you’ve got people living on sidewalks and shacks and you’ve got crime out of control.” In 1987, Reagan famously urged West Berlin: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Two years later popular revolutions swept away communist governments in East Germany and the rest of eastern Europe. Gorbachev and Reagan’s successor, President George H.W. Bush, met at a summit in Malta and hailed the end of the Cold War. Gorbachev and Reagan sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 1987 Photo: Historical/Corbis/Getty Images Ed Rogers, who was a special assistant to Reagan and deputy assistant to Bush, attended the Malta summit and believes Gorbachev deserves more credit. He said on Tuesday: “Gorbachev was intellectually honest about the ambitions he had for the Soviet Union. He wanted a healthy, prosperous society. “He was intellectually honest about what the economic system had produced in Russia, in the satellite states that made up the Soviet Union, and he knew that more of the same was undesirable. “He was intellectually honest about human aspirations. He didn’t point guns at people in Berlin. He did not point guns at people who came to the embassy in Hungary. He decided that the answer to the problems of the Soviet Union was not to shoot a bunch of innocent people.” Rogers added: “Gorbachev didn’t crash the Soviet Union, he brought it in for a soft landing. It was a huge geopolitical event thanks to his honesty and decency.” Bill Kristol, who also served in the Reagan administration and is now a political commentator, tweeted: “We Reaganites cringed when some gave Gorbachev credit (more than Reagan!) for ending the Cold War and the Soviet Union. But it was very important. He may not have intended the results, but he was unwilling to use violence to prevent them. And that was the key.” At a White House meeting in 1987, Reagan remarked, “We heard the wisdom in an old Russian saying. And I’m sure you’re familiar with it, although my accent might make it difficult for you. The maxim is: Dovorey no provorey – trust, but verify.’ Gorbachev said: “You repeat it at every meeting.” Reagan replied, “I like it.”

title: “Gorbachev And Reagan The Capitalist And Communist Who Helped End The Cold War Mikhail Gorbachev Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-25” author: “Abraham Beech”

“Mikhail Gorbachev and my wife and I became friends over the years,” Reagan said from Los Angeles on Tuesday after learning of the Russian’s death at age 91. “What I remember most is him telling me that whenever he and my father met. My father always ended every meeting with ‘If it is God’s will,’ and Mikhail Gorbachev would say to me, ‘I looked around the room for to see if God was there.” Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev, a capitalist and a communist, were an unlikely pair, but their series of high-profile summits have been praised for helping to end the Cold War. Together they negotiated a landmark agreement in 1987 to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles. Former Reagan administration officials spoke Tuesday about the leaders’ chemistry and shared a determination to pull the world back from the brink of a superpower war. They praised Gorbachev as a Soviet leader who, unlike his ruthless predecessors, was willing to work constructively with Washington.

A new kind of Soviet leader

Reagan had labeled the Soviet Union an “evil empire,” but his political soul mate, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, said in 1984: “I like Mr. Gorbachev. We can do business together.” In the following years, Reagan and Gorbachev held their first summit in Geneva. Ken Adelman, who as Reagan’s arms control director and attended the summit, recalls: “I was at lunch with him and he walks in and says, ‘This is a new kind of Soviet leader.’ I was kind of amused because he had never met an old Soviet leader, but he was absolutely right.” He added: “Reagan saw himself as a great negotiator and saw his life as a great negotiation. He was very sad that, he said, he could not speak to all the Soviet leaders before Gorbachev “because they keep dying against me”. What should I do?’” Adelman, 76, author of Reagan at Reykjavik: Forty-Eight Hours that Ended the Cold War, would not describe the men as friends, but said they were always polite to each other. “What did Ronald Reagan show great backbone at the Reykjavik summit in 1986 when he walked away without destroying SDI — the Strategic Defense Initiative — when Gorbachev’s top priority was to destroy SDI. “So I think Gorbachev admired Reagan. Reagan certainly liked Gorbachev because he was a new type of Soviet leader he could relate to, and they saw their futures intertwined and their greatness. That was certainly the case when they came up with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which was the first treaty to eliminate an entire class of nuclear weapons.” Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev wear cowboy hats as they enjoy a moment at Reagan’s Rancho del Cielo north of Santa Barbara in 1992 Photo: Bob Galbraith/AP Another witness to the incredibly high-profile negotiations was Jim Kuhn, then an assistant to the president. Now 70 and based in Alexandria, Virginia, he recalls Thatcher coming to Camp David to discuss her meeting with Gorbachev and convincing Reagan that he was different and willing to listen. Kuhn said: “What made the most difference to Reagan was when Thatcher told him she never interrupted me, she never interrupted me whenever I spoke my mind. This opened Reagan’s mind to Gorbachev, so he went there with an open mind. He knew that this summit could lead to another and maybe another and maybe there was some way to start curbing the nuclear arms race.”

“There’s a chemistry between us”

The first one-on-one meeting in Geneva was supposed to last 20 minutes, but lasted an hour and a half, Kuhn continued, and Reagan’s first impression was positive. “His words were, ‘There’s a chemistry between us, we listen to each other, we don’t agree, but maybe there’s a way to continue. We have a long way to go here and we hope to find some common ground.’ “We had worked out that Reagan, in the second session, would take Gorbachev for a ride in Geneva along the lake there. There was a little house on the lake, and once the two met with interpreters, that’s when Reagan said to Gorbachev, “Mr. Secretary General, you can never win a full arms race with the United States because we will always have the ability to get over”. “This set the tone for future summits. Gorbachev was very intelligent and prepared. He understood that things had to change and that Reagan was the guy he could work with, and one summit led to another and then another.” But Kuhn noted that the leaders, whose wives “didn’t do so well,” also had major disagreements, especially on human rights. “Reagan would give Gorbachev a list of people being held against their will and mistreated in the Soviet Union. It just made Gorbachev’s blood boil: you say, why are they hitting me with this? “So he came back and attacked Reagan, saying, don’t lecture me about how to run my country or how we treat our people. you’ve got people living on sidewalks and shacks and you’ve got crime out of control.” In 1987, Reagan famously urged West Berlin: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Two years later popular revolutions swept away communist governments in East Germany and the rest of eastern Europe. Gorbachev and Reagan’s successor, President George H.W. Bush, met at a summit in Malta and hailed the end of the Cold War. Gorbachev and Reagan sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 1987 Photo: Historical/Corbis/Getty Images Ed Rogers, who was a special assistant to Reagan and deputy assistant to Bush, attended the Malta summit and believes Gorbachev deserves more credit. He said on Tuesday: “Gorbachev was intellectually honest about the ambitions he had for the Soviet Union. He wanted a healthy, prosperous society. “He was intellectually honest about what the economic system had produced in Russia, in the satellite states that made up the Soviet Union, and he knew that more of the same was undesirable. “He was intellectually honest about human aspirations. He didn’t point guns at people in Berlin. He did not point guns at people who came to the embassy in Hungary. He decided that the answer to the problems of the Soviet Union was not to shoot a bunch of innocent people.” Rogers added: “Gorbachev didn’t crash the Soviet Union, he brought it in for a soft landing. It was a huge geopolitical event thanks to his honesty and decency.” Bill Kristol, who also served in the Reagan administration and is now a political commentator, tweeted: “We Reaganites cringed when some gave Gorbachev credit (more than Reagan!) for ending the Cold War and the Soviet Union. But it was very important. He may not have intended the results, but he was unwilling to use violence to prevent them. And that was the key.” At a White House meeting in 1987, Reagan remarked, “We heard the wisdom in an old Russian saying. And I’m sure you’re familiar with it, although my accent might make it difficult for you. The maxim is: Dovorey no provorey – trust, but verify.’ Gorbachev said: “You repeat it at every meeting.” Reagan replied, “I like it.”

title: “Gorbachev And Reagan The Capitalist And Communist Who Helped End The Cold War Mikhail Gorbachev Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-04” author: “Leila Ward”

“Mikhail Gorbachev and my wife and I became friends over the years,” Reagan said from Los Angeles on Tuesday after learning of the Russian’s death at age 91. “What I remember most is him telling me that whenever he and my father met. My father always ended every meeting with ‘If it is God’s will,’ and Mikhail Gorbachev would say to me, ‘I looked around the room for to see if God was there.” Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev, a capitalist and a communist, were an unlikely pair, but their series of high-profile summits have been praised for helping to end the Cold War. Together they negotiated a landmark agreement in 1987 to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles. Former Reagan administration officials spoke Tuesday about the leaders’ chemistry and shared a determination to pull the world back from the brink of a superpower war. They praised Gorbachev as a Soviet leader who, unlike his ruthless predecessors, was willing to work constructively with Washington.

A new kind of Soviet leader

Reagan had labeled the Soviet Union an “evil empire,” but his political soul mate, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, said in 1984: “I like Mr. Gorbachev. We can do business together.” In the following years, Reagan and Gorbachev held their first summit in Geneva. Ken Adelman, who as Reagan’s arms control director and attended the summit, recalls: “I was at lunch with him and he walks in and says, ‘This is a new kind of Soviet leader.’ I was kind of amused because he had never met an old Soviet leader, but he was absolutely right.” He added: “Reagan saw himself as a great negotiator and saw his life as a great negotiation. He was very sad that, he said, he could not speak to all the Soviet leaders before Gorbachev “because they keep dying against me”. What should I do?’” Adelman, 76, author of Reagan at Reykjavik: Forty-Eight Hours that Ended the Cold War, would not describe the men as friends, but said they were always polite to each other. “What did Ronald Reagan show great backbone at the Reykjavik summit in 1986 when he walked away without destroying SDI — the Strategic Defense Initiative — when Gorbachev’s top priority was to destroy SDI. “So I think Gorbachev admired Reagan. Reagan certainly liked Gorbachev because he was a new type of Soviet leader he could relate to, and they saw their futures intertwined and their greatness. That was certainly the case when they came up with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which was the first treaty to eliminate an entire class of nuclear weapons.” Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev wear cowboy hats as they enjoy a moment at Reagan’s Rancho del Cielo north of Santa Barbara in 1992 Photo: Bob Galbraith/AP Another witness to the incredibly high-profile negotiations was Jim Kuhn, then an assistant to the president. Now 70 and based in Alexandria, Virginia, he recalls Thatcher coming to Camp David to discuss her meeting with Gorbachev and convincing Reagan that he was different and willing to listen. Kuhn said: “What made the most difference to Reagan was when Thatcher told him she never interrupted me, she never interrupted me whenever I spoke my mind. This opened Reagan’s mind to Gorbachev, so he went there with an open mind. He knew that this summit could lead to another and maybe another and maybe there was some way to start curbing the nuclear arms race.”

“There’s a chemistry between us”

The first one-on-one meeting in Geneva was supposed to last 20 minutes, but lasted an hour and a half, Kuhn continued, and Reagan’s first impression was positive. “His words were, ‘There’s a chemistry between us, we listen to each other, we don’t agree, but maybe there’s a way to continue. We have a long way to go here and we hope to find some common ground.’ “We had worked out that Reagan, in the second session, would take Gorbachev for a ride in Geneva along the lake there. There was a little house on the lake, and once the two met with interpreters, that’s when Reagan said to Gorbachev, “Mr. Secretary General, you can never win a full arms race with the United States because we will always have the ability to get over”. “This set the tone for future summits. Gorbachev was very intelligent and prepared. He understood that things had to change and that Reagan was the guy he could work with, and one summit led to another and then another.” But Kuhn noted that the leaders, whose wives “didn’t do so well,” also had major disagreements, especially on human rights. “Reagan would give Gorbachev a list of people being held against their will and mistreated in the Soviet Union. It just made Gorbachev’s blood boil: you say, why are they hitting me with this? “So he came back and attacked Reagan, saying, don’t lecture me about how to run my country or how we treat our people. you’ve got people living on sidewalks and shacks and you’ve got crime out of control.” In 1987, Reagan famously urged West Berlin: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Two years later popular revolutions swept away communist governments in East Germany and the rest of eastern Europe. Gorbachev and Reagan’s successor, President George H.W. Bush, met at a summit in Malta and hailed the end of the Cold War. Gorbachev and Reagan sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 1987 Photo: Historical/Corbis/Getty Images Ed Rogers, who was a special assistant to Reagan and deputy assistant to Bush, attended the Malta summit and believes Gorbachev deserves more credit. He said on Tuesday: “Gorbachev was intellectually honest about the ambitions he had for the Soviet Union. He wanted a healthy, prosperous society. “He was intellectually honest about what the economic system had produced in Russia, in the satellite states that made up the Soviet Union, and he knew that more of the same was undesirable. “He was intellectually honest about human aspirations. He didn’t point guns at people in Berlin. He did not point guns at people who came to the embassy in Hungary. He decided that the answer to the problems of the Soviet Union was not to shoot a bunch of innocent people.” Rogers added: “Gorbachev didn’t crash the Soviet Union, he brought it in for a soft landing. It was a huge geopolitical event thanks to his honesty and decency.” Bill Kristol, who also served in the Reagan administration and is now a political commentator, tweeted: “We Reaganites cringed when some gave Gorbachev credit (more than Reagan!) for ending the Cold War and the Soviet Union. But it was very important. He may not have intended the results, but he was unwilling to use violence to prevent them. And that was the key.” At a White House meeting in 1987, Reagan remarked, “We heard the wisdom in an old Russian saying. And I’m sure you’re familiar with it, although my accent might make it difficult for you. The maxim is: Dovorey no provorey – trust, but verify.’ Gorbachev said: “You repeat it at every meeting.” Reagan replied, “I like it.”

title: “Gorbachev And Reagan The Capitalist And Communist Who Helped End The Cold War Mikhail Gorbachev Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-02” author: “Lisa Roberts”

“Mikhail Gorbachev and my wife and I became friends over the years,” Reagan said from Los Angeles on Tuesday after learning of the Russian’s death at age 91. “What I remember most is him telling me that whenever he and my father met. My father always ended every meeting with ‘If it is God’s will,’ and Mikhail Gorbachev would say to me, ‘I looked around the room for to see if God was there.” Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev, a capitalist and a communist, were an unlikely pair, but their series of high-profile summits have been praised for helping to end the Cold War. Together they negotiated a landmark agreement in 1987 to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles. Former Reagan administration officials spoke Tuesday about the leaders’ chemistry and shared a determination to pull the world back from the brink of a superpower war. They praised Gorbachev as a Soviet leader who, unlike his ruthless predecessors, was willing to work constructively with Washington.

A new kind of Soviet leader

Reagan had labeled the Soviet Union an “evil empire,” but his political soul mate, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, said in 1984: “I like Mr. Gorbachev. We can do business together.” In the following years, Reagan and Gorbachev held their first summit in Geneva. Ken Adelman, who as Reagan’s arms control director and attended the summit, recalls: “I was at lunch with him and he walks in and says, ‘This is a new kind of Soviet leader.’ I was kind of amused because he had never met an old Soviet leader, but he was absolutely right.” He added: “Reagan saw himself as a great negotiator and saw his life as a great negotiation. He was very sad that, he said, he could not speak to all the Soviet leaders before Gorbachev “because they keep dying against me”. What should I do?’” Adelman, 76, author of Reagan at Reykjavik: Forty-Eight Hours that Ended the Cold War, would not describe the men as friends, but said they were always polite to each other. “What did Ronald Reagan show great backbone at the Reykjavik summit in 1986 when he walked away without destroying SDI — the Strategic Defense Initiative — when Gorbachev’s top priority was to destroy SDI. “So I think Gorbachev admired Reagan. Reagan certainly liked Gorbachev because he was a new type of Soviet leader he could relate to, and they saw their futures intertwined and their greatness. That was certainly the case when they came up with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which was the first treaty to eliminate an entire class of nuclear weapons.” Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev wear cowboy hats as they enjoy a moment at Reagan’s Rancho del Cielo north of Santa Barbara in 1992 Photo: Bob Galbraith/AP Another witness to the incredibly high-profile negotiations was Jim Kuhn, then an assistant to the president. Now 70 and based in Alexandria, Virginia, he recalls Thatcher coming to Camp David to discuss her meeting with Gorbachev and convincing Reagan that he was different and willing to listen. Kuhn said: “What made the most difference to Reagan was when Thatcher told him she never interrupted me, she never interrupted me whenever I spoke my mind. This opened Reagan’s mind to Gorbachev, so he went there with an open mind. He knew that this summit could lead to another and maybe another and maybe there was some way to start curbing the nuclear arms race.”

“There’s a chemistry between us”

The first one-on-one meeting in Geneva was supposed to last 20 minutes, but lasted an hour and a half, Kuhn continued, and Reagan’s first impression was positive. “His words were, ‘There’s a chemistry between us, we listen to each other, we don’t agree, but maybe there’s a way to continue. We have a long way to go here and we hope to find some common ground.’ “We had worked out that Reagan, in the second session, would take Gorbachev for a ride in Geneva along the lake there. There was a little house on the lake, and once the two met with interpreters, that’s when Reagan said to Gorbachev, “Mr. Secretary General, you can never win a full arms race with the United States because we will always have the ability to get over”. “This set the tone for future summits. Gorbachev was very intelligent and prepared. He understood that things had to change and that Reagan was the guy he could work with, and one summit led to another and then another.” But Kuhn noted that the leaders, whose wives “didn’t do so well,” also had major disagreements, especially on human rights. “Reagan would give Gorbachev a list of people being held against their will and mistreated in the Soviet Union. It just made Gorbachev’s blood boil: you say, why are they hitting me with this? “So he came back and attacked Reagan, saying, don’t lecture me about how to run my country or how we treat our people. you’ve got people living on sidewalks and shacks and you’ve got crime out of control.” In 1987, Reagan famously urged West Berlin: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Two years later popular revolutions swept away communist governments in East Germany and the rest of eastern Europe. Gorbachev and Reagan’s successor, President George H.W. Bush, met at a summit in Malta and hailed the end of the Cold War. Gorbachev and Reagan sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 1987 Photo: Historical/Corbis/Getty Images Ed Rogers, who was a special assistant to Reagan and deputy assistant to Bush, attended the Malta summit and believes Gorbachev deserves more credit. He said on Tuesday: “Gorbachev was intellectually honest about the ambitions he had for the Soviet Union. He wanted a healthy, prosperous society. “He was intellectually honest about what the economic system had produced in Russia, in the satellite states that made up the Soviet Union, and he knew that more of the same was undesirable. “He was intellectually honest about human aspirations. He didn’t point guns at people in Berlin. He did not point guns at people who came to the embassy in Hungary. He decided that the answer to the problems of the Soviet Union was not to shoot a bunch of innocent people.” Rogers added: “Gorbachev didn’t crash the Soviet Union, he brought it in for a soft landing. It was a huge geopolitical event thanks to his honesty and decency.” Bill Kristol, who also served in the Reagan administration and is now a political commentator, tweeted: “We Reaganites cringed when some gave Gorbachev credit (more than Reagan!) for ending the Cold War and the Soviet Union. But it was very important. He may not have intended the results, but he was unwilling to use violence to prevent them. And that was the key.” At a White House meeting in 1987, Reagan remarked, “We heard the wisdom in an old Russian saying. And I’m sure you’re familiar with it, although my accent might make it difficult for you. The maxim is: Dovorey no provorey – trust, but verify.’ Gorbachev said: “You repeat it at every meeting.” Reagan replied, “I like it.”