NATO allies. The proposal did not affect missiles
outside Europe, that is in the US or Siberia. So
far the Soviets had rejected this, and the US had
rejected Soviet proposals for deep cuts in both
sides’ nuclear arsenals. When Gorbachev and
Reagan met at Reykjavik in October 1986, the
Soviet leader hoped that he could get Reagan to
give up Star Wars by tempting him with a spec-
tacular agreement to reduce nuclear arms. Despite
his obvious disappointment at the failure of all his
efforts, Reagan stood firm. The setback proved
temporary. The Soviet need for Western techno-
logical assistance and for defence savings was
urgent. In December 1987 the signing of the
INF (intermediate-range nuclear forces) Treaty in
Washington set the seal on the new US–Soviet
relationship, not only in settling direct issues
between them but also in the context of regional
conflicts all over the world. The treaty banned the
production and testing of intermediate-range mis-
siles, and all existing missiles in this class were to
be destroyed.
Reagan’s policies in Central America were the
most controversial in the administration’s conduct
of foreign relations. His appeal for support for
the Nicaraguan Contras – ‘freedom fighters’, as
he called them – was rejected by Congress, which
confined help strictly to non-military aid. Mean-
while the peace initiative undertaken by the
Central American presidents was looked upon with
suspicion in the White House. The American eco-
nomic embargo of Nicaragua, the CIA’s mining of
its ports (1984) and the administration’s efforts to
keep the Contras in the field did enormous dam-
age to Nicaragua’s economy, which had been
placed on a war footing. Sandinista mismanage-
ment did the rest. When the Soviet Union and its
satellites eventually cut off aid to the Sandinistas,
the hardline Marxist–Leninists conceded genuinely
free elections, which to their surprise they lost. For
the time being at least, Reagan’s victory over com-
munism in Latin America was complete.
The handling of the Middle East was the least
successful aspect of the administration’s conduct
1
THE UNITED STATES, GLOBAL POWER 819
No longer the ‘evil empire’. Gorbachev and Reagan conclude the nuclear arms reduction Treaty in the White
House, 8 December 1987. © Bettmann/Corbis
