The White Pill: A Tale of Good and Evil

by Michael Malice

Several weeks later, Gorbachev offered Reagan a proposal: the complete abolition of nuclear weapons by the turn of the century. The only catch was that President Reagan would have to give up on SDI. To apply further pressure, Gorbachev made his offer publicly. Reagan and his advisers had two different reactions. The president wanted to take the Soviet offer at face value and to even go one better. “Why wait until the end of the century for a world without nuclear weapons?” Reagan asked his team.[cdxc] Thatcher represented the opposing view. Privately she found Reagan’s perspective both delusional and naïve, and had no problem quietly making that clear. “It was one of the few times, you know, when I think his aspirations left the reality of human nature,” she said.[cdxci] “The fundamental truth here is that the nuclear weapon cannot be disinvented. A world without nuclear weapons is thus quite simply a fantasy world.”[cdxcii] And despite her warm feelings toward Gorbachev, she still understood how politics worked: “It is inconceivable that the Soviets would turn over their last nuclear weapon. They would cheat. I would cheat.”