A Photograph of the Malta Summit of 1989 That Declared the End of the Cold War, Showing President George HW Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev Shaking Hands, and Signed by Bush

We obtained this treasured letter from the Kirkpatrick family, and it has never before been offered for sale

The Malta Summit took place from December 2-3 1989. The Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and recently inaugurated President George H.W. Bush met on the cruise ship SS Maxim Gorkiy, which was moored in Marsaxlokk Harbour, Malta. It was the first meeting between the two men. Significantly, the summit took place around a month after the fall of the Berlin wall, and Communist governments in Eastern Europe were collapsing. Hungary had just opened its border with the West. After the fall of Communist leader Erich Honecker, the new East German government lasted just seven weeks.

During the Summit, the two men discussed the cataclysmic changes sweeping across Europe after the collapse of the Berlin wall and the end of the Iron Curtain. They declared a planned reduction in troops within Europe and that a reduction in weaponry would be discussed at a meeting scheduled for June 1990.

The discussions at Malta marked a significant reduction in hostilities between the USA and the USSR. During a press conference, Gorbachev said he had promised the US president that he would never start a hot war with the US. He stated: “We are at the beginning of a long road to a lasting, peaceful era.” President Bush confirmed that the Malta Summit would be “the beginning of a “lasting peace” in East-West relationships”. During the summit, Bush and Gorbachev declared an end to the Cold War.

The Malta Summit is considered by some to be the most important meeting between the USA and USSR since the Yalta Conference of February 1945, when Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin met to discuss the future of Europe after the end of World War II.

As Bush himself said of the Malta Summit, “More important was Malta’s positive effect on my personal relationship with Gorbachev, which I thought was symbolized in our joint press conference – the first-ever in US-Soviet relations. The talks had shown a friendly openness between us and a genuine willingness to listen to each other’s proposals. Perhaps the growing trust helped him accept and promote changes in Eastern Europe…”

Jeane Kirkpatrick was a lifelong Democrat, working in both state and national campaigns including Hubert Humphrey’s 1972 presidential campaign. She grew increasingly dissatisfied, however, with the Democratic Party’s liberal faction and in 1972 cofounded the Coalition for a Democratic Majority. Her conservative writings regarding U.S. foreign policy impressed Ronald Reagan, and during his 1980 presidential campaign she was his foreign policy advisor. Under President Reagan, she became the first woman to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, serving from 1981 to 1985. She was also given cabinet rank and was also a member of Reagan’s national security team. She remained active in politics as a Republican. Kirkpatrick advised Bush in his preparation for the Summit.

An 8 by 10 inch color photograph of the Summit, showing President Bush seated next to his Secretary of State, James Baker; and Gorbachev sitting beside his Foreign Minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, with Bush and Gorbachev shaking hands. Bush has inscribed the photograph, “To Jeane Kirkpatrick, thanks for your sound advice as I got ready for this one, George Bush.”

This is the first signed photograph from this Summit we have ever had, and a search of public sale records going back forty years disclosing only one. We obtained this from the Kirkpatrick family, and it has never before been offered for sale.