Page 105 - Gorbachev News Today

The west over the soviet union. he was able to develop a strong working relationship with gorbachev and with kohl in germany brought about the reunification of germany. merkel in the last couple of days has called him one of the fathers of german reunification. in many ways with all his diplomatic experience and personal friendships with world leaders across the globe, these things came into play at the right moment with him and he turned out to be just the guy to manage this victory, which was ...

People, the u.s., and the president bush. gratitude for the leaders too. we heard this from german counselor chancellor angela merkel. >> i was in the white house visiting george bush. we will never forget that. >> with his background in politics and the policy, military, intelligence, and vice president alongside ronald reagan, he was very well-equipped for the task. he worked closely with former soviet leader michelangelo chaffed we happened to work together in years of great changes, gorbache...

>> jon: vladimir putin wants to recreate the soviet union. it was under president bush 41 that helped dissolve it. >> he was enormously decisive for a president who only had one term for four years. clearly as youve been reporting, very consequential in not pushing the russians nose in the fact we were winning the cold war and keeping gorbachev in power. he could have been deposed given all of the right wingers who were after him reunifying germany. but we forget when there were problems in pana...

Smiling and so often he was laughing. but as you heard former president barack obama just explaining, he faced immense challenges during his tenure. >> yeah. everyone underestimates even historically the complicated nature of managing the collapse of the soviet union. gorbachev had hard liners in there that were just looking for an excuse to get rid of gorbachev and george bush had to deal with that, putting continued pressure on the process. but doing it in such a way that gorbachev could manag...

Look, this is going very well with the russians. for me to stick my finger gloating, making an ass of myself, sticking my finger in gorbachevs i would be a crazy thing to do. >> bret: that was a big moment moment, a big decision. >> he took a lot of criticism for it, not justified. george bush knew how to handle foreign policy. not just gorbachev, you had chancellor cole at the time, the french, the british, the whole world looking on. instead of jumping up and down, as he said, and gloating, he...

Those personal notes, those handwritten notes -- you just heard walker talking about them -- and he operated like that inside washington. one quick story about just the former soviet union -- gorbache gorbachev, the wall falls down, bush reaches out to gorbachev and invites them to camp david. gorbachev is weak at that point inside the soviet union. they go play horseshoes at camp david, one of the things that george h.w. bush like to do. the first throw, mikhail gorbachev had the ringer. he get...

Advent of what ran up to world war ii. bush was the one who went to gorbachev, presumed on their friendship, and said i can assure you this will not be a threat. he got it. >> and now the plane is take off, special air mission 41. peter baker, the body of former president bush is on its way to washington. when the plane lands at joint base andrews in roughly 3, 3 1/2 hours from now, its a washington that looks different than when george h.w. bush was

And it became clear that prosecutor presidency you really needed something the size of a 747, so the government ordered more than one 747, and the reagans decided what it would look like but it came too late for nancy and ronald reagan to use. it was ready in 1990. the second year of george h.w. bushs presidency. i can remember this because i was in helsinki at the time that george bush met with gorbachev in september of 1990. for a lot of people that was the first time that a lot of people saw ...

Of us, so im here for him. and i think thats an instinct that brings people out at moments like this. >> every time i look at air force one, i think it was vienna, gorbachev or gelt is in and air force one was out there and the poor russians had hidden their aircraft because it was so tiny by comparison. only fitting this great man back on air force one. >> of course he was the first president to fly on that 747. >> yeah. >> the plane was a very special plane to him. >> is this the same plane th...

Solidarity and so did george bush because he understood what that was like. and when barbara bush who was nobody to be reserved, was asked about it, she said damn right, its really good he did that and brought attention to this and i think leukemia donations surged as a result of george bush. there was a grace there. from the foreign policy. he oversaw tectonic shifts in the world order. when the berlin wall came down. the whole point being, it would make it harder on gorbachev and make it harde...