mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall. >> "the eighties" next on cnn. the only morality they'll recognize is what will further their cause. they reserve under themselves the right to commit any crime, to lie, to cheat. >> the russians are gearing up for war. >> the senate approved $136.5 billion defense budget. >> the largest anti-nuclear protest in u.s. history. >> president reagan is more eager to meet with new leader of the soviet union. >> mr. gorbachev, tear down this

wall. ♪ ♪ >> in afghanistan today, soviet troops are reported on the move in several areas, but it is also clear the russians are meeting

resistance from muslim tribes men and members of the afghanistan army. >> they moved into afghanistan, it was nicaragua, it was in the caribbean. there was a feeling that the united states and i felt it, the united states could lose the cold war. >> there was a model of behavior during the cold war, and the way i often described it, it was the red side of the map and blue side of the map, separated by the iron curtain. the rest of the world we competed for. >> that fundamental clash between communism and capitalism, between dictatorship and freedom divided the world. but it is a revolution starting to stir. >> there has been an unexpected development abroad. polish workers in the baltic area are standing firm in their strike against the government.

>> the demands of striking polish workers concluded free press, release of political prisoners and right to strike. they assumed the risk of striking illegally. >> along comes solidarity, but not a union run by communists, it is a union run by polish patriots, so it is a tremendous threat to the ussr because of possible contagion, it would wipe out communism if allowed to spread. >> in this season of discontent, spent part of the weekend reinforcing the link between the poland workers and the catholic church. >> it is important to understand solidarity without the impact of john paul ii. >> the soviets are nervous about john paul ii, he is anti-communist and beloved by the pols. these pressures are forcing the polish government to figure out how to keep control.

>> the strike by polish ship yard workers is over. for the polish strikers, it was a day worthy of hyperbole, telling his followers we are co-masters of this land. >> the solidarity is showing that you can have an independent union in a communist country and the question was how independent were they going to be allowed to be? >> how the u.s. deals with poland, with the eastern bloc and with russia, the early challenges for the foreign policy of the president-elect ronald reagan. >> reagan spent much of his career blasting the soviet union, attacking any republican or democrat who said we can negotiate. he had been the leading opponent of detente, the policy of trying to ease relations with the soviets. what he disliked about detente, they were hitting the negotiating team as equals. reagan thought there are two

super powers, but we have moral superiority because democracy is inherently good and sovietism is inherently bad. >> the only morality they recognize is what will further their cause, meaning they reserve under themselves the right to commit any crime, to lie, to cheat. i think when you do business with them, even at a detente, you keep that in mind. >> and everybody was like oh, this cowboy is shooting from the hip, actor, doesn't he understand that's not diplomatic. and boy did he get the soviet's attention. but there was a lot of tu tush tushing about whether this was appropriate for the president to say. >> ronald reagan had a more radical view of american goals in the cold war than any president before him. as he put it, my policy toward the communists is simple. we win, they lose. it shocked people. >> it sounds as if, sir, you're saying that there isn't going to be any summit meeting with --

>> no, i don't know. but i do believe this, that it is rather foolish to have unilaterally disarmed by letting a margin of safety deteriorate, and then you sit with the fellow who's got all of the arms, what do you have to negotiate with? >> the senate today approved a record $136.5 billion defense budget for fiscal 1982. the vote was overwhelming. 92-1. >> reagan was trying to spend the ussr into oblivion. he said what we spend on our armed forces is a much smaller proportion of our economy than is the case with you. now see if you can compete. >> ronald reagan's clear anti-communism made many people worry that though he didn't want war, the effect of his thinking would come up with unwanted war. >> this decree is the induction of marshall law, beginning today. >> the leader of solidarity is said to be in a government guest house, not under arrest, but

dozens of polish activists and dissidents were locked up along with former leaders of the communist government. >> there was concern the soviets were going to invade and that the pols in drive for self determination were going to go beyond whatever mental threshold the soviet leadership had. >> at the vatican today, pope john paul ii expressed concern for the worsening situation in his native poland. he told 200 polish pilgrims in the crowd that they and all fellow pols should pray for peace. >> the cold war became as cold as it had ever been before. it got so cold, it was capable of becoming hot. >> there had been rumors, today confirmation. deaths and injuries among

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campbell's spider-man soups. made for real, real life. thanks mom is that coffee? yea, it's nespresso. i want in. ♪ you're ready. ♪ get ready to experience a cup above. is that coffee? nespresso. what else? tragic events in poland almost two years to the day after soviet afghanistan have been precipitated by secret pressure from the soviet union. the united states is taking action to suspend economic relationships with the polish

government. >> the first crisis in poland provides a vehicle for reagan to begin to think maybe the communist system in eastern europe is not as stable as people imagined. >> this is the missile, a new version will soon be deployed in europe. this is the cruise missile to join nato's arsenal and point for the soviet union and communist bloc. >> reagan started to push for those missiles in europe, and we are going to ratchet up the cold war even further. >> many demonstrations in the next two days are protesting deployment of the missiles. they fear in event of war, it makes europe a battlefield, and leave america unscathed. >> they are, for the most part, nonviolent, trapped by geography

on the front line of the east/west struggle. >> the fears in the early 1980s were, if things went wrong, they would totally go wrong. we might be at the cusp of total nuclear war. >> the largest anti-nuclear protest engulfed manhattan. >> up to 700,000, comparable to largest of the anti-vietnam rallies a decade ago. >> this is life. this isn't political. this is about the future of life. >> ronald reagan thought that the freeze movement was ridiculous. that the weapons were way too high, that it would block in soviet superiority in numbers he wanted to eliminate. >> the nuclear freeze proposals, beware of declaring both sides equally at fault. to ignore the facts of history and the impulses of an evil empire, to call the arms race a misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle of right and wrong, good and evil.

>> reagan delegitimized the soviet union. trouble is you're both poised with weapons pointed at each other, mutually assured destruction. reagan said let's put a protective shield between us so i have some other option. and that was the birth of the initiative called sdi, or, unkindly called "star wars." >> what if free people could destroy ballistic missiles before they reached our soil or our allies? >> the united states is spending a billion dollars on laser technology, the buck rogers technology the president talked about. >> president reagan didn't understand all of the technologies. what he understood was, well, if we have a defensive system that stops their offensive missiles,

then their offensive missiles have no value. >> the soviets were nervous and afraid. there's a stasis at the top of the leadership, they were fearful the reagan administration would take advantage of their weakness. as a result, the soviets are very reactive. >> if you were watching this broadcast last night, you probably went to sleep with the same impression we did. there has been some kind of a hassle between soviet fighter jets and korean airline 747 and we led you to believe that the plane landed safely on soviet territory. sadly, that was not true. >> at approximately 1600 hours, the plane strayed into soviet air space. at 1826 hours, the soviet pilot reported that he fired a missile and the target was destroyed. >> they went on a peaceful trip. they weren't any spies or anything like that.

>> i think the russians are gearing up for war and doing everything that they can to prepare for it. >> it was not an intentional hostile act against the korean airlines. it was a mistake of a system that was falling apart. >> this crime against humanity must never be forgotten, here or throughout the world. it was an act of barbraism. >> the timing was particularly bad because the united states and soviets were not talking at all. two great powers are afraid of each other and ko 007 happens and this is one of the most dangerous periods of the cold war. >> because of the suspicions about ronald reagan, the soviet intelligence agencies thought that under the cover of a

military exercise called able archer, a first nuclear strike on moscow could be launched. >> when reagan discovered that the soviets actually did think that the united states might launch a pre-emptive strike, it was kind of one of these moments, my gosh, i'm going to look upon them in a different light. >> an estimated 100 million americans watched last night as some of the horror of a nuclear bomb attack on the united states was portrayed in a tv movie. >> reagan processed a lot of history through movies and the fact that this fear of nuclear annihilation was true and he thought maybe he was put here on earth to avoid a nuclear war. >> just suppose with me for a moment that they could find themselves, say, in a waiting room with a jim and sally and

there was no language barrier. would they then debate the differences between their respective governments? or would they find themselves comparing notes about their children, what each other did for a living? they would have proven that people don't make wars. >> reagan comes to understand, he's made a mistake by not trying to meet with the soviets and his desire to do this gets much stronger after it becomes clear to him that there's such a level of misunderstanding between the two adversaries that an inadvertent war is possible. >> this is a cbs news special report. >> gorbachev takes control. >> when the death was announced, it was a short way to see who would run the kremlin. winning that power is 54-year-old gorbachev.

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at 54, gorbachev is the youngest to leave the union. unlike his predecessors, he may not feel as tide down by the history. >> he's a revolution in himself. he's talking about a new soviet union, allowing some freedom of speech, allowing a more open society. >> gorbachev had seen how the gap between how the soviet people lived and what the party said was growing wider and wider. but he is a child of the system. he did not want to destroy it. he had in his mind, i have to save it. >> i want him to fight for peace and for a better life. >> i think that he will be a

good leader and i like him. >> when asked, reagan said, well, they keep dying on me. well, that was true but he really wasn't making much of an effort and there was a fear that if you don't reach out to the efforts. >> president reagan has had a change of heart. he has sent gorbachev a letter. >> it was worked out ahead of time by the two foreign ministries, here's what we're going to say at the end and there will be gaps. reagan said, no, whatever comes out of the summit will be what we develop while we are there. >> after 70 minutes, mr. reagan

invited gorbachev to stroll through the pool house and mr. reagan talked without notice, not about arms control but of his personal feelings about reducing the level of fear and misunderstanding between the two nations. >> the main thing was that they met each other as human beings and reagan in particular had concentrated gorbachev as a person. >> it is understood that the president tried to dispel gorbachev's negative opinion and he would not budge but was not as combative as he had been recently. >> is it a good sign? >> of course it is. >> i would think so. >> i was at lunch when ronald reagan came out of his first meeting with mikhail gorbachev and he said, this is a new type of leader. >> the president will visit him next year and they have agreed to accelerate the arms talks.

but the soviet leader was more negative. >> the solving of the most important problem solving the arms race and increasing hopes of peace, we didn't succeed in reaching at this meeting. so, of course, there are important disagreements on matters of principle that remain between us. >> the general feeling here is that president reagan deserves credit for starting a dialogue with soviet leader gorbachev. that in a nuclear age, any lessening of tension must be applauded. but many here only had a modest success because it failed to achieve significant progress on arms control. the first word of something that was seriously wrong came from this power plant in eastern sweden where workers coming on the job administered abnormally

high levels of radiation on their bodies. >> in the soviet union, a terse announcement picked up from moscow. >> the soviet reports an accident at the cherynobl nuclear plant. >> people who died were not only soviets not getting the truth about chernobyl, gorbachev realized he was also in the dark. >> they played down the incident reporting it after the latest five-year plan and reports eight or nine minutes into the news, an announcer finally said only two people have been killed in the incident, contradicting that the casualties numbered in the

thousands. >> it was not a flash in the pan. every few weeks there would be something like chernobyl. >> because this took place at the reactor, it's another example of the soviets by not using the safety precautions taken in the united states. >> chernobyl reminded the united states they wouldn't play in the game of modern technology. they couldn't protect their own people and couldn't hide it anymore. >> gorbachev's biggest plan was to get the country moving again and needed to end the arms race and spend more money on improving living standards of ordinary people and he needed a relaxation of tensions with the west. >> iceland? >> yeah. that's what i'm here to tell you

about. well, i am pleased to announce that general secretary gorbachev and i will meet in iceland. the meeting was proposed by general secretary gorbachev and i've accepted. >> no agreements at the meeting next week? >> i don't know. we've -- all we've agreed upon is that we were going to have a meeting. >> gorbachev needs a show of progress overseas to boost his stature in soviet. the leader of the free world meets gorbachev the autocrat, gorbachev needs to publicity back home. when you find something worth waiting for, we'll help you invest to protect it for the future. financial guidance while you're mastering life.

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the feeling was we didn't have to prepare all that much, everything we knew it was going to be a hello, a handshake and photo op. and it turned out to be anything else but that. after the first morning when reagan and gorbachev met, we were called in to the embassy, which is right nearby. reagan says, gorbachev really wants to reduce nuclear weapons. so he hands a piece of paper to no one in particular where all of us can grab it and we looked it over and it was a holy cow moment, this guy really wants to reduce nuclear weapons. here is a guy not going by the script and who wanted to do business. >> the first indication that

some progress may have been made at today's talks came at a white house briefing here a few minutes ago. no prediction yet on the outcome of these talks but they do give rise to some optimism. >> i was up there as the clock was ticking down and at the last minute, it fell apart. >> mr. president -- >> do we have an agreement, mr. president? >> do we have an agreement, sir? >> will you meet again? >> when i saw reagan come out of that room with gorbachev, his face was a mask of rage and gorbachev was very stiff walking out and the guy behind me said, i don't like the body language. >> president reagan and secretary gorbachev appear to have reached tentative agreement on much of an historic break through of arms reduction. but in the end, the soviets insist that president reagan must stop his star wars program

to get the deal. president reagan wouldn't do that. >> the soviets feared that it wasn't mutually assured destruction at that point. it was assured destruction of the soviet union but assured protection of the united states. so they went crazy about sti. >> translator: the president insisted until the end on retaining for the united states the right to test relating to sdi. it would have taken a madman to agree to that. >> there was astonishment and fear about what reagan has talked about doing. >> a reagan administration move was criticized today by former president nixon and former secretary of state henry

kissinger. they said it would be a profound mistake to eliminate all medium range missiles in europe. >> many conservatives thought that reagan had been charmed by gorbachev and he actually had more problem dealing with his hard right than dethe left. so reagan had to constantly let the right know, i know what i'm doing. >> reagan was being accused already of getting soft on communism but he hadn't forgotten the problems we still had. europe is still divided. there was still a berlin wall. >> there is one sign the soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. mr. gorbachev, open this gate. [cheers and applause ] mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall.

>> it was perfect. it was beautiful. he had to insist on keeping it in the speech, and he did it. don't let anybody tell you, a staffer or anybody else. >> meanwhile, in the soviet union, gorbachev decides to do something bold and he says, let's separate sdi from reducing the nuclear stockpile. it opens up the possibility for a third summit. >> this week's summit may prove historic. for the first time since the onset of the nuclear age, the united states and soviet union will sign a treaty actually reducing the number of nuclear missiles. >> the agreement involved the elimination of an entire class of weapons, the intermediate range ballistic missiles and it changes the nature of arms control because you went from arms control to arms reduction. you are now getting rid of nuclear weapons. >> mr. reagan is too anxious for an agreement to ensure his place in the history books as a

peacemaker. >> well, i haven't changed since i made a speech about the evil empire and i think i could sum up my own position on this with the resuscitation of a very brief russian proverb. [ speaking in foreign language ] it means trust but verify. ♪ >> the importance of this treaty transcends numbers. we have listened to the wisdom in an old russian -- [ speaking in foreign language ] trust but verify. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> you repeat that at every meeting. [ laughter ] >> i like it.

>> the improbablility of either of them, reagan the cold war hawk, gorbachev, the party guy, doing this kind of thing, it's just unheard of. and they did it. >> reagan had been at a low in 1987 with iran/contra. the negotiations in many ways saved his presidency. >> mr. gorbachev may not have seen much of america but made sure that a lot of americans saw him. motorcades don't very often turn a lot of heads in this city but when they stop on a dime, so does everyone else. >> that was very special. he didn't have to do it but he did. i'm very surprised and pleased. he's a pr genius. unbelievable. >> congressional leaders say they gave president reagan a round of applause on the morning after the summit meeting but

there was caution against euphoria. >> well, everyone applauded when the president came in. >> the president has now said that gorbachev is a different leader, that he no longer wants world domination. do you agree? >> it's one thing to sign the inf agreement and another to follow through on a number of areas. i still don't trust him. the first survivor of alzheimer's disease is out there. and the alzheimer's association is going to make it happen. but we won't get there without you. visit alz.org to join the fight. will your business be ready when growth presents itself? american express open cards can help you take on a new job, or fill a big order

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soviet leader mckaikhail gorbachev and how anxious they are to get themselves out of afghanistan, out of a war that they have not been able to win and out of a warm proven too costly to continue. >> because of afghanistan, communism was no longer affordable. the idea of promoting your ideology around the world, defending its interests became too expensive. >> white house officials are thrilled at the idea that when the president arrives in moscow for a summit with gorbachev in late may, it appears that the soviets will begin their pull-out from afghanistan.

♪ >> ronald reagan built his career saying communism is illegal and the notion that five years after his evil empire speech, ronald reagan lands in moscow and is welcomed and is greeted is mind-blowing. >> and just about like every other american tourist who comes to moscow, president reagan today toured red square, which is the historic center of this capital, of course. he had the best possible tour guide, mikhail gorbachev. >> at one point, president reagan threw his arm around gorbachev and at another point completely took back his evil empire pronouncement. >> do you think you are an evil empire? >> no. >> why not? >> another time, another era. >> the war monger reagan is essentially saying the cold war

looks as if it is coming to an end. >> freedom is the recognition that no single person, no single authority or monopoly on the truth. it is the right to put forth an idea, scoffed at by the experts and watch it catch fire among the people. >> food has become even harder to get. once there was a selection, maybe two or three cheeses. now there is only one. there is a dangerous undertone to the complaints. we ate better, they say, in the days of brechnef. >> the system is unchangeable and unable to adapt to a modern world. gorbachev thought the united states was so far ahead of him,

they were so far behind, we need to accelerate the reforms. >> translator: today, i can report to you that the soviet union has made a decision to reduce its armed forces. within the next two years, their strength will be reduced by 500,000 men. the numbers of conventional armaments will also be reduced. >> he was relaxing the soviet's grip on eastern europe. they didn't really have much choice because they couldn't bail out the eastern economists. so what were they going to do? >> the impact in the united states is finally the critics of reagan, and this is the final month of his presidency, acknowledged that things are fundamentally changing. >> in china, more than 100,000 people defied the government and took to the streets demanding democratic reform. >> in beijing, the

demonstrations grow and they grow and they grow to the point where they reach a couple million people and in the middle of all this, in comes mikhail gorbachev. this was going to be a visit in which the chinese communist party hopes to improve its relations with the soviets. >> as the sun rose here, it was clear that the chinese students' protest for democracy is still gaining strength and urgency. students are dropping from exhaustion. some now are vowing to die if necessary. >> they recognized that they couldn't reform the way that they were being pushed to reform. they couldn't allow this challenge to their authority. >> the soviet leader largely ducked questions on the issue i cannot be the judge, he said. >> in china tonight, the government declared martial law in central beijing. foreign journalists face

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while china's communist rulers were cracking down on democracy, the results of parliamentary elections and admitting that solidarity was a big winner. for supporters, the taste of victory is sweet. the numbers are overwhelming. in a dramatic announcement, the government conceded defeat in the election and promised continuous reforms. >> stupendous first time it ever happened in eastern european communist history and this was contagious. >> one of our producers from primetime live went into east

germany posing as a tourist. he found an incredible scene there. >> in east germany, you see a series of demonstrations for change and the question becomes, are these demonstrations going to be repressed and wiped out? what is gorbachev going to do? >> the east german leader at a military parade through the heart of east berlin preached reform and offered a gorbachev proverb. those being late, he said, will be punished by life itself. >> gorbachev felt he could put a happy face on socialism, that he could modify it. but he got the genie out of the bottle and couldn't get it back in. >> the time has run out for

honecker. the 77-year-old leader of east germany. he resigned today. the official reason given was poor health. continuing growing unrest made today's change inevitable. >> the people have their government on the run. today, in the bid to convince people that he's serious about reform, the east german leader, who has had the job for less than a month, managed to convince all of the members of the government he inherited they should resign. the question is this, what next? >> the pressure on the east german government was getting enormous. and as part of the kind of package to present themselves as human, there had been a resolution passed which is going to introduce new rules about immigration. he went to this press conference, he hadn't been at the meeting so didn't know what was in it. he said, here's something i can tell you. the biggest administrative error in history.

>> when the east german government opened the window a little bit and said, well, if you want to move from east germany into west germany, you may, that's all people needed to hear. >> history turns on these magnificent little divots. there are border guards who could have fired at these first people but they didn't. instead of firing on those who were coming close to the wall, instead of firing on them, they just let them do it.

[cheers and applause ] ♪ >> it was the sort of news that defies the possibility of a headline. what we know is that we are standing in attendance at a moment in history as you look now at the berlin wall. >> we didn't really anticipate that the wall would come down like that but so much pent up emotion and so much of the desire for freedom that it just overwhelmed them but it wasn't anticipated. it was a surprise. >> our joy was just watching germans roll through that wall and knock it down and start making souvenir slices and it

was a truly exciting night because we had wanted this for 40 years and now it's happening. >> the long-time communist leader of bulgaria suddenly and surprisingly today announced his resignation. >> it turns out that these regimes are more brittle than gorbachev understood and they couldn't find many gorbachevs. he tried to encourage people like him to rise to the fore in these countries. they weren't successful. >> had gorbachev decided to use force, this whole scenario would have been totally different and, furthermore, the cold war might have ended in a far different way. it might have ended with a bang and not with a whimper. >> how can one sum up what we've gone through in the last months? perhaps a concert. the conductor was leonard bernstein and they climaxed to "the ode de joy" except one word

was changed, "ode to freedom." ♪ ♪ >> the playwright activist is the first noncommunist party in 41 years. >> and he his wife were executed after military court found them guilty of genocide, stealing state funds and trying to escape prosecution. >> from our point of view, there was no argument about the most remarkable story of the decade. freedom. in some cases, freedom which had been unthinkable as the decade began.

in money matters this morning, wall street, where leaping stocks have investors jumping. >> we're going to turn the bull loose. >> one of the great things about this nation is, we can seek profit. >> is money the number one goal? >> yes. >> we've had 29-year-olds making a million dollars a year. expecting to make $2 million the year after that. >> if you have plastic money, nothing is a problem. >> history will prove the bakers were honest people. >> insider trading could become wall street's watergate. what is do we wall greed the day before an indictment?