Live on the cspan networks online, cspan. Org, or listen live with the free cspan radio app. Next, an event commemorating the 30th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall. Remarks from several former white house officials who served during that time, including former secretary of state james baker. They also examine the state in fallhat led to the of the wall. Hosted by the Atlantic Council, this is just two hours. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome former abc news anchor stan donaldson. Stan well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this mornings program. There are dates all of us have that are very personal, and dates that we have is a country that we all share. In my lifetime, december 7, 1941. November 22, 1963. 9 11. All terrible dates for the country. And november 8, 1989, 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 with george w. Bush white house chief of staff. Andrew card. [applause] andrew thank you very much, sam. I wanted to be here. We are very grateful for Georgetown University and the school of Foreign Service for helping to host the event, 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] and 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. Michael curtis. [applause] and, the german deputy chief of 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. Above all, i know three absolutes about the speaker i will introduce. First, the world changed profoundly when he was secretary of state under president george h. W. Bush. As freedom and democracy spread, 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 time, and negotiating Nuclear Arms 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 then as white house chief of staff, a position in which hes 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 of him be short, which leads me to the third absolute. Which is of course when this gentleman asks you to do something, it is best that you do it. [laughter] i was honored to be asked by him to do something and serve 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 leaders, and i would like you to welcome the 61st secretary of state, the honorable james a. Baker iii. [applause] sec. Baker thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you 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. Welcome to the first collaboration between four institutions i greatly admire for their excellence in preserving the past and in advancing public policy. The 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. Since then, when 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. Involved than others. Ronald reagans soaring rhetoric became etched in the hearts and minds of people around the world who desired freedom. Who after all 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. Rather than stick it in the eye of his soviet counterparts, president bush eschewed triumphalism in favor of clear eyed diplomacy. As a result, 11 months after the wall came down, germany was 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. Shortly thereafter, the 45year cold war ended with a whimper rather than the nuclear bang that we had all feared, as the soviet union itself was dissolved. So, today our nations leaders 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 factors that both president s reagan and bush kept in mind as seismic changes were underway in europe and around the world. First, both understood that 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 decisions of their president s, 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 they 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. And Pax Americana in those days was their northstar. And third, both those president s 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. In the end, 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. But above all else, it was the enduring spirit of the citizens of the captive nations that finally tipped the scales toward freedom. The lessons that 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 many daunting challenges, the foreign policies of Ronald Reagan and george h. W. Bush 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. Im delighted if you would agree to spend a few more minutes with us. If you would just have a seat, i will call you back shortly. Wait for the call. Power i never thought i would have with this gentleman. [laughter] be where the to good action is, when a good story is there for the telling, sometimes careful preparation brings it, and other times it happens unexpectedly. As on 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 feet away from me. I rather not have had that good story. When it comes 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 the nbc nightly news. He was in berlin on a different assignment, but 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. Tom it was a night when the world changed before our eyes. Good evening, live from the berlin wall, on this wall is most historic night in history. The berlin wall was part of our lives, such a physically imposing barricade. Was so much uglier and so much more oppressive than people realize from just seeing it on television. When you went to it personally, it was appalling. And Ronald Reagan had gone there. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall [cheering] tom john kennedy had gone there. Ich bin ein berliner [cheering] tom even with all the turmoil, it seemed unlikely that that wall, 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. There was so much going on in the eastern sector, i was able to get to the east for the first time and do reporting from there. You all represent the best of east germany. Late 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 soundman and said, they were what and said, did he say what we thought he said . 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 it correctly . Citizens can leave through any checkpoint they choose . It is possible for them to go through the border. Tom free to travel . Yes, of course. Tom i went to my colleagues and said, it is over, the wall is over. We got out to call the office in new york. This is midday back in the states, and we start making preparations for going on the air that night, and i am frantically trying to get a broadcast put together. I rushed out there. There were lots of students from the west who had come to the top of the wall, and the guards were trying to hose them off, and my heart sank. I thought, theres not going to be anybody there. 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, at 6 30, 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. Tom good evening. We had a path on the satellite to get on air, so that night i air, and we owned the story. No cbs, abc, a worldwide exclusive. What you are watching is a moment that will live forever. You are seeing the destruction of the berlin wall. We just 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, not just in germany, but in the soviet union, and how this was a defining moment. For the First Time Since the wall was erected in 1951, people will be able to move through freely. I couldnt hear myself think. I just kept thinking before we went on the air, clean this up some, dont screw this up, this is a big deal. It was amazing. And as we were standing there, somebody said, oh, my god. Look, they are taking down the wall. There was a guy with a mallet and a chisel beginning to hammer away at the wall. The wall effectively has come down, and i mean physically as well. That is a chunk of the berlin wall. The party at the Brandenburg Gate went on all night long, as they chipped away at the wall, danced on top of it, drank a lot. It is wonderful, wonderful. Tom and i thought, this is the human story. This is the story of humankind. I mean, 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. And that is the enduring lesson of everything i have seen in journalism. Its a night to remember. Indeed it is. [applause] you know, those of us remember it at abc from the standpoint that tom is right. He was there. He did it. When you are confronted with the real deal, just accept it. And we do. And we praise him for it. Joining us now, live from berlin, one of americas premier journalists, still today, looking and finding good stories, tom brokaw welcome, tom tom thank you, sam. Thanks very much, 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 . Tom i remember vividly, and i want to say at the outset, it was not just me, it was the whole nbc team, and 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 for 24 hours before that memorable News Conference. We had a satellite, a cameraman, and got the film of the people first coming across the bridge from east germany to west germany. So it was a confluence of all those forces. I remember as vividly as though it were yesterday, sam, standing there thinking, my god, this is one of the biggest stories of my lifetime, of the 20th century. We have got to get it right. And with the help of all my colleagues in fact, 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. He would like to say a few words with you. Secretary baker, if you would come back up here, take whatever time you require, sir, and when you are finished with tom, i will come back to him. Sec. Baker tom, how are you doing . Tom doing well, james. I have a question to you, before you have a question for me. [laughter] sec. Baker you go ahead. That theyter learned got it wrong. The politburo had not said they could leave, but they were looking at a possibility of a program where they could leave and could come back. A prominent historian at harvard did the whole story, and he left the News Conference, went to the compound where 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, and are intelligence people that there was a possibility this was going to happen . Sec. Baker the short answer, tom, is 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. I was hosting a lunch for the president of the philippines at the state department, and an aide passed me a note saying people were allowed free transit between the gdr and federal republic of germany, and it looked like the wall might be coming down. I raised a toast to that prospect, excused myself and went to the white house to meet with president bush 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. Tom one of the things we learned in my trips back here since then, i spent the day at the stasi