In October 1986, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met for a forty-eight-hour summit in Reykjavik, Iceland. Originally intended as a short, inconsequential gathering to outline future talks, the meeting quickly turned to major international issues, including the Strategic Defense Initiative and the possibility of eliminating all nuclear weapons. With both men at the height of their power, they had the rare opportunity to move towards disarmament and peace in a way neither side had predicted.
