This is the text of my Toastmasters speech from today
It was a warm June day in our nation’s capital. The delicate pink blossoms had all faded and fallen from the many cherry trees surrounding the heart of Washington. The sun beat down on the throngs of mourners who had lined up outside the Capitol building to pay their last respects to the 40th president of the United States, Ronald Regan.
Quietly taking his place in that line was an elderly man in a conservative blue suit. Unremarkable except for the distinctive birthmark on his bald pate, he drew little attention to himself as he wiped the perspiration from his well-known brow. This, of course, was Mikhail Gorbachev, who had flown in from Moscow to offer condolences to Nancy Reagan and to pay his last respects to his old adversary.
As he approached the flag-draped casket, he bowed his head in respect. He then reached out and gave the casket a tender pat and said something quietly, which some standing nearby said sounded like “До свидания, мой старый друг – Good-Bye, my old friend.”
That the two men had become friends is as certain as it is astounding, considering how their relationship began. After their first meeting in 1985, Gorbachev remarked to his aids that “Regan is a real dinosaur.” For his part, Reagan saw Gorbachev as a “die-hard Communist.” Not a promising beginning.
But we get ahead of ourselves. Let’s back up a bit. When Ronald Regan became president in 1981, Leonid Brezhnev was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, having succeeded Nikita Krushev in 1964. His health was failing and he died in 1982 and was succeeded by Yuri Andropov, another aging hold-over from the Stalin years. He lived only until 1984 and was replaced by yet another of his contemporaries, Konstantin Chernenko, who lived only until March of 1985.
All three of these leaders of the Soviet Union had exchanged correspondence with Reagan, much of it related to reducing nuclear arms. But little progress had been made. Bi-lateral talks in Geneva were stalled. In January, 1985 at the beginning of his second term, Regan had invited Chernenko to a summit meeting in Washington. When he died two months later, his replacement, young and energetic Mikhail Gorbachev, eagerly accepted the invitation, but suggested a neutral site. And so the summit was set for November, 1985 in Geneva.
There is no doubt that Ronald Regan had plenty of shortcomings. But he was not short on optimism or confidence in his ability to sit down with anyone and find a solution to issues they were facing. And so he desperately wanted to get away from his handlers and have some one-on-one time with Gorbachev. During a break on the first day of the summit, Regan invited Gorbachev to take a walk outside in the fresh air. On the walk the two exchanged frank if opposing views on several subjects. Regan invited Gorbachev to Washington to see America for himself – and in turn he invited Regan to Moscow – both invitations were accepted. Though no specific progress was made on arms reduction, they issued a joint statement that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must not be fought,” and they set the stage for two future summits.
One of the major sticking points was Regan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, known popularly as “Star Wars,” a program to deploy an anti-missile defense in space. Every time they met, Regan and Gorbachev did a little dance over SDI. Regan would insist that the program was purely defensive. Gorbachev would argue that it could be used offensively. Regan would disagree, Gorbachev would say it opens up an arms race in space. And so on.
In early 1986 the negotiations in Geneva continued with out a breakthrough. The prospect for a hoped-for summit in Washington, during which a major treaty would be signed, was looking rather bleak. Gorbachev proposed a summit in Reykjavik, Iceland with hopes that he and Regan could produce a breakthrough on a nuclear arms agreement. As the summit opened on October 11, Gorbachev proposed drastic cuts in all classes of nuclear weapons. Regan agreed. Then Gorbachev told Regan this is provided the US confines SDI to the laboratory. As the time of the summit was drawing to a close the two met privately, while all their aids waited for them. When Regan and Gorbachev emerged from their meeting, their long faces told the story, Regan had not relented on SDI and Gorbachev would not go forward with his proposal.
The summit at Reykjavik was widely viewed as a failure, but the two world leaders continued their dialog through correspondence, both committed to finding a way to reduce nuclear tensions. The correspondence between the two leaders continued throughout 1987 – finally the Soviets agreed to reduce intermediate nuclear weapons without insisting on the US dropping SDI. Gorbachev came to Washington and on December 8, 1987 the two countries signed the INF treaty, for the first time reducing actual numbers of existing nuclear arsenals.
It was a small step, but a decisive one. The Senate ratified the INF treaty on May 27, 1988, two days before Regan arrived in Moscow for a summit. No new treaties were signed at that summit, but Regan addressed a huge crowd of students at Moscow State University, declaring “We do not know what the conclusion will be of this journey, but we’re hopeful that the promise of reform will be fulfilled. In this Moscow spring, the May 1988, we may be allowed that hope: that freedom, like the fresh green sapling planted over Tolstoy’s grave, will blossom forth at last in the rich fertile soil of your people and culture.”
And freedom did blossom in Russia and Eastern Europe. Gorbachev introduced unprecedented freedoms in the Soviet Union. In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell and by the end of 1991 the Soviet Union was dissolved.
These developments, marking the end of the cold war and the end of nuclear tension between the two great superpowers, is largely the story of two men. Two men who viewed the world so differently, but who found a way to make that world a safer place. Adversaries, indeed. But respected adversaries, and in the end, friends.
