Ad
'It all begins with trust and respectful dialogue' . US president Ronald Reagan says goodbye to Mikhail Gorbachev after the 1986 Reykajivk summit (Photo: Ronald Reagan archives/Public Domain)

When Reagan met Gorbachev — a history lesson for Putin

At a speech to the American Bar Foundation in 1962, President John Kennedy's secretary of defense Robert McNamara unveiled a term Mutually Assured Destruction to incapacitate the Soviet Union in the event of a nuclear attack.

Using a retaliatory strike, it would destroy one-third of the Soviet population and one-half of its industrial complex rendering the superpower powerless. McNamara noted this approach was "the cornerstone of our strategic policy" and "the very essence of the whole...

Get EU news that matters

Back our independent journalism by becoming a supporting member

Already a member? Login here

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s, not those of EUobserver

Author Bio

Guillaume Serina is author of An Impossible Dream. Reagan, Gorbachev and the World Without the Bomb.\nStewart Mackinnon is CEO of Circle Pictures, creator and executive producer of Man in the High Castle, Amazon’s most watched television series and executive producer of Tear Down This Wall – a drama about the 1986 summit at Reykjavik.

'It all begins with trust and respectful dialogue' . US president Ronald Reagan says goodbye to Mikhail Gorbachev after the 1986 Reykajivk summit (Photo: Ronald Reagan archives/Public Domain)

Tags

Author Bio

Guillaume Serina is author of An Impossible Dream. Reagan, Gorbachev and the World Without the Bomb.\nStewart Mackinnon is CEO of Circle Pictures, creator and executive producer of Man in the High Castle, Amazon’s most watched television series and executive producer of Tear Down This Wall – a drama about the 1986 summit at Reykjavik.

Ad

Related articles

Ad
Ad