THIS IS HISTORY: Whatever you may think of Ronald Reagan as president, the fact remains that he played the most skillful hand of political poker against the Soviet Union of any American president. His confidence in America and its technology, although it might have been misplaced, presented a challenge that the Russians did not dare to call. This is the moment of the final meeting between the president and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, following their first talks in Geneva, that set the stage for the eventual defeat of the Soviet Union. As a photographer, I was taking a big chance with this picture. Normally, I would have gone for a “bread and butter” close-up on the handshake, but the sense of history was palpable in the auditorium, and I chose to go wide to see the entire scene.