c-span's "q&a." american history tv products are now available at the new c-span online store. see what is new for american history tv and check out all of the c-span products. >> next, former secretary of state james baker recounts his time as the country's top diplomat. he served in the george h.w. bush administration 30 years ago, at the time of the fall of the berlin wall. he talked with philanthropist david rubenstein at the diplomacy center foundation in washington, d.c.

[applause] >> thank you and good evening. it is a pleasure to be here. a terrific venue and compelling cause and a wonderful place this evening. it is an honor to join these distinguished titans of diplomacy as we commemorate the fall of the berlin wall. i want to begin by thanking the diplomacy center foundation for the important work it is doing to honor the contribution of american diplomats and preserve the history for future generations. looking back, november 9, 1989, was a pinnacle day in history. but it took time to understand the magnitude of that moment. it is a moment that stands as a tribute to the resilient work, to the incredible men and women behind the diplomatic mission. the people who promote the national security, economic prosperity, and global leadership of the united states. the people in this room and on the front lines all over the world. it is a mission that never stops.

today, the united states and its allies have new complexities to navigate, different adversaries, and new global threats. the pace of the technology change has made the world smaller and presented new opportunities, but it has also added new complexities. new battlefields have emerged within cyberspace. while the tools have changed, the mission has not. general dynamics information technology is proud to support the mission, from operating global supply chains, securing diplomatic facilities around the world, to delivering cybersecurity innovation, we truly understand the challenges. we are proud to support this work every day and all over the world. and tonight, i have the privilege of introducing former secretary of state jim baker and mr. david rubenstein.

david rubenstein has been a cofounder and coexecutive chairman of the carlyle group since 1987, where the largest -- one of the world's largest and most successful private investment groups. before he founded the carlyle group in 1987, he served as deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy during the carter administration from 1977 to 1981. mr. rubenstein was also chief council to the u.s. senate judiciary subcommittee on constitutional amendments. he is chairman of the board of trustees of the john f. kennedy center for performing arts, the smithsonian institution, and the council on foreign relations. mr. rubenstein is also the host of "the david rubenstein show: peer-to-peer conversations." that is featured on bloomberg tv and pbs. secretary baker's career in public service and politics stands unparalleled, having

served as the secretary of state, secretary of treasury, and twice as white house chief of staff for presidents ronald reagan and george h. w. bush. long active in american presidential politics, secretary baker led presidential campaigns for presidents ford, reagan, and bush over five consecutive presidential elections. from 1976 to 1992. secretary baker served as secretary of state from january 1989 through august 1992 under president george h.w. bush. when the united states confronted unprecedented challenges and opportunities around the world during the post cold war era. as secretary of state, he was influential in overseeing american foreign policy at a time in which the cold war ended peacefully. the soviet union was dissolved and democracy spread across the globe. following the fall of the berlin wall, he laid the groundwork for

unification of germany. following his tenure as secretary of state, secretary baker continued to stay actively engaged in u.s. diplomacy and international affairs. in 1993, he founded the james a. baker iii institute of public policy at rice university. today, secretary baker is a senior partner in the law firm of baker-botts, serves on the board of the howard hughes medical institute, and he is a major supporter of the national museum of american diplomacy and serves as honorary cochair on the board of the diplomacy center foundation. on behalf of general dynamics information technology, thank you again for having me here this evening. it is now my honor to introduce secretary baker and david rubenstein. [applause]

david: thank you very much, secretary baker. the most important part of your career was left out of that bio. after you left your tenure with the government, you are affiliated with a firm i had and you went from one of the smallest private equity firms to one of the largest. thank you for doing that. we traveled the world many times, and i will go through some of the things we did. normally, former government officials would show up for dinners or might make speeches, but they don't give a lot of their money to causes the way you have. why have you become one of the largest cash donors to this museum? mr. baker: because i had the cash to give thanks to you. [laughter]

[applause] mr. baker: having given you a shout out, i also ought to tell this audience you were one of the reasons i was able to become white house chief of staff for ronald reagan. you worked for jimmy carter, and i did not. [laughter] david: our career intersected this way. i worked for jimmy carter and you were working for gerald ford. at that time, carter won. four years later, you got to repay the favor. you did pretty well. but you told me over the years that of all the jobs you ever had, the best job that you can have is secretary of state. mr. baker: absolutely. i was just discussing that with the current secretary of state. absolutely the best job in government. the worst job in government is white house chief of staff. i did that twice. and it's terrible. david: you would rather have been secretary of state than president of the united states?

mr. baker: i think it is a better job. you are a little bit removed from the political centrifuge, not totally, but i'm not saying i would rather have been secretary of state. george bush said the one thing i like about jim baker is he will tell me what he thinks even though he knows i don't want to hear it. and i tell people that is true. but he had a very effective way of letting me know when the discussion was over, when we were arguing about a policy. he would look at me and say, if you are so smart, why am i president and you are not? [laughter] david: in one of our trips overseas, you met with crown prince abdulla, who later became king of saudi arabia. as you obviously know, during the effort to get rid of saddam hussain and kick him out of kuwait, we raised a lot of money

-- you raised a lot of money for that. how much did you actually raise for that effort? mr. baker: my recollection is it cost $65 billion and we raised all but $10 billion of that. from some of the countries we were helping. i remember, we were a republican administration with a completely democratic congress, house, and senate. we did not have a lot of support initially. [indiscernible] the word was, how can you spend that money when we have all these social problems here in the united states? i finally went to the president and said we've got to find a way to combat this. maybe we can pass a tin cup around and get some of these people to pay for it, and we did. i think it is the only war america has ever fought that we did not pay for.

david: why did you call him that? mr. baker:i always called him mr. president when anybody else was in the room. of course, i called him george because he was my friend. after he left office, i started him the spanish word for chief. david: when we went to see then crown prince abdulla after the war, we had a meeting with him and he said, you overcharged me by $5 billion or $6 billion and i want that money back. i thought it was tongue-in-cheek and you told me it wasn't. mr. baker: no, it was not tongue-in-cheek. david: he was serious about trying to get the money back. mr. baker: he was serious letting me know i have been too tough on him. i went to the saudis first and they said, what are you getting from the kuwaitis? i said we haven't done that yet.

they said go back and talk to the kuwaitis and come back. i went up to saudi arabia where the kuwaiti government was in exile, and we got the kuwaitis to pony up $15 billion and so i went back and the saudis ponied up $15 million. but he wasn't king at the time. said you don't need to put a figure on it. just tell me what you want. david: do you ever meet a lot of people who do that? [laughter] mr. baker: not too many. david: you are famous for many things during that time, looking for money and putting the coalition together. but there was a meeting in geneva with you and the foreign minister of iraq and you gave him a letter from president bush. he did not take it. did you think they were ever going to back down, and why do you think they did not back down when they saw the american military coming, getting ready

to invade? mr. baker: we used to say saddam would always take things right up to the brink, and he may have thought the brink was further away than we were telling him it was. we did not tell him the exact day, but we told him it was going to be soon. and for some reason, he didn't take the troops out. david: for many years when we were going around the world for business things and you were doing a lot of speeches, the most frequent question you are asked was, why after the kuwait war did you not go to baghdad and end saddam hussein's life? what was your answer? mr. baker: we got a lot of heat for that. but president bush was wise enough to know, and by the way, our military did not want any part of occupying that big arab country, but president bush was wise enough to know that if we did that, we would have to figure out how to do it. it was several years or so

before people concluded we had done the right thing. after the invasion in 2003, when we did go to baghdad and you saw what happened, people said maybe that wasn't so smart. david: when the berlin wall fell, many people said to you and president bush, why don't you take credit for getting the wall to go down and say you ended the cold war and take credit? washington is not lacking in people who want to take credit for things, so why didn't you take credit? mr. baker: president bush got a lot of heat about not being more emotional about the collapse of the wall. but his fear was, and it was the right view, that we still had a lot of business to do with gorbachev. it would not have been very smart for us to stick our finger eye because we still had a lot to do.

we had to unify germany and a host of other things. while the president took a lot of heat for it, it was the right policy approach. david: being secretary of state, what would you say is the most difficult part of being secretary of state? is it dealing with congress, the white house, the national security council? what is the biggest challenge? mr. baker: it depends on what the arrangements are when you are secretary. it could be all of those things and has been for some secretaries. i was lucky because i was secretary of state for a guy who had been my friend for 40 years. i had run all of his political campaigns, so nobody was going to get between me and my president. and he was godfather to my daughter, so i had a leg up. any secretary of state, to be to stayul, has got close and have a seamless relationship with his president. i was really fortunate because i did not have to work at that. david: when you became secretary of state, did you get advice

from previous secretaries of state? mr. baker: i did. david: what was the best advice you got? mr. baker: stay close to your president. [laughter] mr. baker: here is the thing. people don't understand this. the president and secretary of state are sharing the nation's foreign policy responsibility. the president always outranks the secretary of state, so you had better find a way to do that that is compatible with the interests of the president. or resign. david: since you left as secretary of state, many new secretary of states came in. do they call you for advice? what advice do you give them? mr. baker: the same thing i said to you -- stay close to your president. that is what i told secretary pompeo when he called me 20 minutes after his appointment was announced, and we had a very good meeting at the cia. david: you met many foreign

leaders in the course of your time of secretary of state, four years, and you were secretary of treasury for four years and chief of staff for four years. who was the most impressive foreign leader you ever met? mr. baker: that is a hard one because i met impressive ones. i think mikael gorbachev will be treated very well by history, because he made the decision not to use force to keep the empire together, something that had never been done before. and he had a very difficult problem. he was attacking this way and that and was being attacked domestically by some of the people in the soviet union. he was very interesting. dealing with al-assad in syria was interesting. to say the least. we would have these meetings in a tiny little closed room that had bulletproof windows with olive, drab curtains. ply you with fruit

drinks to the point you had to give up because you had to go to the men's room. i wrote a chapter in my memoir about my time as secretary of state. it is entitled "bladder diplomacy." [laughter] mr. baker: those were long sessions. he would start out every session by lecturing you on the exploits selloff hugging -- salah dean. david: you also pointed out that you had to sit here and you had talk this way. why didn't he move the chairs? mr. baker: because they were heavy armchairs and i got a crick in my neck every time i met with him. david: the leader of israel was one of the people you were closest to, i think. him,aker: i was close to but we disagreed on many policy issues because he was a hard-line minister and we were opposed to settlements, as all administrations have been,

republican and democratic. we both saw to it that all of our meetings were just the two of us. no note takers, no nothing. and he never leaked on me. i never leaked on him. his word was good. my word to him was good. we disagreed on policy. david: but his successor was one of your closest allies. mr. baker: he and i were close friends. david: the foreign minister of russia was one of the people you've developed a close relationship with. how did you do that? mr. baker: at my first meeting with him, it was when i was treasury secretary and i went to the white house for a lunch that president reagan gave. the new soviet foreign minister was there.

and i met him there. when i first became secretary of state, all our meetings were very formal, ministerial, long tables with soviet union flags and u.s. flags. we finally changed that format, and we went to one that became more personal and more intimate, so to speak. i invited him to wyoming. the soviets were not allowed to go beyond 25 miles from the embassy in washington or their offices at the u.n. we took him and his delegation to the mountains of wyoming and they loved it. we negotiated a chemical weapons treaty there. i think we are still parties to it. we have not left that yet, right, mike? [laughter]

mr. baker: still looking, right? david: one of the biggest challenges of being secretary of state is something called jet lag. how do you deal with jet lag? mr. baker: i took something -- i tookthi on them something called halcion. and then the fda came out and said this will kill you. but i had a good response from it. i could get six hours of really good sleep. of course, i had a very comfortable bed on my plane. i would go between meetings and i would take one and tap out. david: some say the secretary of state plane is 40 years old and needs a new plane. you have any comments on that? mr. baker: i think the current secretary of state is better equipped to answer that. i had a very interesting plane. i had the plane lyndon johnson was sworn in on after jack kennedy was killed in dallas. 26,000. that was the secretary of state's plane in those days.

and then of course, when i was reagan's chief of staff, we ordered a new air force one and it didn't arrive until after george h.w. bush became president. david: you are one of the few people who worked for gerald ford, ronald reagan, and george herbert walker bush. you knew them all very well. how would you contrast there working style in the oval office? who was easier to convince of something? mr. baker: nice try, david. i get that question all the time, and i tell people i don't compare the presidents i work for, because the minute you say something nice about one of them, it will be interpreted to be something negative about the other. david: let me ask you this way -- what was it like to be chief of staff for ronald reagan? was it fun? mr. baker: it was tough because i was constantly under attack by the so-called true believers. you've got to remember that i ran two campaigns against reagan, and then he asked me to be his white house chief of

staff. i defy you to tell me when that is going to happen again in american politics. [laughter] mr. baker: i don't think that is going to happen again. but he was a lovely person to work for. but i was constantly being attacked by the so-called true believers. it took a long while for a lot of them to accept me. they finally concluded that my loyalties had transferred from george h.w. bush to ronald reagan. and they accepted it. david: for previous secretaries of state who served before you, was there one that you admired, from thomas jefferson on? were there any that you saw as role models? mr. baker: i have often told people -- my friend george schulz went to princeton university and i went to princeton university. he was a marine and i was a marine. george schulz was secretary of treasury and i was secretary of treasury. george schulz was secretary of

state and i was secretary of state, so he ought to be my mentor, and he was. david: ok. what does the baker institute do? mr. baker: we try to bridge the gap between the world of action, people like you and i who served in government and done things, and the academics. rice, of course, is a very fine school academically. and i stole the mission statement from the woodrow wilson center for international scholars here in the smithsonian. because i was the longest serving trustee of the woodrow wilson center. i served in all of the various capacities. secretary of state, secretary of was appointedand by president ford on his way out. what we do is we try to bridge the gap between the world of ideas and the world of action. and we endow fellowships for people from the world of action, bring them in, and give them an assignment of two or three years or something like that. they interface with the academics.

and we've got a pretty good reputation. david: what are you most proud of having accomplished in your public life? is it something as secretary of state, secretary of treasury, chief of staff? mr. baker: i told someone this earlier tonight. i am most proud of the fact that i ran those campaigns for president of the united states, five campaigns, i served 12 years up in washington, and i left uninvited. [laughter] david: one time after you left, you went back to texas and considered running for attorney general. mr. baker: i did run. david: you did run. you said someone came up to you once and said you look like jim baker. i don't remember exactly what that story was. do you remember? mr. baker: after i had run ford's campaign, i had a lot of national television time as

ford's chairman. and then i went back to texas to run for attorney general of texas. george bush told me to run for governor. he said you will not be able to get a lot of attention for a down ballot rate as a republican in texas because texas was a solid democratic state. i disregarded the advice and i shouldn't have if i had wanted to win, but fortunately i lost and i was able to come here. iran for attorney general thinking that because i was a better lawyer than my opponent, that would make a difference. that doesn't make any difference in politics. david: somebody came up to you and said you look like jim baker. mr. baker: i had gotten a lot of face time on national television. i walked in an airport concourse and someone said, i know you. he recognized the face but could not come up with the name. he said, you are jim baker. i said, that's right. i swelled up with pride.

i said, yes, i am jim baker. he said, i knew it, and how is tammy faye? [laughter] david: the other one was -- go ahead. mr. baker: the other thing that happened was somebody said -- did anybody ever tell you you look like jim baker? i said yes. he said, doesn't it piss you off? [laughter] mr. baker: that's the first clue i had that i might not be the attorney general of texas. david: you knew gorbachev reasonably well, i would say. very impressive in what he accomplished. just to show you the quick wit, he went to the kennedy school at harvard and was asked by students, how would history have been different if nikita khrushchev had been killed in 1963 and not john kennedy? without missing a beat, he said, i can tell you one thing for

onassis wouldotle not have married ms. khrushchev. [laughter] david: so, mr. secretary, you have a career in public service that is unmatched by anybody over the last 50 years or so. as an american, i want to thank you for what you have done for our country, and thank you very much for what you have done for this museum. mr. baker: thank you, david. [applause] >> thank you very much for that wonderful and stimulating dialogue. at this time, i would like to call germany's ambassador to the

united states, madam ambassador emily haber. [applause] ms. haber: secretary pompeo, secretary baker, ambassador harris, and ladies and gentlemen, it is a privilege to join you this evening on the special occasion and in honor of the man who played such a crucial role in the events we commemorate today. i would also like to thank secretary pompeo for having spoken to us on this occasion, and thus underlining the enduring legacy of that day and time for us today. ladies and gentlemen, it was in 1983 when i started working on eastern europe. i was a young foreign service officer. my job was to make sense of what

happened on the other side of the wall and beyond. at the time, i analyzed the cracks in the veneer that were becoming apparent. on the one hand, efforts to by eastern european governments to gain more latitude, to try to assert their autonomy, or even to dodge the directives from moscow. on the other hand, their people's wor were starting to cm something different, freedom, rule of law, individual rights. they were looking west. they looked west because they saw in the united states a beacon of liberty. americans had the freedom to say what they thought, to make the individual choices they wanted, to purchase what they liked, to travel where they wished, and they wanted their allies in europe to have these choices.

eastern europeans, eastern germans, for that matter, enjoyed none of these privileges. their leaders enforced choices for them. it was the very existence of the united states that inspired people in the east to stand up for their rights. when brutal military force was used to put down democratic movements, they were still in living memory. but this did not stop them. people were disillusioned and angry. and they yearned for freedom, the same freedom that americans enjoyed themselves and supported in western europe. people also looked west because they knew what this unwavering american support meant. friend and foe knew that the united states stood with its

allies, come what may. no one in europe had the faintest thought that the united states would counter any challenge to the west's alliance, its security, its value-based way of life and market economy. we understood this and relied on it. but perhaps even more importantly, the soviet union understood this. it defined how far it would go in challenging the western status quo. there is, i think, no country that benefited more from it than germany, west and east. after all, it was the united states that saved the people of berlin during the soviet blockade. it was the united states that supported germany's recovery through the marshall plan, laying the groundwork for the postwar economic miracles. it was the united states that

enabled the young republic to become a member of nato and the western alliance. and it was president ronald reagan calling on soviet leader mikhail gorbachev to tear down this wall. the united states not only provided a blueprint for freedom, it was also determined to defend it. when i started working on our eastern european desk, from which i soon moved to the soviet desk in the german foreign ministry, it was still unthinkable that the warsaw pact would implode anytime soon, nor that the gdr would collapse. but the dynamics had already long been set in motion decades before, decades that told people across the continent that the united states stood for freedom of choice and would lend steadfast support for allies' rights to make these choices too.

decades in which the success and development of western europe and germany told people across the continent how the right to make democratic choices could alter the political and economic trajectory of nations. it was this dynamic, through all of eastern europe, that culminated in the fall of the wall. eastern germans took to the streets to take back what was theirs. no skirmishes, no violence, a peaceful revolution. it was incredible. suddenly, everything seemed possible. as soon as the wall came down, everybody asked what this would mean for german unification. this was by no means a foregone conclusion. we all know there were intense discussions among the western allies and between the allies of the soviet union, as with

germany. and of course, within germany. there were many critical voices. there were vested interests that did not want to see the two german states reunited. without american leadership, these voices might have prevailed. it was most fortunate for german history that george h.w. bush was president of the united states and james baker was the secretary at this critical juncture. it was them who had the courage and skill to seize the moment. and it was them who placed their trust in the german people. they believed germany had become a reliable partner, a stable democracy, and a crucial ally in europe. arguably, without either of them, reunification might not have happened.

in july of this year, the chancellor has asked me to present to the george h.w. bush presidential library a large picture by a renowned german artist. it is photography of george bush, mikael gorbachev, and five copies exist. one of them hangs in the chancellor's office. it was taken on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall in berlin when the leaders met for one last time. they sit in front of three pieces of the former wall in an undefined, huge space. in the picture, presidents and -- in the picture, helmut kohl sits center stage. but if you look closer, you realize it is president bush who actually is in the composition

's center stage. the story of this picture -- the story of vision and leadership and courage and trust is overwhelmingly his. his, and by extension, that of his principal foreign policy advisor at the time, secretary baker. secretary baker, my country will always remember you as one of the fathers of german unification. thank you. [applause] ms. haber: ladies and gentlemen, the friendship goes back a long ways. the united states freed europe and indeed germany from oppression. it supported the young democracy . and it helped germany reunite, once the wall had come down.

without the united states and its visionary leaders like james baker, we would not celebrate the fall of the wall today. thank you. [applause] >> thank you for those heartfelt remarks. i think i speak for everyone assembled in this room, as americans, we sometimes forget the impact we have upon the world, and it is good to hear from a close, friendly ally the impact we have had. we appreciate those words. i think it brings home for all americans here, the need to stay engaged, to be helpful, and to work with allies.

thank you, again. [applause] >> inasmuch as our work is diplomacy, our game is diplomacy, we thought it might be a good idea for us to begin an award for excellence in diplomacy. we thought that perhaps on an evening when secretary james baker was here, that might be a good time to start an award for diplomacy. we are going to make it an annual award. the idea is an individual, or possibly a group, who has really done something for the nation. something that, whether it is an ambassador or secretary of state, someone who has made a difference for america in the field of public safety. -- in the field of diplomacy. we are awarding the first one

this evening. our president, roman, will make the award. roman: thank you very much. i wasn't aware of that. but that is fine. i would be more than happy to make the award. as bill mentioned, this is an annual award and this is the first presentation. and we are honored that we are able to give it to james baker. i had the pleasure and honor -- [applause] roman: i had the pleasure and honor to work with mr. baker, secretary baker, in the white house during the time of george h.w. bush's presidency. i can tell you he was a mainstay in terms of foreign policy advice to the president. he was actually a good friend of the president, as he mentioned during his conversation with david. it was a pleasure to see his style and dedication to america and to the hard work he put into making sure our foreign policy succeeded.

thank you, jim, for that service. [applause] i know it is in your program, but the model of the award is -- but the motto of the award is service, leadership, and legacy. service to country, leadership in advancing american diplomacy, and legacy in terms of the future guidance that you give to young americans to get involved in diplomacy. we are very honored to be able to give this first award to jim -- james baker. we will do this presentation right now. the actual award is a medal. you might want to open it, bill. you've got to push the button to the left. [laughter]

[applause] >> i would also like to read part of what the award is for. during his tenure as secretary of state from 1989 to 1992, the honorable james a baker iii helped to steer the revolutionary developments in europe. his efforts helped lead to the dissolution of the soviet union, the unification of germany, and the creation of a unified europe. his achievements in american diplomacy have created a brighter future for a democratic europe. that is what the certificate reads. there will be a certificate that we will be mailing to you, a framed certificate, but that is just the reason for the award. once again, thank you for your service. thank you for your service to our country. [applause] mr. baker: thank you for this award.

i am struck by the fact that it is an annual award and has never been given before. [laughter] mr. baker: but i wanted to take a moment to tell you what terrific service both of these guys did for the united states of america when i was secretary of state. thank you both for your service, and thank you for this award. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, i would like to call upon mary kane, the director of the u.s. diplomacy center. she will have a presentation to make as well as an announcement. ms. kane: thank you very much. secretary baker, thank you so much for this evening. it has been very special. and mr. rubenstein, thank you very much for everything that you have done for us.

as home to the signature segment of the berlin wall, we would like to thank the atlantic who is and vng , constantly reminded of successful diplomatic efforts. and thank you, ambassador, for joining us tonight to express the sentiments from germany. at the national museum of american diplomacy, we highlight and celebrate the accomplishments of american diplomacy and the diplomats who work tirelessly to protect american citizens abroad, support increased trade, work for stability in developing nations, and promote democratic practices around the world. and now, we are going to have a presentation by deputy assistant secretary for countermeasures and diplomatic security john fitzwilliams. mr. fitzwilliams is donating a very interesting artifact to the museum. [applause] mr. fitzsimmons: thank you. good evening.

it is hard to think of anything more appropriate to present to than aw diplomacy museum va toce of our first attempt construct a new embassy. this is a column slice with coaxial cable embedded in it, courtesy of the russians. [laughter] mr. fitzsimmons: i am not sure if that was a diplomacy success, that whole episode, but we started construction of that building in 1979. the russians constructed most of the building elements off-site. we let them do that. we did have u.s. navy seabees that were watching them. as a result, the russians were never able to connect it up. when we discovered this network

of listening devices in the building, we immediately stopped construction and the soviet workers were kicked off-site in 1985. and we embarked on probably the longest technical counterintelligence investigation that the department of state and the u.s. government has ever conducted. in 1991, with the fall of the soviet union, the head of the kgb actually presented plans of the embassy bugging to the u.s. ambassador upon the u.s. ambassador's request. [laughter] mr. fitzsimmons: curiously, the plans were not entirely complete. [laughter] mr. fitzsimmons: in any event, the u.s. government decided to lop off the top stories of the building and constructed a more secure access area to the

embassy was cleared -- with cleared american labor this time instead of russians, which was indeed a success. it opened in 2000. i do want to say one thing, that despite the fall of the soviet union, there was certainly -- at the time, there was a school of thought that the russians are our friends. this very building, in 1999, the russians implanted a listening device. we in diplomatic security need to be ever vigilant. last, i really would like to thank the partner in supply dynamics general information technology, who recognized the opportunity, because they were the ones who did the slicing and the casting of this. thank you very much. i appreciate it. [applause]

mr. fitzsimmons: thank you. this is the first time any of these artifacts have been displayed in public. it is a testament to all the men and women that worked tirelessly throughout the years investigating this issue. and secretary baker, i suspect this problem crossed your desk a time or two during your tenure. [laughter] mr. fitzsimmons: i am sorry, sir. thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much, john. just a few of the artifacts that we will be having in the national museum of american diplomacy. i would like to hand this over to you. mr. baker: i just want to say one thing. i will never forget going to moscow at the time this was happening. we built this wonderful new embassy, and then we found out it was bugged every which way. but the reason we built the new

embassy was because our old embassy was across the street from a russian church that had all these antennas and listening devices, and we used to refer to that church as our lady of telemetry, or the church of the immaculate reception. [laughter] [applause] >> you see why we need the national museum of american diplomacy. we thank everyone here. john, thank you very much for d to our collection of 9000 artifacts. it is the very first artifact we are accepting at the national museum of american diplomacy. we would like you to come enjoy dessert upstairs with us and take a look at our new exhibit. "diplomacy is our mission," that

we did in conjunction with the smithsonian exhibits. thank you for joining us. please come back and visit as often as you'd like. [applause] ms. kane: one thing, if anyone has these badges, i need them back. public affairs will be very upset with us if we don't get these back. thank you. [indistinct conversations] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> ♪

music]nd fife >> this year, c-span is touring cities across the country exploring american history. recent, a look at our visit to laramie, wyoming. you are watching american history tv on c-span