Other Reykjavik Resources

Other Reykjavik Resources.

Our understanding of the role of the Reykjavik Summit in forever altering the U.S. and Soviet relationship has grown over the years. Former Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev has gone as far as to say he believes the Cold War ended during this historic 1986 Summit. Below are additional resources that explore this summit in great detail.

The Reykjavik File: Previously Secret Documents from U.S. and Soviet Archives on the 1986 Reagan-Gorbachev Summit

President Reagan meeting with Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev at Hofdi House during the Reykjavik Summit Iceland.

From the collections of The National Security ArchiveGeorge Washington University, Washington DC Electronic Briefing Book No. 203 Posted – October 13, 2006Edited by Dr. Svetlana Savranskaya and Thomas Blanton

Full Index

End of Cold War Forum

The End of the Cold War Forum is an experimental off-the-record discussion by scholars and former officials of issues relating to the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union.At present, the discussion in the Forum concentrates on events between 1980 and the end of 1991, and uses as its basis declassified official documents in the National Security Archive at George Washington University and in other depositories. Its objective is to amplify the information in official documents with the perspective of the persons who created them. The documents alone rarely if ever tell the whole story and memories alone can be inaccurate…

“Looking Back: 1986 Reykjavik Summit” by Ambassador James E. Goodby

Back view lonely man sitting bench with dark clouds.

The story of the 1986 Reykjavik summit meeting is a tale of two visionary leaders and an “impossible dream.” It was the most remarkable summit ever held between U.S. and Soviet leaders. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev seriously discussed the elimination of all ballistic missiles held by their two countries and aired the possibility of eliminating all nuclear weapons…Full Article

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