In October 1986, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and President Reagan held an extraordinary meeting in Iceland, where they came close to agreeing on abolishing their offensive nuclear weapons within a decade. Earlier, in Geneva, they had jointly declared that a “nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”1Hoover Institution. “The War That Must Never Be Fought.” Accessed August 4, 2023. Link.
However, the agreement fell apart due to disagreements over missile defense testing and the Strategic Defense Initiative research being conducted in the United States. The Soviets advocated for a strict interpretation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, limiting research and development to laboratories. On the other hand, the United States sought a broader interpretation that allowed for the development and testing of space-based missile defense technology.
The Reykjavik summit did lead to the elimination of intermediate-range ballistic missiles and placed nuclear disarmament back on the agenda. Nonetheless, the two leaders missed a monumental opportunity for complete nuclear disarmament.
