Press Release

Office of the Historian
Foreign Service Institute
United States Department of State
December 1, 2020

The Department of State released today Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume V, Soviet Union, March 1985–October 1986.

This volume is part of a subseries of volumes of the Foreign Relations series that documents the foreign policy decisions of the administration of President Ronald Reagan. The volume documents the development and implementation of the Reagan administration’s policies toward the Soviet Union from March 1985 to October 1986. The volume focuses on how the administration approached the new Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, and his reform efforts; arms control negotiations at the Nuclear and Space Talks, which opened in Geneva in March 1985; the Geneva Summit of November 1985 and the Reykjavik Summit of October 1986, and various meetings among President Reagan, Secretary of State George Shultz, and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, his replacement Eduard Shevardnadze, and Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin.

The documentation in this volume provides a more nuanced understanding of the relationship that developed between Reagan and Gorbachev during this period, through their summits and correspondence. The volume also shows how the Reagan administration continued to adhere to the four-part framework it established in January 1983 in dealing with the Soviet Union, regardless of the new leadership of Gorbachev. Administration officials worked diligently to move the U.S.-Soviet relationship forward; the sustained level of understanding and cooperation they developed with Gorbachev and Shevardnadze played a major role in this endeavor.

This volume was compiled and edited by Elizabeth C. Charles. The volume and this press release are available on the Office of the Historian website at https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1981-88v05. Copies of the volume will be available for purchase from the U.S. Government Publishing Office online at http://bookstore.gpo.gov (GPO S/N 044-000-02706-2; ISBN 978-0-16-095833-5), or by calling toll-free 1-866-512-1800 (D.C. area 202-512-1800). For further information, contact history@state.gov.