>> david greene "midnight in siberia" he went to report on what russia is like in the post-soviet era. ...

>> >> i have been thinking about it 28 years somebody said how long did it take? i said 28 years. i was there the most important weekend of my life the most thrilling weekend of my life and i have been telling people about it for a long time then the movie

started and i was executive research of the movie that starred michael douglas and that was about eight years ago i was involved with that then the movie stalled and then this happened and that happened and i thought if it is such a good story vital to just write about it? the counter argument is i had written five before that was enough for moses and it was enough for me. he was tired. [laughter] someone said the most viable copy of my previous books is the unsigned copy i think there were virtually none and also in the rare book section but then i said why not? i decided to do with a and

the more i looked into it it was better. >> you said from the outset it was relegated largely forgotten the general public is so vaguely aware. so what has been misunderstood that may have caused people to underestimate the importance with that event in modern history lies is so overlooked? >> that jarrett -- that general paradigm is gigantic no dispute about that. and the conventional wisdom is whole system the economic bankruptcy of a succession of dying leaders and nothing

from the outside matter battle -- mattered at all. >> will account righty in this book are there other historians or persons that have done their own books with this particular segment ? >> there are memoirs by secretary of state but no one did us a deep dive and the best thing nobody had the notes. what does that enable you to do? to peek through the keyhole to put your year to the door for a 10 and a half hours i don't know you but i have

never talked to anyone in to talk about the most important issues and without notes or talking points or involvement or memos they must have felt this wusses is more likely than any time in detail gorbachev must have thought this is more like me than my time as general secretary and ronald reagan's son said another book said he did this on this day your son did this day but this shows his mind at work. and those other documents where do you find the

archival material that they want to look at this? >> some of it is that the reagan library some of it is online some of it is that make a big sullivan is scattered around some of it is that reykjavik but what makes this a wonderful story is first of all, this is a weekend a stormy weekend with rain lashing at the window with the creepy old house and is said to be haunted the neighbors called at the haunted house are sickos house and the summit the prime minister said his

family believed in ghosts and if it was haunted that they would be most welcome so over a weekend the most amazing thing is happening and it happened to characters ronald reagan and. >> host: stayed were the most charismatic characters of the 21st century and the ups and downs besides the two characters is the consequence 48 hours that ended the cold war. >> host: let's get to do reykjavik in the second to allow people to hear those stories but this is a memoir in a journalistic history when you were working in the reagan white house did you

believe or thank you may want to write a book about your experience or keep a diary or consult notes? >> no. it was stupid it was the most important weekend of my life but i went with my business and what was remarkable is site chased down wonderful documents at the reagan library and washington d.c. after the book went to press i found in my files of letter that ronald reagan wrote to say that nice job that i had done it is not in the book the most personal document of reykjavik his letter to be a few days later is not recounted as i chase all these other documents so i saved nothing.

>> host: many of your recollection as from that we can you may have found some discrepancies when you found researching the details? >> very few. i can go for years and not tell you anything that i did but when something like this happens you remember a remarkable number of things you can look at the photos one example the segment was a surprise. of the kgb in the us california is secret service knew about that before the state department did. said they rent all the rooms in the house then the sequencer is goes to the

ambassador because nothing happens but he enjoyed and deep sea fishing and he was told the president will be at your house online 101112 and the ambassador was quite excited but the bad news is you are not. [laughter] we will take over your house the ambassador by that time trying to fight their room and he could not and he left. okay. i remember thinking that is pretty shabby and the only thing in the hundreds of years the only thing better ever mattered. so that was my memory. years later i hear his wife said that he was that reagan's side and then his

widow will maybe my memory is a wrong. and with that snapshot in there were very few but not taken at the ambassador's house. but even when we had lunch at the ambassador's house he is not there. i think to myself that was right he was not there. >> so let's segue into the start of the summit october

october 11, 1986, the fascinating case is in geneva of one year earlier. what had transpired between that first reading and the start of the reykjavik summit in but was the expectations of americans going into this second meeting? >> there were very low-fat gorbachev had arms meetings and reagan was thought to be out of control hard-liner on the brink of nuclear annihilation at that time things were not panning out. in to show he was a great negotiator in and it is remarkable parts of the research that i did on the plate to detroit to except

the republican nomination the adviser said why are you doing this? why do want to be president? and reagan said to end the cold war. who in their right mind the thought anybody would end the cold war? he had a way to do that he had the approach and the outcome we will and they lose. and his approach to reduce nuclear weapons to expand military might to delegitimize the soviet union with the focus of evil in the modern world in history that communism would end up these were all deliver its sixth year attack before reykjavik so he had a strategy you know, what he did it was thought

to be a summit that was not going to be a summit actually the of remarks on the white house said it is not even a summit is the meeting to prepare. we spent six months preparing for the geneva summit this was 12 days. >> but a huge amount of attention to dissent on this tiny place you have 3,000 journalists 3,172. >> then the lakers from all three networks show up with the various television broadcast networks and you were there in your rule so tell me about your

responsibility would be going into this weekend. >> as we understood that the responsibilities would be nothing. that would be the griffin and grabbed type of summit's media event and thought to be gorbachev needed to elevate his statue -- stature this intimate with the president of the united states so that is what we expected with the cia with the american ambassador in to go along with the of photo summit on that. in that came when they met

we sat in the bubble with the room totally secure and has big latches on the outside. bubbles generally are pretty big we could have 25 people in the bubble they ordered a small one there because nothing ever happened there so there are eight of us sitting side-by-side right next to each other with the kind that wal-mart would be ashamed and all squeezed in side to side and joseph tells us what we a new about the first meeting. and then the latch opens up the door swings open way

looked up and there is a seven ft. 8-inch secret service agent the president of united states. as wedded a red blooded american would do we stood up and he said this would make a great degree of if you fill it with water. [laughter] but then there were nine of us with eight seats there is the chief of staff, the secretary of state, national security adviser, and then the arms control director i knew if i was going to stay i was going to states to do something fast so i offered the president my chair and i took the ground. [laughter] i was on the floor meanwhile the secret service guy had

locked the door once again. it was of great day because reagan cracked a few jokes that gorbachev was serious and try to tell us of the approach he was taking the been gently leading against that we knew our assessment and intelligence was wrong this is the real thing. >> host: but they don't know each other that weld of meeting in geneva but they have not had a lot of heart to heart some so vacant basically gets this from a relatively brief meeting. >> you pick that up.

>> because said geneva summit was the ideal state department summit it was very well scripted and nothing much comes out. and this was the opposite. nothing was scripted, as you are. the one thing that i missed during the whole weekend we never shared a meal or of drink or a social yvette -- defense. but before it was like they were double dating. this was nothing. but it never occurred to anybody to invite him over to launch. >> host: back to the bubble what was he like in a setting like that?

is actively engaged? what he did is tell us gorbachev was serious that it gorbachev did not say and very flexible so all that was good then he tried to tell us exactly what kind of proposals he cabled with and it was missed mash and then try to figure out what was as well but shultz was no better because it was awfully specialize and complicated and very few people knew it. so they got all screwed up but reagan said he gave me a piece of paper in the reagan thought that was a kind

thing to do real thought gorbachev had his man. sub-index of doing with those details, cheese side is willing to cut as people remember that the "star wars" as it was known than. but just describing again what was this said why was it so important to break in and why did gorbachev to oppose it vehemently?

>> was so important it got us out of the nuclear impasse since the 1940's and '50's. break-in thought about it to cowboys with guns to their hands with mutual annihilation and he wanted to get away from an ad as value based. gorbachev thought today is states can do anything. , the fbi will be real to vacate soviet power if we compete it will ruin the soviet union so he had as of you of what the fbi could become and it was so small and at that time relatively insignificant research that

these guys just elevated it and i think gorbachev to you that it would bring down the soviet union brought down the soviet union. >> but rated did not conceive of it as such. did he? this is a big source of contention. what did reagan really intent to achieve with the fbi? direct to protect the united states against incoming threats. >> host: then it becomes this religious discussion during those two days. but give very interested to learn the details that you get the sense of that the regular back-and-forth. >> guest: without touching the book tim much but we are here to do that.

[laughter] chapters 34 tranfive are what they are discussing back and forth. you see them by themselves with their real views. >> how many people are in the room? >> said two of them said to foreign ministers who don't participate much at all and to note takers thank god who write down what they say one russian and one american. and the two translators. that is all. during that time those of us who have met before and after could generalize what would happen but not much over the 25 years later when i say holy cow. it is amazing that reagan is

just as knowledgeable as gorbachev. people thought that was impossible he was the of this kid, a generation younger, which us smarter a jogger and with it. you don't get that from the notes at all but there is no intellectual gap, no knowledge gap, and in terms of negotiations the in locating at these notes is over the 10.5 years gorbachev says 11 or 12 times i have given new concessions you have given the nothing reagan says every time.

he says nothing. absolutely nothing. [laughter] he must be sitting there thinking what is wrong with that? why do i was the great negotiator water you complaining about? he never answers gorbachev and he just gets madder and madder candidate god we have the notes of a gorbachev of the plane from reykjavik back to moscow and his staff is on the plane and he says gave away things i've made all the concessions they gave me nothing. his staff must have thought to is the dummy here? but that is the way it was. i was really lucky to be there and then to have the memory but then the notes.

>> host: i want to air talk about the climax of the summit that some of the details of your own experiences line is the military of cursors from each side the military football belafonte military strike but you said the most memorable site that you recall? what made it memorable? >> the idea that they were as close as you and i together with each of them in there smartly pressed uniforms never looking at each other that i saw holding a briefcase in there he and having the codes to blow what each other's country.

that is what they're talking about in this room. and it is a small little house. they didn't have any room to spread out. there was the russian parlor a.m. the american parlor in the conference room on the first floor and these two guys in bohol way every time bell peter left the fellow football left as well but to go to see them go into the room and their guy standing right outside not looking at each other in there is not much to look at gave me the willies. have looked at them several times. that is what this is all about. >> host: that dmv yes stairs parlor what was

happening? those two negotiating teams you don't know what is discussed down below but you said it was a congenial atmosphere? >>, the sunday of the summit, october 12, they were gathering in the hallway the top leadership we had just gone all night we started it 8:00 at night and it was 6:20 a.m. the next morning. i walked back and showered and reported at about 8:00 we had accomplished more in arms control that night they an incentive years of negotiations since geneva up. then about their reading all

the sudden the diplomats came out with the most extraordinary conversations. . .

>> this maybe possible or may not be but the president said he needed to get home. the first lady didn't come to reykjavik. >> guest: it was so unusual in my mind that rice was there and she had the strange -- stage to

herself. she changed her outfit four times the first day. she was staying on a ship called the soviet sinatra. his signature song was the man of dreams. she used the game prank getting off the fashion like a runway. nancy reagan didn't know he was going to go and stayed in washington and fumed the whole weekend. and the summit had just a lockout on all news. so there was a no leaks, no briefings at all. so she had the stage to herself on that. and so, you know, see just used

it like mad. and that was a lot of fun for, you know, just gave a nice part to make it a festive event. >> host: the last section in reykjavik, there is no deal and the two sides are at lagger heads over sdi and gorbachev makes this surprising statement. what did gorbachev put on the table and how did president reagan respond? >> they had both agreed during the all-night negotiations the soviets agreed to equal limits of strategic arms. the breakthrough on the nuclear

front was happening like never before. it was christmas, your birthday and the greatest. he said we did all of that but you have to give up sdi. and he said confine the research to the laboratories. and phrased that he had interesting enough never used in the preparation meetings. but anyway, it popped into the his head and stuck with that. i am not giving it up and confineing it to a lab and i made the point to the president if you confine, no one flies ann airplane that is confined to a laboratory. and sdi is more complicated and understand what you are doing. it would be killing it. and i had briefers who later

told me when i got back to washington that 80% of the test scheduled for sdi would have to be scrapped and the congress wouldn't have funded any program that was killed in the crib like that. so reagan said no. and gorbachev said got to. and reagan said you don't got to and they went back and forth and both wanted an agreement and wanted the summit to be a success but there was a part they would not agree on and they left and reagan was fuming. according to one of two possible explanations right at the end when gorbachev said i don't know what we could have different and reagan jabs his finger into his chest and said you could have said yes and goes in the limo. we saw reagan at the

ambassador's house and his perm ambassador gave an oral history saying he never saw the president madder or more depressed except when nancy reagan was going in for a cancer operation. we saw him at the house and we was going back and forth and he was furious and furious on the way out of reykjavik to the airbase where he was going to spend five minutes talking to 3,000 troops that were stationed for a nato deployment there and schedule that for a long time. he was furious until he got into the base and stood in front of the 3,000 troops and he lit up and you can see from the speech he because back being ronald reagan. but for that hour he certainly wasn't. >> the way it was portrayed in

the press and the aftermath was that reagan had walked away from the deal of the century. gorbachev had effectively proposed scrapping all nuclear weapons and reagan said no. but you agreeed with reagan's turning the deal down and you still agree with it, i take it. >> i did. i didn't know how important it was going to be. i thought on balance he was right. that we would go back to the nuclear side and we should keep our options open. i thought sdi was going to be important to reinforce traditional deterants. he wanted to protect the united states with a shield against imcoming ballistic missiles. but i had no idea this was going to start a change reaction that was going to end the cold war.

what happened was gorbachev gets back, he says two things, number one, sdi -- this guy is convinced there is no way. gorbachev's strategy was i am going to make reagan a deal on sdi that he cannot refuse. he find out much to his horror and misery there is no deal on sdi reagan can't convince. and he hears reagan say there has been great progress. he goes back and says i cannot make a deal that will kill sdi with reagan so i have to compete in the high tech area. he calls a meeting of the supreme soviet and says there has to be rapid reforms and they are poorly thought out and rushed into print and probably

wouldn't have succeeded but gorbachev left no doubt about if they would succeed. in the book he wanted to reform the soviet union in the worst way possible. from those reforms, soviet union blue up. >> host: we can talk about the implication of reykjavik and how it contributed to the cold war. i wanted to ask you to talk about your first assignment when you get back to washington. it is probably not one you expected to take. but is great anadote in the book >> guest: thursday night we got to reykjavik and i didn't sleep well. friday night we werebusey and

saturday we pulled an all-nighter and sunday i am exhausted getting six hours in the last three days and just absolute fit to be tide. and then don reg n asked me to fly the press plane back and i am briefing the press on that and get home about 2 o'clock in the morning on monday the 13th of october 1986 and found out the freezer broke down and the car doesn't work. so i wake up a neighbor and we take the wagon and take all of the meet that is melting into -- meat -- and he is going to loan me the car to get to nbc for the today show at 7 a.m. i come back from the today show and did

cbs news and then i got back and all i want to do is close the curtain. girls off to school and everything like that. and all of a sudden, i get calls from bill crow who is chairman of the joint chief, what happened there? from don rumsfeld and others and i am trying to answer the calls and during one of the times and in those days you only had one line into the house and no cellphone. i get a call and they call this number from the whitehouse. and i call the number. it is chief of staff of the whitehouse and he says ken, i need a favor from you and i thought this is going to be bad. and because he would normally go through staff aids rather than call me. and he said the president needs a favor. and i had it is worse. and he said the president just

hung up talking to australia's prime minister and promised you would be there to brief him. i say i cannot go i am going to be catatonic. i am on death row right now. i have gotten five hours sleep in the last 3-4 nights whatever. australia is the end of the world. he said, i know, that is great and everything else but the president mentioned you to hawk and a car is coming to take you to dulles for the 4 o'clock flight. so i go out there for a day. >> host: and flew right back? >> guest: flew right back. >> host: and you said the hawk wanted to tell stories about ronald reagan? >> guest: that and he got a gnaw sail boat and wanted to show me.

and then we greeted the press and he said after we spend time -- i told stories about reagan and he showed me his sail boat when was over a half hour, i think. pictures they had gotten for the sail boat. and then they went out and told the press that he had only budgeted on hour for the meeting but because of the importance of reykjavik we spent an hour and 40 minutes which time we spent probably ten on reykjavik and lots of other things. but it showed he was a good ally and the united states cared about him. he didn't know much about it or care about it much. but because he cooperated with the united states on the issue for the hawks that the liberal part of his party were wanting arms control. so as the director of arms

control, i could satisfy that. >> host: before we bet back to reagan and gorbachev, i wanted to ask you about the character that plays throughout the book. someone you mentioned sergio. tell me about him and what his role was at reykjavik and a little about his story and why you decided to feature it and have it running as a second character. >> i thought it was trumeemendo what he did. none of us expected to head up the soviet delegation. he was a five-star marshal. he was the most decorated man in soviet history. one of the few to be a hero of the soviet union. and he appeared and all of us heard about him but none of us

met him. and he controlled his delegation in a way that was magnificent. he was dealing with guys who were taking enormous amount of time giving propaganda speeches. and at 8 o'clock he said i want to do business and sitting next to him the man started haranguing and what he did was amazing. he put his hand on the guy's argument, looked at him -- arm -- and gave him a five-"the star-spangled banner" -- stare and he said we will ignore that. and 2-3 times they would come up with the propaganda flair he

would say we are not doing that. and he didn't sell out his country or anything like that. that was from 8 o'clock on saturday until 8:20 the next morning. talked to him the next morning and nev saw him again. then he appears in geneva in 1987 and we were negotiating all day. and i am sitting with collin powell who is national security advisor and we are talking a little bit about arms control and we had arms control coming out of our ears by that time. i said i read the cia reports, but i didn't say cia reports, i read you are the last soviet in uniform that fought in world wor

two and you had an amazing time and can you tell us about. he just lit up. he told us he joined when he was 17 years old. starting when he was 18 years old his tank battalion was stationed outside of lemon grad with and the german north division was atag tacking on the road. he wasn't in the building for 18 months during the russian winter. 20 degrees below zero. he had a pop up tent. he was never in a building for 18 months. on that road to keep the german division from taking that area. and a million or a few million were dying in lemon grad. he told us the story and all of us were blown away. and collin powell asked questions on the tank and it was

nice to see those two soldiers take about their lingo and events and like every good thing in life you say this has been about 40 minutes. we have to go. and shultz said let me tell you that was wonderful. thank you for sharing it. that kind of determination and great is what americans so ad mire in soviet people and symbolized by what you did. a wonderful moment and he looked at him and said thank you, mr. secretary, i appreciate that. but had we moved from that road, stalin would have had a shot. i think to myself isn't that a great remarks. he is mystifying this and co

complimenting him and saying stalin would have had him shot. and stalin said no one surre surrendered they were traders. so people in the pow camp were killed. and i saw him in 1987 and he said it was the proudest moment of his life. and the chairman of the joint chief of staff went around visiting military bases when was unheard of before reykjavik and then while the wall was falling, just in 1989, which was a year and a half later and i was out of government and i was in a conference with robert mekner and he was chief of the staff of armed forces and gorbachev

advis advisor. i sent a note i would love to see you and he said come over. his office is down the row from gorbachev. he showed me around his office and a chanda lere and it was wonderful with different colors and shapes and size and it attracted more attention. and we said good bye and i thanked him for all of this cooperation that was wonderful of reykjavik and being the hero of reykjavik. and then the soviet union starts to fall. and september 26th i am reading in a new york city most and it says he committed suicide. in his office, with the chand leer, took the rope from the drapes, tied it up, and

committed suicide. right down the hall from gorbachev's office. and then as if that wasn't bad enough something happened a week later. when i read that paper on september 26th, it was early in the morning. by that time collin powell was chairman of the joint chiefs. i called him up before 7 a.m. his secretary said well he is in a briefing already. and i said all right tell him i called and to call when i get a chance. and she said hold on a moment. and the phone ring and he said kenny, he always called me kenny, i felt the same thing. it is unbelievable what happened. i didn't say what i called for or who, but we both knew it was amazing. a week later his funeral takes

place and no official attends. no body from the foreign ministry, no military honors, just his daughters, wife and a few friends and this is the most decorated man in the soviet history. this was the man at gorbachev's side for years. and a few days after he is buried vandals come and dig up his body, steal the uniform and throw the body away. i was in a way devastated because i said there is an honorable man in a dishonorable cause but someone i admired and we shared special moments and he wrote 2-3 suicide notes. one was published and in the book. another to his wife that was personal and according to what i heard a third one from gorbachev

and he is going to release it after his death, gorbachev's death. i asked his assistant why doesn't he release it now and he said he will ask him when i get back to moscow. but i have had friends who told me who read the book that is the most emotional and intriguing part. >> host: i wanted you to reflect on the relationship that extraordina extraordinary. there are so many photos from the last few years of the cold war that are familiar. you can see in the photographs. there was a chemistry between the two men. what was it? how do you explain it? how much was forged in the

weekend? >> guest: i think it wasn't entirely -- there wasn't a great deal of friendship between the two. there was a mutual admiration and need for each other because reagan went through the contra episode when people thought was ridiculous. gorbachev was going through a problem in the soviet union and any time they turned to demostic affairs it was a nightmare. the only thing going on in the international stage was each other. they understood and respected each other. gorbachev was in london and some

british, typical snotty, says everyone knows reagan is a light weight, typical academic, typical british and snotty reparks. gorbachev interrupts him and says that is wrong. you don't know what you are talking about. and i thought something to bud. there was a swerespect and need for each other. they both thought there were too many nuclear weapons and they were right. and they had the responsibility to do something about it. plus they had a kinship that both of them were born and raised in the hinter lands and

the chances of them coming to power was not likely. reagan's dad sold shoes and was an alcoholic. and gorbachev's family was poor. and the chances as being leaders of the world together was chance. and they realized that and said something brought them together. and i think one thing i should have added is maybe the lofty house was haunted and what happened there was so extraordinary and so mysterious and so extra worldly that, you know, maybe they are right, maybe it is a ghost house and haunted house. >> well, it is an extroidinary story and well-told in the book.

thank you for your time. this was a lot of fun. >> that was afterwards. where authors are interviewed by those particular with their material. afterwards airs every sunday. you can watch it online at booktv.org and click on afterwards on the upper right hand side of the page. >> here is a look at some of the best selling non-fiction book according to indy bound. an organization associated with the american book sellers

associate. at the top of the list is thomas picket, capital in the 21st century. he wrotes on wealth and income inquality in the states since the 18th century. second is everything i need to know i learned from a golden book. best selling authors of freak p freak-nomics are in third and tibetan peach by is 4. michael lewis is fifth with flash boy looking at high frequencies trading. we hosed a viewer call in program with him that can be viewed anytime. and flash boys and then stress test and you can watch him discuss his book on our website. a fighting chance by elizabeth

warren is number eight. booktv covered warren in conversation at the old south meeting house in boston. look for it air this weekend. at ninth, recounting the stories with nsa and edward snowden with no place to hide. you can watch that interview at booktv.org. and wrapping up the list is david and goliath and his talk is available any time at booktv.org. for more information visit in indiebound.org. >> and booktv is the only

television network devoted to non fiction books and authors. brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. watch us in hd, like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. ... r interview as part of book tv college series. >> host: mary worthen is a history professor. what courses do you teach? >> guest: i teach a big survey course on the history of religion in north america, a course on modern american intellectual history. one of the most fun is called sin and evil in modern america, a small research seminar. you can imagine the kind of things student