Page 109 - Gorbachev News Today

>> the biggest thing that has happened in the world in my life, in our lives, is this. by the grace of god america won the cold war. >> reporter: many americans associate ronald reagan with the fall of communism. >> mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall. >> reporter: when the berlin wall came down, the nations of eastern europe renounced communism and the soviet union fell apart, george h.w. bush was president of the united states. >> the cold war didnt have to end peacefully, it could have ended w...

Of the ussr, that gorbachevs first phone call was then to then george h.w. bush how remarkable that was that the level of connection and prolific these connections were that he made across the world. he created coalitions, literally. but, also, he knew the names of every staff member and every staff member spouses and family. referenced them by name. grace and humility and connection he exhibited in all of his positions. as congressman, he signed the open housing act. and that was despite that h...

Is a good title for his biography with jon meacham might have been the last gentleman. there might be other gentlemen, but the fact that he was so well prepared for the president and so self-secure made him in retrospect an enormously effective president particularly when we think of fact we got to baghdad after that war he did not go into baghdad, he was wise enough to do that presiding over unification of germany, didnt feel the need to boast and beat his chest and he knew that would make it t...

Of years of fighting communism, president reagan and world leaders and vice president bush, the wall was coming down and marlin fitzwater, and others prepare this big victorious speech about how democracy prevailed over communism. and president bush does not want to do that. he said is the last thing i want to do. i want to respond quietly because i do not want to dance on the top of the berlin wall. he had a concern for gorbachev and how he was going to react and how the soviet union was going ...

Was there to oversee the fall of the berlin wall. >> and was smart enough to realize gorbachev could be put in a corner among the hardliners so he stayed out of it not taking credit for it. or to say that we won but kept quiet. people wanted him around him to take credit for it but he chose not to and it was much better for everyone. jon: you worked very closely with president t3 thank you for sharing those memories with us with president george h.w. bush. jon: more coverage and what he said abo...

Skillfulness in the way they did not gloat. imagine if they had danced in the end zone. on the night the berlin war, they allowed gorbachev to save face. >> i want to go back to john. people like me, anybody who studied the 20th century was very nervous about germany coming back together in full strength, certainly they came back together with a lot of strength after world war i to the countrys detriment and the worlds detriment. what led him to make that bold decision to go and say were going t...

President of the united states. if someone else had become president, lets say if it was less able than george bush to build a relationship with the soviet leader, mikhail gorbachev, i think gorbachev would not have made concessions like opening the berlin wall, letting eastern europe free, and the things that finally led to our not having that confront aches with the soviet union. >> michael, there are a lot of remembrances from world leaders and also longtime political reporters as well. and h...

With gorbachev in the little island country of malta, and what i recall from that, a number of things. he was, a, very attentive, b, very knowledgeable, c, many people say this about him and its true, extraordinarily gracious to us. it was the first time i had been in the oval office, so i was nervous about how that was going to go. a colleague and i often reminis reminisce, he asked if we would like a cup of coffee. we nervously said thank you, and he poured it himself. that kind of blew us awa...

Lessons y >> lessons you think could be applied today? >> two that i think about. remember, a lot of the drama at the end of the cold war happened inside the soviet union, where people, including gorbachev, yeltsin and hundreds of other russians who wanted democracy, wanted to be part of the west, and we were reacting to that. sometimes i think we think were running the world. no, they were doing that. and today you have a different leader in moscow. vladimir putin does not want to be part of th...

The soviet union, a country armed with thousands of nuke lore warheads locked into this posture of hair trigger hostility to the west, people think it all kind of dissolved peacefully and that thats the way it was going to be. i dont think that was the case at all. he did a couple of things that were extraordinarily important. he didnt brag. he didnt try to make the soviets feel humiliated by the collapse of their economy and the collapse of their empire. he worked to shore up gorbachev and then...