536 ChaPter^10
survive. So Gorbachev came up with two plans. With perestroika he would
restructure the economy, allowing more private markets and private invest-
ment and decreasing state control and intervention over trade and finance.
While not turning it into a Capitalist state, Gorbachev would make the
Russian economy more like those of the West. And he also developed glasnost,
or “openness,” a plan to allow the Russian media and people to have more
freedoms to speak about and even criticize the government. These were
extreme measures and quite risky, especially with a hard-core, hawkish presi-
dent like Reagan in charge in the U.S.
Reagan, who just a few years earlier had called the Soviet Union “The Evil
Empire,” responded to Gorbachev, however, and they would work together to
try to reduce nuclear weapons and develop international peace and stability.
In the 1970s, the Soviet Union had caught up and then passed the U.S. in
number of nuclear weapons. Russia, however, had far fewer launch systems,
which ultimately was more critical since having nuclear weapons without the
ability to launch them was not much of an asset. So Reagan and Gorbachev
both claimed they were at a disadvantage in the nuclear weapons race. Then,FIGuRE 10-10 President Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev at
the Hofdi House in Reykjavik, Iceland during the Reyjavik Summit,
October 1985