and also declared a six month state of emergency in various regions of the country by that time gorbachev had already been removed and detained in his villa in the crimea with motivated the plotters to overthrow the existing order was the new union treaty designed to decentralize political power within the u.s.s.r. and indirectly weaken the position of the all powerful communist party little did they know however the coup attempt would encounter strong resistance from many in the military as well as the general public who by that time have begun to save or change as often happens in russia's history when the when these reforms start accumulating from the top. there's a sense of disenchantment society there's obviously the sense there's no way things are going to go back to the way they used to be it was in order to some control of the russian parliament building the committee ordered tanks to roll into moscow boris yeltsin then considered a political maverick and reformist led russian parliamentarians in opposition to the coup and that's what it clearly got all the decisions in decreased

look back at an event that shaped russian history twenty years ago the plot to overthrow mikhail gorbachev people of all this gas off ask if the soviet union had any chance of survival after that attempted coup that's not a tease cross-talk just ahead. and. hello and welcome to cross talk i'm peter lavelle the coup that failed but changed everything twenty years ago communist party hardliners attempted to derail me how good of a child's efforts to reform the soviet union in the aftermath of the communist party was banned to be followed by the end of the u.s.s.r. could history is played out differently. and. to cross-talk the events of august one thousand nine hundred one i'm joined by geoffrey hosking in london he is america's professor of russian history at the university college london in oxford we have archie brown he's america's professor of politics at the university of oxford and indeed we know the girls we go to nikolai petro he is professor of politics at the university of rhode island all right gentlemen this is crosstalk that means you can jump in anytime you want but first let's

the only way out as gorbachev decided was through the talks. ideally he saw this happening in the various levels. one was the regional international level to get the neighboring countries outside on board and the other was among afghans between the government and the insurgency and the soviet leader's fortunate in the there was already the international trucks and after the invasion of the u.n. and whose mission was to try to persuade the kremlin to pullout of the formula whereby pakistan and the u.s. would stop the insurgents from using pakistan as a base called out of afghanistan it came up. it came up with the actual u.n. meetings. under brezhnev peace talks haven't gone anywhere. gorbachev took them seriously and they went forward and in the agreement of april, 1988 in geneva, which allowed the authorized full pullout of the troops. now he had hoped, gorbachev had hoped this deal would be matched by one between the various afghan parties and would then end the civil war and create the government of the national unity. but he was careful not

about this but he went to gorbachev and said hey let's get rid of all the nukes both our countries gorbachev's a good idea it sounds like appeasement to me right and to a lot of the republicans these days and he raised the capitalist against x. you know the one that romney only pays like fifteen percent and that's it picked out a fifteen percent rate and raise that up to be identical with the ordinary wage income tax engaging in what today's republicans call class warfare. we're going to close the under the view of the lone some of the truly well things would pay their fair share. in series some of those who were understandable but in practice they sometimes made it impossible for a million years to be a bus driver was being presented is sound and that's the phrase you think of millionaire or maybe more intense than the bus driver or the way. that puts reagan to the left brock obama reagan's record has been rewritten in the last twenty plus years there's in fact there's this whole project was funded by a bunch of very wealthy people grover norquist heads it up the reagan legacy project one of

>> he could not explain gorbachev, gorbachev was a total surprise to him. >> rose: because of gorbachev the individual or the forces that gorbachev -- >> how could a person like that have risen within that system? someone who was prepared to challenge the whole nature of the system? >> rose: he had some interesting mentors, kgb, what was his name? >> dropov. >> i would come back to george and talk about this and he said, look you said in 1947 the system carries within itself the seeds of its own destruction and this new generation of people are going to come up and he would acknledge he sd that in 1947, but he would not take credit for having foreseen the emergence of gorbachev, he was quite extraordinary in his reluctance to take credit for his own insights. >> rose: i think it was kissinger who said that this great american dilemma between idealism and realism played out in george kennan's soul? >> uh-huh. >> rose: what did he mean? >> he meant that george kennan's character really contained ements of both, so there are aspects of kennan's thinking that could be said to be cold-bloode

gorbachev gingrich said it was the most dangerous summit for the west since adolf hitler met with the neville chamberlain in one nine hundred thirty eight in munich piling on conservative joe scarborough said this about newt gingrich's past criticisms of reagan this morning on innocent b.c. . i think all this really told this is about newt gingrich is what most people already know and that is that he is just ideologically word he will say whatever he thinks will do you mean advantage that day and when the tide turns he too will turn with that tide apparently the reagan tide has now turned against gingrich so once again the reagan litmus test has been put to use despite touting reagan fifty five times in the debates anger just being hammered for the three times he mentioned reagan's name twenty five years ago in a not so positive light but the big picture here is this why the heck is reagan still playing such a huge role more than twenty five years after he left office in today's republican presidential race if things keep going at this rate there won't just be for podiums and four can

the self-proclaimed hard line state of emergency committee the announcement stated that mikhail gorbachev's efforts to reform the soviet union have gone into

as i said, gorbachev wanted talks among the afghans and he also want the soviet troops out. and he didn't condition one on the other. was very careful not to be trapped by that. soviet troops would've so been there. so he had to say ultimately, this was a unilateral decision, we are pulling out. we will sort it out ourselves. but he did use the intervening time between taking a decision and end date for when the soviet troops would leave to try to broker this deal, to in the civil war. so that's what i was saying. obama should make it quite clear that all troops are coming up by the end of 2014, not leave behind any presence. and use the next two years to negotiate is possible through the u.n. mediator to end the civil war. >> was there a class of soviet, the soviet regime, that they had said -- [inaudible] >> it was a fascinating, fascinating sort of thing, because during the research of this, i located three former ministers who are living as refugees in london. they came in after 1992 when the regime collapse. they got the british government to call them refugees to live

gorbachev, tear down this wall. >> good to see you. tell your friends. >> ok. >> thank you, mr. speaker. >> patton was against bringing a new tank on because he didn't want to weaken the troops' morale. >> it showed up very late in the war. individual tank platoons were attached to armor ed division i february and march of 1945. >> was it capable of standing up to the german tanks? >> yes. the argument that general patton had was a good one which it was not good for morale. >> how would it go against the tiger? >> it probably would not have done as well as the king tiger but it was almost road bound. >> was the stalin comparable but just too heavy. >> it was technological ly inferior. >> this didn't last very long, did it? >> it was in korea. >> was it used up until about 1948. >> when i was in the army we had it. >> i grew up on 48's. i remember when the 60 was coming in. that was the great revolution. >> yes. i graduated from v.m.i. and when i was an armor officer we were told we were going to be overrun with hordes of russians and first round hits would be important. >> i hel

they thought would be a gorbachev feel bad.hter] it did not sound presidential and it was not going to happen. the speech went from the white house to the state department and what critics department editor takes out the line. it goes back to the white house and reagan personally writes it back again and goes back to the state department. they take out the line. it goes back to the white house. reagan calls the secretary of state. he said george, you need to tell your chipmunks that i am the president and they are not. the line stays in. they get to berlin and that morning before he goes through the speech, there are still senior advisers saying to him please don't give this line. it is not going to happen. the wall be there for 30 more years and you will look foolish. it is one of the greatest lines of his presidency and the wall fell within two years. that is what real leadership is. real leadership understands the principle that matter, the correct division of the future, and the courage to impose your will when every time a

by holding tough, six months later, gorbachev comes back and years of reagan and virtually everything he wants to produce nuclear vessels. it is not like reagan will take a bad deal, but he is always trying to find a way to say what can he get done. callisto and i have talked about this at length. she used to be on the >> last fall you asked the subcommittees to come back and i was wondering -- come back with results about how they could clean out some of the processes and procedures that they do every day. i was wondering what the results were of that? >> nothing. [laughter] >> you all you something like that here? does it work? does it make you more productive? one of the reasons i am running, i'd think i am one of the only candidates who describe that. i believe, and i as president would ask the congress to go through a training program, both members and staff, i would ask every incoming presidential appointee to go to a training program. the only way you implement something like this is to actually follow it. it is not some magic formula you do on your blackberry. it is a differen

gingrich also deployed president raking on's 1985 meeting with mikhail gorbachev, and iceland.he said it was "the most dangerous summit for the west since adolf hitler met with met 1938." question, has newt gingrich overstated his role in the reagan administration? pat boone. >> first, that's an outrageous comment, where i was with ronald reagan right down there in lofty house. and -- and that the comment this compare this to munich was outrageous. gingrich's comment. but look, in the reagan white house, newt gingrich was considered quite frankly by a lot of folks to be something of a political opportunist and who was not trusted and who had played no role whatsoever. he was a rockefeller republican in the great goldwater battle, where conservativism came of age. i do think this, though. newt has been pounded managers leslie, had people he worked with basically turn on him and dump on him down there in florida, which somehow i think may have had some role in the fact that the great fighter and battler of south carolina had no fight in him whatsoever in the monday and thursday d

>>> almost exactly 20 years ago, soviet premier mikhail gorbachev stepped down from power. the soviet communist alliance dissolved. 15 states emerged from their alliance's dissolution -- armenia, belarus, estonia, georgia, kazakhstan, kyrgyzstan, lithuania, russia, turn men stan, ukraine, uzbekistan. today 20 years later the former soviet union alliance is undergoing an ingenious reincarnation. but with no communism. vladimir putin, the prime minister of calling for a new economic alliance with four former soviet of the alliance, and vladimir putin staying at the throttle. the name of this new russian connectivity is, get this, the eu, the eurasian union. in other words, an eu2, with the european union the eu1, if this eurasian union, the eu2, will serve as an ll pivot on free trade. the five nation will enjoy free exchange of goods across their mistake of eu1. >> we won't repeat the mistakes of the european union in our integration. we're conscious of what we're doing. we understand who we're g with. the european union took a shot in the dark. >> question, is putin trying

many of the top brass were against it and blamed the last soviet leader, gorbachev. alexander is reluctant to criticize the former leader. he does still miss the soviet union. >> russian specialists were sent to all parts of the soviet union. they became the lead, getting the local economy's going and making massive cultural contributions. then, it all fell apart, including the russian language. many russians have since left the former soviet republics. that is why we regret the end of the soviet union. >> a veteran as honored on his birthday. the former officers who served on the western frontier are still close. they were part of an elite, after all, something they will always be proud of. >> you don't see quite so many statues of this person about these days, but this one still stands. it was the officer quarters of the garrison cultural center. it was bad news for communist parties elsewhere. many of them named -- change names. supporters wear different badges these days. in the old days, moscow was generous toward communist parties, especially in the west. in so

a comment about reagan's 1985 meeting with then soviet leader gorbachev, something gingrich called, quote, the most dangerous summit for the west since hitler met with chamberlain in 1938 munich. read the piece online. more quotes of newt gingrich criticizing ronald reagan. >>> some other news for you today, the senate is expected to approve the final piece of legislation introduced by gabby giffords whose resignation sparked an out pouring of emotion in the chamber. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle cheered and cried as the arizona democrat stepped down to focus on her recovery from last year's assassination attempt. it was marked by moving tributes from her colleagues who spoke of dedication to her state and voters who sent hadder to washington. long-time friend debbie waserman schultz. >> there's nothing more important than family and friendship. and that should be held high above all else. and i will always tkhaer in my heart. even though i know we won't see each other day, gabby, we will be friends for life. for life. >> debbie wasserman-schultz. >>> president obama says the rescu

gorbachev tear down this glacier. now listen, at bulls sell great, associated with movies, is there an album of whaling songs. >> dow happen to know of any good whale songs. >> stephen: hugh ray and up she rises, early in the morning ♪ ♪ you sing that, you get that, you throw a little-- on it or something like that. >> i mean-- . >> jon: mary j. blige. >> what if we did like a steve be colbert, you know, sings songs for the whales cd. >> stephen: well, the movie is going to be a huge success. >> thank you. >> stephen: drew barrymore, big miracle, in the theatres next friday. we'll be rhtht

gorbachev, tear down this glacier. now listen, is there an album, because you know albums sell great with songs associated with movies. is there an album of like, of like whaling songs that go with this. >> do you happen to know of any good whale songs. >> stephen: oh, who ray and here ray and up she rises up she rises early in the morning. you sing that you get that, throw a little-- on it or something like that, mary j. blige. >> what if we did like a stephen colbert, you know, sing songs for the whales cd. >> stephen: well, the movie going to be a huge success. >> thank you. >> stephen: drew barrymore, big miracle in the theatres captioning sponsored by comedy central captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

years ago, reagan told the story of how he was going to visit border check of -- gorbachev. it seems that there was an accountant in moscow that wanted to buy a car. he saved his money for years and years, because no one had much money in the soviet union, and there was only one car dealer. it was a crummy, a piece of crap car. he saved for years and years. he put his money down. the surly bureaucrat said that that is good and well, come back in 10 years to pick up your car. the accountant did not miss a beat and said -- is that tuesday or wednesday? the bureaucrat told him -- it would be 10 years, and you want to know tuesday or wednesday? he said yes -- the plumber's coming on tuesday and i do not want to miss it. [laughter] how could we ever conceive of the government owning our car dealerships and manufacturers? people of america would not get it. but the new acronym for gm, do you know it? government motors. we have come a long way, but we have been going the wrong way in the wrong direction. the government, owning businesses, bailing out people who make bad decisions.

called russians and now he'll try to find ethnic groups and we will get the conflict very soon as gorbachev deed you once the time of the soviet union collapse to you you mention multiculturalism in europe well putin is stating as a known fact i quote the failure of the multicultural prior project and even a crisis of a nation state while i personally agree to this opinion which is expressed by many of my colleagues in the west but do you think it makes sense for a for a calendar that. the presidency to to to to choose this categorical option well i think it's very interesting that he seems to be playing a soft nationalism hard if you like not a hard nationalism card but i think that if you look down the road into russia's future demographics shows us that the people who are not the ethnic russians are going to become a larger and larger. percentage of the population that the migration routes are yes because people you know in every country of the world migrants eventually become citizens and feel a loyalty to that country but they don't necessarily buy into the ethnic composition they want