After VP Spiro Agnew resigned in Oct. 1973, President Nixon asked House Minority Leader Gerald Ford for advice on who to pick as a new VP. Ford's picks are here; Nixon would soon select Ford himself, of course 
On This Day, 1986: Modest little Hofdi House in Reykjavik, Iceland was the setting for one of the final - and more dramatic - chapters of the Cold War: a summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev
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Reagan and Gorbachev met to continue talks about cutting intermediate range nuclear missiles in Europe. The summit collapsed when Gorbachev proposed limiting America’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI); Reagan offered to share SDI's technology - but would not abandon the program
At one point, Reagan offered to eliminate all ballistic missiles within a decade—while reserving the right to deploy strategic defenses. Gorbachev proposed eliminating all nuclear weapons within a decade—if Reagan dropped SDI. The president, briefly tantalized, said no /3
Some historians think Gorbachev was anxious for Reagan to drop SDI because the U.S.S.R. could not keep up with U.S. military technology or military spending. The Soviet economy was buckling during the 1980s; it collapsed in '91 (right after WWR's Paul Brandus moved there to work)
Like WWR's history tweets? You might enjoy these two books by Paul Brandus. Happy to sign for you - send email to pbrandus@gmail.com for details
