Trust, but verify as a signature phrase by Reagan, who subsequently used it frequently when discussing U.S. relations with the Soviet Union. Using proverbs that the Russians could relate to may have helped relations between the two leaders. After Reagan used the phrase to emphasize "the extensive verification procedures that would enable both sides to monitor compliance with the treaty", at the signing of the INF Treaty, on 8 December 1987, his counterpart General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev responded, "You repeat that at every meeting," to which Reagan answered, "I like it." While Reagan quoted Russian proverbs, Mr. Gorbachev quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson, who
Origins of the Cold War and the Cold War was largely in place in Europe. Outside Europe, the starting points vary in the late 1940s or early 1950s. Events preceding World War II and even the Russian Revolution of 1917, underlay older tensions between the Soviet Union, European countries and the United States. A series of events during and after World War II exacerbated tensions, including the Soviet–German pact in 1939, the Anglo-Americans repeated postponement of an amphibious invasion of German-occupied Europe, the Western allies' support of the Atlantic Charter, Soviet rejection of decisions about Eastern European democracy made in wartime conferences and the Kremlin's