Summitry Primer

The good news is that the Reykjavik microsummit collapsed. Engineering that meeting was a bold move on Mikhail Gorbachev’s part. The Soviet squeeze started with the Daniloff frameup. Having startled the world with his Reykjavik proposal, Gorbachev pushed his luck by issuing a kind of ultimatum on the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI): If you want arms control, keep Star Wars in the laboratory.

President Reagan saw through this and stood firm. End of microsummit.