Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 31. maj 2008 / Time Line May 31, 2008
Version 3.005/31/2008
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No.
251
Compiled and edited by Thomas Blanton and Svetlana Savranskaya
Washington D.C., May 31, 2008 - Twenty years ago today, President
Ronald Reagan declared the end of the Cold War while walking
through Red Square and the Kremlin in Moscow during a summit
meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that was friendly and
largely ceremonial, according to the previously secret summit
transcripts published today on the Web by the National Security
Archive (www.nsarchive.org).
Asked by a reporter on the Kremlin grounds May 31, 1988 about the
famous "evil empire" speech of 1983, Reagan responded, "I was
talking about another time, another era." The underlying documents
from the summit, obtained through Freedom of Information Act
requests in the U.S. and from the Gorbachev Foundation in Moscow,
show that Gorbachev was thwarted in his efforts for rapid arms
control progress by lack of trust on the U.S. side, and that the
"human factor" reflected in Reagan's comments was the most
important outcome of the summit.
The documents include the official U.S. transcripts of the
face-to-face meetings in Moscow between Reagan and Gorbachev, the
President's briefing book for the summit (prepared by the State
Department), notes from Soviet Politburo sessions before and after
the summit (taken by Gorbachev aide Anatoly Chernyaev), the U.S.
National Security Decision Directives leading up to the summit, and
the talking points sent to U.S. embassies around the world after
the summit.
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