Presidency of Ronald Reagan to forestall the possibility of an agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union. Nonetheless, both Gorbachev and Reagan agreed to continue arms control negotiations at the October 1986 Reykjavík Summit. At the summit, Gorbachev and Reagan closed in on an agreement to greatly reduce or eliminate the nuclear stockpiles of both the U.S. and the Soviet Union over a ten-year period, but the deal collapsed due to disagreements regarding SDI development. Reagan attacked Gorbachev in a 1987 speech delivered in West Berlin, but negotiations continued. Gorbachev and Reagan broke the impasse by agreeing to negotiate separate treaties on
Ronald Reagan sure its total cost would reach in the trillions of dollars. Reagan encouraged Congress to think of it as billions of new dollars spent in individual districts. If SDI worked, thousands of Soviet nuclear-armed missiles would be worthless — if launched, they could all be shot down. Gorbachev made it his highest priority to get Reagan to abandon SDI. Meanwhile, Reagan escalated the rhetoric. In his famous 1983 speech to religious fundamentalists he outlined his strategy for victory. First, he labeled the Soviet system an "Evil empire" and a failure—its demise would be a godsend for the world. Second, Reagan