Freshman U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina looks back at recent history for a column posted at National Review Online. Tillis says the 44th president could learn a lesson from the 40th president when it comes to the Iranian nuclear weapons deal.

President Obama confidently boasts that there was no alternative to this bad deal.

However, there was a very good alternative: Walk away, sustain the sanctions, and force Iran back to the negotiating table to get a better deal. The standard was set in 1986, when President Reagan met with the Soviet Union’s Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavík to negotiate the elimination of all ballistic missiles owned by the U.S. and Soviet Union.

Negotiators made much progress during the summit, but Gorbachev demanded late in the process that the U.S. limit its Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) missile-defense system. Such a concession would’ve violated President Reagan’s core principles, so — to the shock of even some in his own administration — he turned down the chance to sign a historic agreement and instead walked away.

The media were quick to label Reagan’s decision a failure, but they were proven wrong shortly thereafter. Within a year, Gorbachev was forced back to the negotiating table, having dropped his demands on SDI. This led to the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which significantly limited the superpowers’ nuclear arsenals; this treaty is now regarded as one of America’s top diplomatic victories during the Cold War.

Indeed, during his 1988 State of the Union address, Reagan explained why he had stuck to his principles and walked away at the Reykjavik Summit: “Our approach is not to seek agreement for agreement’s sake but to settle only for agreements that truly enhance our national security and that of our allies. We will never put our security at risk or that of our allies just to reach an agreement. . . . No agreement is better than a bad agreement.”

Those interested in the Reykjavik negotiations can peruse a recent book on the topic.