Nothing unites the people of earth like an attack from Mars.

It’s nice to be reminded that we weren’t always like this. Even in the dying years of the Cold War a shell-backed conservative like Ronald Reagan could get through to the godless commies on matters of global importance. The threat from aliens.

From The Smithsonian Magazine November 25, 2015:

At one point during the 1985 Geneva Summit, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev took a break from negotiations to take a walk. Only their private interpreters were present and for years, the details of what they talked about were kept secret from both the Russian and American public. But during a 2009 interview with Charlie Rose and Reagan’s Secretary of State George Shultz, Gorbachev revealed that Reagan asked him point-blank if they could set aside their differences in case the world was invaded by aliens.

As Jimmy Orr reported for the Christian Science Monitor at the time:

Shultz was talking about the Lake Geneva summit and mentioned the two leaders ducked out of a meeting to take a walk to a nearby cabin.

"I wasn't there...," Shultz said before Gorbachev cut him off.

"From the fireside house, President Reagan suddenly said to me, 'What would you do if the United States were suddenly attacked by someone from outer space? Would you help us?'

"I said, 'No doubt about it.'"

"He said, 'We too.'"

"So that's interesting," Gorbachev said to much laughter.