3 June 2020 — National Security Archive

Soviet leader receives ceremony and symbolic trade deal, not economic aid or arms cuts

Soviet and U.S. documents detail Gorbachev and Bush discussions on Germany, future of Europe, regional hot spots, and Moscow’s economic crisis

Award-winning Last Superpower Summits book forthcoming in paperback 

Washington, D.C., 2 June 2020 – The Washington/Camp David summit 30 years ago today brought Presidents George H.W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev together for three days of intense discussions of the future of Europe, the unification of Germany that would happen later that year 1990, the economic crisis facing the Soviet Union, and the tense stand-off between Moscow and the independence-minded Baltic republics, according to declassified Soviet and American documents published today by the National Security Archive.

The newly published evidence adds fascinating detail to the most thoroughly documented account of the meeting, Chapter 7 (pages 571-703) in The Last Superpower Summits (CEU Press, 2016), which is forthcoming in a new two-volume paperback edition in 2020.  Today’s e-book combines the new material with a core collection on the Washington/Camp David summit published by the Archive on the 20th anniversary in 2010.

Highlights of the new evidence include President Bush’s own handwriting and underlining for emphasis on the highly classified transcript of Secretary of State James Baker’s Moscow conversation with Gorbachev on May 18 prior to the summit.

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THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A tax-exempt public charity, the Archive receives no U.S. government funding; its budget is supported by publication royalties and donations from foundations and individuals.