MALTA SUMMIT BETWEEN BUSH AND GORBACHEV

Malta Summit between Bush and Gorbachev

On December 2nd, 1989, President George H. W. Bush met Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev off the island of Malta in stormy winter seas. The summit came just weeks after the Berlin Wall began to fall and symbolized a dramatic easing of tensions in the long Cold War that had shaped American defense planning since the late 1940s. While no single treaty ended that confrontation, the conversations at Malta allowed both leaders to speak openly about reducing the risk of conflict and reorienting their militaries toward new realities. For the United States armed forces, the approaching end of the Cold War would mean shifting from preparing for a massive armored clash in Europe to facing regional crises and emerging threats elsewhere. The Malta meetings, launched on a December weekend aboard warships, sit at the border between two strategic eras.