Geneva Summit (1985)

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". 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 , 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". 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 communication 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. Dispute over final communique on the evening of November 20, 1985 With regards to planning for the summit's final ceremony, both Reagan and Shultz pressed Gorbachev to agree to having the two leaders perform a more visual verbal statement in front of the assembled press and television cameras in addition to the signing ceremony, arguing that "if these leaders were simply present and went through the business of signing documents, it would not be the same thing as having them actually speak." The memorandum of conversations shows Gorbachev having difficulty with the apparent disingenuousness of warm-sounding verbal statements as opposed to the colder reality of a written communique, saying that ultimately, there "was no need for rose-colored glasses": ==Third day==

Conclusion and agreements On November 21, 1985, at Geneva's International Conference Center (CICG), Reagan and Gorbachev held a joint press conference announcing several agreements, including implementation of the already signed Northern Pacific Air Safety accord that aimed at preventing a repeat of the Soviet downing of Korean Airlines Flight 007 in September 1983. A signing ceremony followed, with an agreement on the opening of consulates in Kiev and New York being signed, as well as agreements to renew regular U.S.Soviet dialogue on future summit meetings. Fortyone cultural exchange agreements were also signed, including the restart of exchanges of theatrical and artistic groups and major art exhibits that were suspended after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. and the combined Soviet Union which Gorbachev gave to Reagan at the conclusion of the Geneva Summit. At the end of the summit, Reagan gave Gorbachev a Colonial Williamsburg Chippendale-style mahogany box and desk set with fountain pens, carrying the theme "peace through communications", selected in honor of the 10th anniversary of the U.S.Soviet Apollo–Soyuz space mission. Gorbachev gave Reagan a set of 16 bronze medallions in a leather case representing the 15 constituent Soviet Republics along with the combined Soviet Union. After a stop in Brussels to brief allies, Reagan returned to Washington to give an address on the summit to a joint session of Congress. Gorbachev on his return trip to Moscow stopped in Prague to brief the Soviets' Warsaw Pact allies. ==Legacy==

Although the summit lacked the larger-type agreements seen in past summits such as SALT, the summit did help to reset relations, which by that point had reached a nadir, with no summit having been held for six years. Both Reagan and Gorbachev came away from Geneva feeling that they had "started something", with Reagan saying that the meetings in Geneva "expressed the will and desire of both sides to find answers that would benefit not only all the people of the world, but also the yet unborn". Gorbachev agreed, saying "if now we have laid the first few bricks, we have made a new start, a new phase has begun." Reagan's use of miseenscène According to Jack Matlock, instances during the summit which seemed to register most in the public consciousness, such as Reagan's absent overcoat and the pool house's roaring fireplace, showcased the role that public relationsin particular, the use of imageryplayed in helping to convey the president's preferred messages, since in the Reagan White House, "few questions received more attention". == Key statements related to the summit ==