In 1986, Gorbachev proposed banning ALL BALLISTIC MISSILES. All of them. All sub-launched, all IRBMs, everything in silos, everything on trains. We'd be left with cruise missiles and bombs. Reagan refused 'cuz he had such a hard-on for SDI. …which the Soviets were oh so very much closer to. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyus_(spacecraft) Some excessively fucking stupid shit out of the '80s.
Oh, I'm aware. What I don't know is whether popular opinion was with or against Reagan in that decision, because I wasn't alive. That Wikipedia page is filled with odd wordings and missing citations, so I think devoting a spot on my reading list to something about this is in order.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Hand "Popular opinion" during the Reagan era was just as slippery as "popular opinion" during Bush II. There were a lot of marginalized democrats who could not.fucking.*believe* that Ronald "Bedtime for Bonzo" Reagan was holding the nuclear Football. I've got a rant about Red Dawn on here somewhere; that's fuckin' Morning in America. My favorite "holy shit Reagan" book is The Clothes Have No Emperor.