Ladies and gentlemen, please stanme former news anchor donaldson. Welcome to this mornings. There are dates all of us have that are very personal, and dates that we have is a country that we all share. 7,my lifetime, december 1941. 3. Vember 22, 196 9 11. All terrible dates for the country. And november 8, 1980 nine, good news, the fall of the berlin wall presaging the end of the soviet union. A subject we will discuss today, how did it happen . What were the consequences . Who did this . Who knew . For a look at what is in store for us, it is a pleasure to welcome andrew card, who served in three administrations with Ronald Reagan as Deputy Assistant to the president and director of intergovernmental affairs, with George Herbert walker bush the treasury, not the secretary of the treasury, secretary of transportation, and houseeorge w. Bush white chief of staff. Card. Andrew thank you very much. I wanted to be here. Very grateful for Georgetown University and the school of Foreign Service for helping to host, the Atlantic Council, and grateful for the Reagan Foundation and their institute for helping to host the event. We have many people here who should be introduced, and i am not going to ask everyone to stand who is important. And i am not going to ask everyone to sit who is important, so other more important people can stand. [laughter] im here to say that were proud to have dorothy bush, the president s daughter. [applause] nelly solsa, his granddaughter. [applause] we also have folks from the Atlantic Council here,. [applause] robinson is here from the barbara bush literacy foundation. [applause] we also have the e. U. Deputy head of delegation here. [applause] of, the german deputy chief missions is here. [applause] this is a remarkable day, because we are remembering a truly remarkable event. Im about to introduce someone who i have the greatest respect for. Know threei absolutes about the speaker i will introduce. Changedthe world profoundly when he was secretary of state under president george h w bush. D, freedom and democracy sprea the cold war ended peacefully. Germany was reunited as a member of the north atlantic treaty organization, and the soviet union imploded. At the same time, todays speaker assembled the International Coalition that ejected saddam husseins troops from kuwait, orchestrated the madrid conference where israel and all its arab neighbors discussed peace for the first arms and negotiated reduction treaties with the soviet union and then russia. All that happened after he served president Ronald Reagan, as one of our nations best secretaries of the treasury, and before that white house chief of which hessition in still considered to be the Gold Standard. Reciting his many achievements could take a long time, but i am mindful of the speakers second absolute. He always asks his introductions which leads met, to the third absolute. When this gentleman asks you to do something, it is best that you do it. I was honored to be asked by him to do something, and served president Ronald Reagan. It brought me to washington, d. C. So i am proud and honored to introduce a great american, one of americas most remarkable and iandid like would like you to welcome the 61st secretary of state, the honorable james a. Baker iii. Rep. Gabbard thank you james thank you, ladies and gentlemen, very much. Thank you, andy, for that overthetop introduction. Thank you as well, andy, for your many contributions to the nation. You have been an exemplary public servant, and the country appreciates it. Firste to the collaboration between institutions i greatly admire for their excellence in preserving the past and advancing public policy. The George George and barbara bush foundation, the Ronald Reagan foundation, the Atlantic Council and Georgetown University all represent the very best in their respective fields. Im confident that todays lessons from the fall of the berlin wall will be an informative and useful examination of an historic event that led to the peaceful conclusion of the cold war. What happened three decades ago this week fundamentally changed the world. Im asked which american president was responsible for the end of the cold war, i typically have replied that it was all of those american president s. Democrats and republicans alike, from harry truman through george h w bush. Each of them was firmly committed to a free, undivided europe. But as someone who served in one capacity or another for four of those president s, i hope you can understand why today i want to add that some cold war president s were more directly involved in others. Ronald reagans soaring rhetoric became etched in the hearts and minds of people around the world who desired freedom. Can forget that picture of the gipper at the Brandenburg Gate when he said, mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. So, two years after that historic speech, the wall did come down, on november 9, 1989. As momentous as that occasion was, president bush 41 understood that the soviet union remained a distinct and potent Global Security threat. Eyeer than stick it in the of his soviet counterparts, eschewedt bush i triumphalism in favor of clear eyed diplomacy. As a result, 11 months after the was came down, germany reunited peacefully as a member of the nato, over the objections, i might add, of some of our allies and of course the soviet union. The 45yearreafter, cold war ended with a whimper rather than the nuclear bang that we had all feared, as the soviet union itself was dissolved. Leadersy our nations confront their own unique set of international challenges. As we commemorate the 30th anniversary of the fall of that berlin wall, i think it is instructive to recall three president st both reagan and bush kept in mind as seismic changes were underway in europe and around the world. That, both understood Domestic Support is critical for the successful implementation, id say formulation and implementation, of Foreign Policy. A Foreign Policy that does not have domestic Political Support will not last very long. Unless americans back the president s, their those policies are doomed to wither and eventually fail. President s reagan and bush both knew that they would be more successful if they had the broad backing of the American People, and both crafted bipartisan foreign policies accordingly. Secondly, international support, of course, is also critical. Both president reagan and president bush realized that a large component of american strength was that we were the promoter and champion of a liberal world order that revolved around open markets, multilateral institutions, and liberal democracy. Allies mattered. They still do. In those daysana was their northstar. President sboth those understood the importance of deft, thoughtful and sustained diplomacy. Both developed strong relations with other foreign leaders, particularly soviet president mikael gorbachev, german chancellor helmut kohl, british Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher, canadian Prime Minister brian mulrooney, and others. Those relationships nurtured trust between countries, and helped them reach pragmatic solutions. I the endn, of course, no one individual was responsible for the fall of the berlin wall, and the end of the cold war. Every american president since truman played indispensable roles. Was thee all else, it the citizensit of of the captive nations that finally tipped the scales toward freedom. The lessons president s reagan and bush provided during that critical window of history remain as pertinent today as they were back then, and so as our nation continues to confront the daunting challenges, foreign policies of ronald bushan and george h. W. Remain models that all american president s would do well to follow, as they seek to promote americas interests and values around the world. Thank you all very much. [applause] thank you, secretary baker. m delighted, if you would agree to spend a few more minutes with us. Wait for the call. Power i never thought i would have with this gentleman. When a good story is there for the telling, sometimes careful preparation brings it, and other times it happens unexpectedly. The day that Ronald Reagan gave a humdrum speech at the washington hilton, came out and suddenly was met with a spray of bullets from a man standing 5. 5 away from me. To this great story we are revisiting today, there was only one American Television journalist on the scene when the berlin wall began to crumble, tom brokaw, the anchor and managing editor of nbc nightly news. He was in berlin on a different assignment, and as he tells it, he fell into one of the biggest stories of the world, which he owned. Heres some of brokaws reporting that night from the berlin wall. Night tom it was a night when the world changed before our eyes. Good evening, live from the berlin wall. The berlin wall was part of our lives, such a physically imposing barricade. Mores so much uglier, oppressive than people realize from just seeing it on television. When you went to it personally. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall john kennedy had gone there. Ich bin ein berliner even with all the turmoil, it seemed unlikely that that wal l, such as solid image of oppression, would come down. Then, in a heartbeat, it did. I was the only journalist on the air, the night the berlin wall came down. I owned that story, and that was the end of the soviet empire. And we got lucky. Id like to tell you that i knew the wall was coming down. Unfortunately, i cannot. I didnt know. But it did come down on my watch, and i will never forget it. East germany remains a country in turmoil tonight. I arrived in berlin two days before the wall came down. In the eastern sector, i was able to get to the east for the first time and do reporting from there. You represent the best of east germany. That afternoon, there was the famous News Conference in which the propaganda chief stood up. He was handed a slip of paper, and it said all citizens of the gdr can leave and come back through at any of the transit points. I looked at my German National cameraman and said, did he say what we thought . They were astonished. They said, he did. That means you can go out of the wall, and come back anytime you want. The man gets up, and leaves the room. I went up, and read it back to him. Do i understand correctly . Ddr can leavehe through any checkpoint they ch oose . They are free to go through the border. Colleagues and said, it is over, the wall is over. We got out to call the office in new york. Midday back in the states, making preparations for going on the air that night, and i am frantically trying to get a broadcast put together. I rushed out there. Lots of students from the west had come to the top of the wall, and the guards were trying to hose them off, and my heart sank. I made this big deal about the wall coming down, and they are being cleared off. Then people got back on the wall. By the time we went on the air, it was chaos. Standby. A historic moment tonight. The berlin wall can no longer contain the east german people. Nbc nightly news, with tom brokaw. Tonight, from west berlin. Good evening. We had a path on the satellite to get on air, so that night i went on the air, and we did the story. No cbs, abc, a worldwide exclusive. What you are watching is a moment that will live forever. The destruction of the berlin wall. We threw out the script. Id written the whole broadcast and said to the producer, i will have to ad lib. Everything here, i will have to draw on all my experience about whats been going on at the eastern border, germany and the soviet union, and how this was a defining moment. For the First Time Since the wall was erected in 1951, people can move through freely. I couldnt hear myself think. I went onught, before the air, dont screw this up, this is a big deal. And as we were standing there, somebody said, look, they are taking down the wall. There was a guy with a mallet and a chisel, hammering away at the wall. The wall effectively has come down, and i mean physically as well. Taking chunks from the berlin wall. The party at the Brandenburg Gate went down all night long, as they chipped away at the wall, danced on top of it, drank a lot. S is theought, thi human story. This is the story of humankind. Political tyrants can only go so far. At the end, it is how people respond to captivity, how they get out of it, how they relate to one another. Its a night to remember. Indeed it is. [applause] of us at nbcse remember it from the standpoint that tom is right. He was there. He did it. When you are confronted with the real deal, just accept it. Now, live from berlin, one of americas premier journalists still today, finding stories, tom brokaw welcome, tom tom thank you, sam. Thank you, everybody. Sam it was very exuberant. Watching that brings back lots of memories, but what do you remember today, 30 years later, about that night at the wall . And i remember vividly, want to say at the outset, it was a whole nbc theme. , our Foreign Editor suggested i go to berlin. He said i dont know what will happen, theres a lot of activity. I got here, and we were around before 24 hours we were around for 20 for hours before that memorable News Conference. We had a satellite, a cameraman, the peoplest film of going across the bridge from east germany to west germany. So it was a confluence of all the forces. I remember as though it was yesterday, sam, standing there thinking, my god, this is one of the biggest stories of my lifetime, of the 20th century. We have to get it right. With the help of all my colleagues, i think at the end of the night we did get it right. It was absolutely thrilling, and i remember one of our techies going over and getting a piece of the wall, chipping it off and giving it to me, and that is in my personal collection. Sam someone you know very well, james a. Baker the third, secretary baker is with us. If you come back here, take whatever time you require, sir, and when you are finished with tom i will come back. How are youtom, doing . Tom doing well, james. I have a question to you, before you have a question for me. We later learned that iwas was going to say we later learned the politburo had not said they could leave, but were looking at a possibility of a program where they could leave and not have to come back. A prominent historian at harvard did a whole story, and he left to thes conference, went compound were all the politburo members lived, and they didnt know what was going on. [laughter] my question for you, did we have any indication from espionage people, intelligence people that there was a possibility this was going to happen . Sec. Baker the short answer, tommy, no. It came as every bit as much of a surprise to us as it did i think to you. I remember it very well. Thes hosting a lunch for president of the philippines at the state department, and an note sayingme a people were allowed free transit and federalddr republic of germany, and it looked like the wall might be coming down. I raised a toast to that, excused myself and went to the white house to meet with about what our response ought to be. I think history will clearly mark the correctness of george bushs moderated response to what was a cataclysmic event, because he knew that we still had a lot of business to do with gorbachev, and we werent going to stick it in their eye. The answer to your question, as far as i know, we didnt have any advanced knowledge at all, intelligence or otherwise. The things we learned in my trips back here since then. I spent the day at the stasi headquarters, the infamous group in the eastern part of germany that was arresting citizens left and right. I saw four miles of files on east german citizens, and finally that oppression, that complete pressure on east german citizens, they could not live their lives as they wanted, it broke through. I thought the wall came down mostly because of our strong stand in the west, but also citizens from the ground up in the east pushing back against their own oppressors. Sec. Baker thats absolutely right. Ive given a few remarks at this event, in which i said i dont think that any single american president was responsible for the fall of the wall. Every one of our american president s, every administration from harry truman through george w. Bush was steadfast george inw. Bush was steadfast opposing the spread of communism and the imprisonment of the people of the captive nations of Eastern Europe. I said, and i believe strongly, as i suspect you do, it was the indomitable spirit of those citizens of captive nations who made possible our victory in the cold war. 30 years later, what are the lessons for modern america and the west, for that matter . Sec. Baker one of the lessons, diplomacy works when it is properly exercised. Were here in georgetown, which has an extraordinarily fine school of the promisee and international relations, and i think, last night i went to an event, tom, at the state department, where they have al museum ofa nation american diplomacy. We only have 400 museums that are military in their nature, and theres never been a museum in the United States or an institution for that matter that celebrates the Historic Events of american diplomacy through the years, and the state department has now, is now establishing one, and i think thats a very good thing to do. If you look at, w. Diplomacy that george h. Aftermathued, in the of the stunning victory of the we had the wall, he knew a huge task to perform, to try to reunite germany peacefully as a member of the nato. To continue to try and achieve a peaceful end of the cold war. I think gorbachev will be remembered very well by history because he after all was the first soviet leader who did not ele