what is gorbachev going to do? >> this was the show of mikhail gorbachev's show and tell day.rich honecker in a military parade through the heart of east berlin. he preached reform and offered a gorbachev proverb. those being late, he said, will be punished by life itself. >> gorbachev felt like he could put a happy face on socialism, that he could modify it. but the freedom genie got out of the bottle, and he couldn't put it back in. >> overseas, time has finally run out for erich honecker, the 77-year-old leader of east germany. he resigned today. the official reason given was poor health, but growing political 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 a

gorbachev can accept. >> george bush understood he had a partner in mikhail gorbachev. gorbachev wanted to be neutral. bush always wanted a ianified germ and in a very disciplined manner moved gorbachev towards that position. >> in a major concession, gorbachev agreed to the western position that a unified germany is free to join nato. >> once you solved the german problem, you removed the basic source of tension between the two the superpowers in the cold war. >> this is the big photo opportunity, the important picture that president bush came all this way to get at this moment, gorbachev chooses to give president bush his present. the present was a an soviet cartoonist' depiction of two presidents as boxers having just knocked out the cold war with the world as referee. >> george bush and brent scowcroft, his national security adviser liked to fish together and one summer, they were fishing and they were thinking about what kind of world would emerge after all the dominos had fallen. it's very rare that the world is so fluid and flexible that world leaders can think t

might provoke gorbachev.wo. >> he was there in west berlin, he was full of ideas of what reagan should not say. don't have ronald reagan come here and sound like some anti-communist cowboy. don't make a big deal out of the wall, they have gotten used to it. >> may be the government had, he discovered, the german people had not. >> in the evening i went out to a suburb, to still there where i met about a dozen german in spirit i sit as it sure you've used to the wall? one man r raised his arm and pointed and said my sister lives a few kilometers in that direction, i haven't seen her in more than 20 years. how do you think we feel about the wall? they haven't gotten used to it. they haven't stopped talking about it. one woman crystallized for robins on the speech you to write. she became angry she said if this man gorbachev is serious with his talk, if he is serious he can come here and take down that wall. >> he saw that positively reagan. he went back to the wise andlt built a speech around this call to tear

first, my meeting with general secretary gorbachev in moscow. the event that held perhaps the most immediate historic importance took place on wednesday. it was then that general secretary gorbachev and i exchanged the instruments of ratification, bringing into effect the inf treaty. the effect of this treaty will be very simply to eliminate an entire class of u.s. and soviet intermediate-range nuclear missiles. the significance of the inf treaty can hardly be overstated. for the first time ever, the levels of nuclear arms will actually be reduced, rather than having caps placed on their growth. these missiles will not simply have been shuffled around on the map or placed in storage. they will have been destroyed. the exchange of these instruments of ratification alone would have made the moscow summit a success, but the general secretary and i made important progress in other areas as well. we moved ahead on start negotiations, negotiations that would lead to a dramatic reduction in both sides' arsenals of strategic nuclear arms. on bilateral i

in a few months, general secretary gorbachev and i hope to meet once again this time in moscow. last month in washington, we signed the intermediate nuclear forces treaty in which we agreed to eliminate an entire class of u.s. and soviet nuclear weapons. it was a history making step toward reducing the nuclear arms of both sides, but it was just the beginning. now in geneva, soviet and american representatives are discussing a 50% reduction in strategic nuclear weapons. perhaps we can have a treaty ready to sign by our meeting in spring. the world prays that we will. we on the american side are determined to try. you see, we have a vision of a world safe from the threat of nuclear war and indeed all war. such a world would have far fewer missiles and other weapons. today both america and the soviet union have an opportunity to develop a defensive shield against ballistic missiles, a defensive shield that will threaten no one for the sake of a safer peace, i am commit today pursuing the possibility that technology offers. the general secretary and i also anticipate continuing our

gorbachev, open this gate. mr. gorbachev, mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall.r and the pain of division that afflict this continent, and i pledge to you my country's efforts to help to overcome these burdens, and to be sure that we in the west must are resist soviet expansion. so we must maintain defenses of the unassailable strength, and yet we seek peace so that we s must strive to reduce arms on both sides. begunning the ten years ago the soviets challenged the western alliance with a grave new threat, and hundreds of new and deadly nuclear missiles capable of striking every capital in europe, and the western alliance responded by committing itself to a counter deployment. and unless we can create a better solution, and namely the elimination of such weapons boent sides. for many months, the soviets refused to bargain in earnestness as the alliance in turn prepared to go forward the counter deployment, there were difficult days, days the of protests, and like those during my 1982 visit to this city. and the soviets walked away from the table, and i invite th

gorbachev, tear down this wall.sident also opened the discussion mode or rather opened president reagan indicated that he would like to expand air access into the city, that he thought that west berlin would be a good place for united nations meetings and he called for olympics to come to both east and west berlin. the president and mrs. reagan are now livieaving, before they actually enter tcas to attend the party, they'll view static displays outside. they'll be greeted by three of the men that flew the aircraft and the various other displays as well. they'll be introduced to a member -- members of the berlin wall patrol among other things also. we will continue our coverage this afternoon as the president continues to visit berlin. >>> this is an afn berlin special report. live coverage of president reagan's visit to berlin and now here's your host brian hart. >> good afternoon. we are continuing with our coverage of president reagan's visit to berlin about 45 minutes ago, the president addressed thousands of peo

he worked interpreting for ronald reagan during his summit with soviet leader gorbachev in iceland.what do you remember about who was in the room between gorbachev, reagan, you, the other interpreter, who else? >> okay, you mention iceland. the first meeting was in geneva in 1985, and in that meeting it was just reagan, gorbachev, myself and the soviet interpreter. in iceland by the time they had met in iceland, there were note takers there in addition to reagan, gorbachev, myself and the soviet interpreter. if you want to draw parallel, it would be the meeting in geneva rather than the iceland meeting. >> interesting. so are you put in a position where you are also taking notes, so besides listening and immediately translating you are also taking notes? >> yes. the way it works is that let's say reagan said something, he spoke for a little while, and i'm taking notes as he is speaking. when he finishes speaking, i look at my notes from what he is saying and put that into russian for gorbachev. then gorbachev listens, he replies, at that moment his interpreter is taking notes and i'

the initiative signed by bush 41 with gorbachev and th. the chemical weapons convention and the inf treaty. you can't continue to do arms control negotiations with a country that continually violates its commitments. now, you know, were russia to somehow come back into compliance with its treaties and were we somehow able to get strict verification along the lines of the original start treaty or the inf treaty, arms control may be something we can talk about again. but right now to consider plunging head long into a new agreement given eight existing treaties being violated suggests that you don't care about the violations. that would be a huge mistake and exactly the wrong signal to send to vladimir putin. >> i think what frank said is very much the case that needs to be communicated and elevated more to the public and through the media, which is very difficult, because they don't want to carry this type of negative message. potentially a call for some senators in order to placate other senators that a new committee, potentially a committ

reagan and gorbachev met for a fourth time to finalize the mission treaty. a compilation of that video from the moscow summit is coming up later as we continue to show you american history tv here on c-span3. >>> taking a look at congress this week, the house continues on its summer district work period. members will have brief pro forma sessions on tuesday and friday. the senate is back at 3:00 p.m. eastern to nominate britt grant's judicial nomination. a vote to limit debate is set for 5:30 eastern. watch the house live on c-span and the senate on c-span2. >>> tonight american history tv continues in prime time with president ronald reagan and the cold war, including highlights of president reagan's trip to west berlin and his tear down this wall speech. american history tv in prime time starts at 8:28 eastern. >>> this august on american history tv on c-span3, watch our nine-part series, "1968 america in turmoil." we'll look back 50 years to that tumultuous war. on monday, august 6, we'll discuss the vietnam war. on tuesday, august 7, a look at the presid

gorbachev, it was a party intellectual. did not quite understand what hit him and reagan came. and did not understand how quickly we were building up our forces. period.very dormant i believe gorbachev lost his cool when he tried to undertake necessary reforms, which was redoing everything within the party dominant. like with the chinese are trying to. keep the party in control. perform it from corruption -- reform it from corruption and other things. totalitarian the ability to shoot the opposition and imprison them immediately. when the chinese in 1989 at the period shot and 62 cities people against the oppression and the uprisings became real, he lost the nerve to shoot. the reason i think he did was he realized a little but before that that his economic system was socialism. they called it the socialist camp, not the communist cap. camp. they could not keep up. the free world, free economy, free labor unions. that is necessary to make progress, to make radical change possible. mr. gorbachev was intelligent enough to not cool enough -- cruel enough to react to the fact he wo

gorbachev, open this gate. mr.gorbachev, tear down this wall. [ applause ] i understand the fear of war and the pain of division that afflict this continent and i played steal my countries efforts to help overcome these burdens. to be sure, we in the west must resist soviet expansion. so we must maintain defenses of unassailable strength, yet we seek peace, so we must strive to reduce arms on both sides. beginning 10 years ago, the soviets challenged the western alliance with the gray the new threat, hundreds of new and more deadly ss 20 nuclear missiles, capable of striking every n europe, the western alliance responded by committing itself to a counter deployment unless the soviets agreed to negotiate a better solution, namely, the elimination of such weapons on both sides. for many months, the soviets refused to bargain in earnestness. as the alliance intern, prepared to go forward with its counter deployment, there were difficult days, days of protest like those during my 1982 visit to the city -- and the sovie

gorbachev knew reagan was an adversary.icture of gorbachev looking up at reagan like kind of with awe and admiration. reagan was playing the role of his lifetime which was to be president of the united states. >> mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall. >> reagan's lasting image would be of strength, grit, and the conservative cool that would inspire future generations. >> he made it cool to be republican, which, you know, growing up was not the easiest thing in the world to be. so, yeah, he has a special place for a lot of us. >> like lee did before him, reagan changed the story of cool in his time. but the pendulum of leadership always swings back and forth. where will it come from next is anybody's guess. i've been making blades here at gillette for 20 years. there's a lot of innovation that goes into making america's #1 shave. precision machinery and high-quality materials from around the world. nobody else even comes close. now starting at $7.99. gillette. the best a man can get. after a scratch so small rocket you could fi

first, my meeting with general secretary gorbachev in moscow. the event that held perhaps the most immediate historic iman

community did and this it turned out he did he turned out to be more successful in understanding gorbachev than the consensus you know among among the talking heads so i think that in the in the trouble case. there's a there's a v.c. here in the u.s. who says the problem with the press is that they take trump literally he and not seriously and that's just backwards you should take him seriously and not literally i know that trump likes to compare himself to reagan a lot and you obviously advised the president the reagan we can confidently say change the course of history for the better i had a chance to talk to many people the russian people here yesterday who had an experience of seeing reagan engage with gorbachev for example and many of them noted that he was a very very likable man regardless of what you thought about the policy issues what he thought about the united states you can relate to that person just in the human level do you think it's too late for president trump to try to be a little bit like legan of reagan in this regard. well i think he would wish that he could care wher

to many people russian people here yesterday who had an experience of seeing reagan engage with gorbachev for example and many of them noted that he was a very very likable man regardless of what you thought about policy issues what he thought about the united states you can relate to that person just on the human level do you think it's too late for president trump to try to be a little bit more like legan of reagan in this regard. well i think he would wish that he could care where you know as you say they had this natural ability to both the appear to be relating to people and actually to relate to them and i think unfortunately for the american russian relationship i think this is something we'll both suffer with the certain set of circumstances that have trumped the how trying to even when he's trying to do something that's absolutely right with respect to russia all caught up in so much domestic opposition. means that the relationship will continue to be very uneven. and troubled and i think that. that's just something that we have to survive so i think it's very important for examp

gorbachev, open this gate. [ cheers and applause ] mr.ll. [ cheers and applause ] >> even as president reagan was issuing that challenge to mchale gorbachev, he was also pursuing talks with the soviets just as when john f. kennedy was confronting khrushchev or missiles in cue about, the two sides were discussing ways of reducing tension. getting along with russia, as the president puts it, may be a good thing, but it doesn't have to include giving in to russia, much less the kind of giving in that may this time be personally motivated. it never has until now. so i called it like i saw it, disgraceful, and i don't say this with any kind of glee or need for validation. but i wasn't alone. soon after i got off the air, senator john mccain, no less, said in a statement, and i quote, today's press conference in helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an american president in memory. the damage inflicted by president trump's naivete, e egotism, false e kwquivalence a sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate. today we we

gorbachev was at him on everything. we can have arms limitations and we can have this treaty or that treaty but you have to give up your missile tests. reagan kept saying no, not doing it. gorbachev said that we are not going to give you anything. reagan said well, then that's fine. we are not doing that. they walk outside and there's racing where reagan who was not normally this aggressive is literally in gorbachev's face and saying you did this. you made a mistake. you screwed up. you are going to regret this. it's clear that reagan is really angry. i was in congress at the time about the sophisticated people came back and said this is a terrible mistake. he is such a good deal. six months later gorbachev came to washington and gave reagan every single thing you wanted. trump understands that model. the most powerful nation the world and you were the one applying sanctions and bring economic pressure to bear. you actually don't have to say yes. so be very interesting to see how he negotiates with kim jong un next week

gorbachev was offering him everything. arms and treaties that give up missile-defense.and reason -- reagan said no. i am not doing so then gorbachev said we will not give you anything and reagan says that's fine so it breaks down they walk outside there was a great scene making is not normally this aggressive literally in his face talking and saying you did this. you made a mistake you screwed up and you will regret this and it is clear he is really angry. i was in congress at the time and all those republican sophisticated people said this is a terrible mistake. he only had to get the stupid missile-defense assessments later gorbachev came to washington and agreed to everything reagan wanted and gave up on trying to stop missile-defense. i think trump understand that model is the most powerful nation in the world you can bring economic pressure you don't have to say yes. the other guy has the problem. so it is very interesting to see how he negotiates with t3 next week. you are all practicing to be journalists here researching i will take questions. >> we will have mic

gorbachev, open this gate. [ cheers and applause ] mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall. [ cheers and applause ] >> even as president reagan was issuing that challenge to mchale gorbachev, he was also pursuing talks with the soviets just as when john f. kennedy was confronting nikita khrushchev over missiles in cuba, the two sides were discussing ways of reducing tension. getting along with russia, as the president puts it, may be a good thing, but it doesn't have to include giving in to russia, much less the kind of giving in that may this time be personally motivated. it never has until now. so i called it like i saw it, disgraceful, and i don't say this with any kind of glee or need for validation. but i wasn't alone. soon after i got off the air, senator john mccain, no less, said in a statement, and i quote, today's press conference in helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an american president in memory. the damage inflicted by president trump's naivete, egotism, false equivalence and sympathy for autocrats is diffi

brezhnev and ford during the cold war, then gorbachev and bush. boris and bill. like their predecessors, yeltsin and clinton failed to cement a permanent partnership. helsin may be summit central. but once the talk is over, yss.-russia relations al seem to come off the rails. for that has less to do with personalities and much itmore to do deep-seated differences between russia and america -- differences in values, and their worldviews, differences which traditionally fueled suspicion and rivalry, and have ended up pushing these two great powers apart. but this is new -- a u.s. president siding with the kremlin against the fbi. an american leader more suspicious of america's allies than of russia's president. in helsinki, donald trump was full of praise for vladimir putin. it is his way of mending ties with moscow. but backing the kremlin making him increasingly at home. >> i think the political elite is remarkably united. youtr have seeng bipartisan legislation to enforce the sanctions, to tighten those sanctions. the question is whether president trump is going

with its new leader mikhail gorbachev in the middle of the one nine hundred eighty s. . perestroika meant restructuring towards liberalization and democratization it certainly had a positive impact on the international situation astonishing news from east germany by the east german authorities have said in essence of the berlin wall doesn't mean anything anymore. but inside the u.s.s.r. the weakening of kremlin control had different consequences. in ukraine a nationalistic political organization not owed needed for people's movement emerged in one nine hundred eighty nine due to this my openness. they advocated for independence of ukraine from the u.s.s.r. and became an incubator for leaders of ukraine in the nazis. in one thousand nine hundred one one of them new book founded svoboda an openly radical nationalist party preaching the good old principles of bondage era. if you. heard jew crane from the jews in russia ukraine for ukrainians and so on his statements got him fifth place in the simon visa and all center top ten anti semitic world leader rankings of two thousa

david: you met gorbachev many times. james: many times.re impressed with his intellect and abilities. james: yes. david: he seems to have done an incredible job of changing the course of the world. james: much of it was unintentional. david: does president trump call you for your advice? james: no. david: for people who are watching who say, what are the words of advice for the congress or the administration from the him great former secretary of state, jim baker? james: i think we absolutely have to understand that one of the biggest threats facing our country and facing our democracy is the political dysfunction we have today. when i was there 25 years ago with reagan and with bush and ford, we reached across the aisle. thank you for your friendship and your great leadership of our country. james: thank you for yours, david. [applause] ♪ david: do you think that women can run defense companies better than men? [laughter] >> it is a team sport. donald trump sent out a tweet saying your biggest products, the f 35 is too expensive. you are

one of the last things gorbachev did before he went out to sign the paper that would collapse the sovietnion and allow borris yeltsin to become president of the russian federation, he called george h.w. bush and said, we did good things, didn't we? history will judge us well. i said to president bush, do you realize how extraordinary this is? he said, i never thought about it. i said the president in his last act before the collapse of the soviet union called the american president essentially to seek his affirmation. that was a big deal. that is the way he was. david: another member of the family decides to run for president, george w. bush. you become the national security advisor, the first woman. you are there and then 9/11 happens. where were you on 9/11? condoleezza: i was at my desk. you will remember that president bush was at that event in florida. just to show you our pre-9/11 thinking, i did not go with him that day. my assistant came in and said a plane hit the world trade center. first we thought it was an accident. i called president bush. a few minutes later, we learned th

a president who already had interaction with gorbachev.t, it was clear president reigh hadn't a well articulated and die fi-- define understanding of the soviet union. what made it difficult to understand in this environment, a first real sit-down conversation between president putin and president trump. it wasn't building on an established relationship and so that raised the costs or the risks of miscalculation or misunderstanding in that meeting, and, of course, even worse, there are a lot of people who question whether the president heal has a clear-eyed view what russia is all about. that raises questions about whether we would ever get an accurate picture of what that conversation between president trump and president putin really entailed. as we've seen in the days since helsinki, we're still trying to figure out exactly what commitments were made, what the content of the conversation was, and in the absence of that, the russians are left to shape that narrative. that's not something that should make us feel good. >> and do you think

been covering summits in the finnish capital since the cold war since president bush met mikhail gorbachev here as have plenty of other people here today and all of us agree we've never seen anything like this press conference before in one nine hundred ninety seven when president bush wanted to kill gorbachev help on the iraq war you could never could have imagined a press conference where he walked in and said their interests converge as president trump did today with president putin i think we we will be discussing later in this show the most substantive thing that came out of that and that's the shock in washington at the things president trump said the way that he rejected his own intelligence and in fact embraced president putin's denial of any interference what the europeans would have liked to hear was barely on the agenda at all ukraine the iran nuclear deal crimea these things a very significant significance to europeans didn't even come up let's pick up that point that without a hundred phenomena in washington tell us about the reaction that alexander. well what we have seen so

because i know that he personally interpreted it during the meeting of president reagan and president gorbachev and mr trump obviously likes to compare himself to ronald reagan do you think when it comes to the use of the language similar. no i don't think they are different in terms of the kind of person that they are and that is reflected also in the language and the way they they phrase things and . in the way they try to convey their thoughts not you of course have a lot of experience in this field you took part in ten u.s. soviet summits you watch what happened today heard what they said at the press conference how would you analyze overall what we saw today given the fact that their talks went over time and just what we heard from them during the press conference. i think it's a shame that it took so much time to arrange the first full scale meeting between the two presidents i think it's good that they met i think that. it's clear that there might be the beginning of some. constructive discussions on some issues that really are crucial such as nuclear weapons such as stocks and i.m.f. wh

where are the republicans who roared approval when reagan told gorbachev to tear down the wall? where are the republicans who whended a strong response putin annexed crimea? where are the republicans who know in their heart the president is giving away the store to vladimir putin. for ourhe time republican colleagues to join us stand up.san and if we wait much longer, our global alliances will fracture, the institution that america created in the wake of world war ii will crumble, our allies will consider abandoning us possibly for china and others. putin's russia will emerge stronger for it. that is what he wants in that is what president trump inexplicably is helping him do. our republican colleagues can take steps right now to push back against this slippery slope the president has put us on. speaker ryan said nice things but talk is not enough. we need actions. action.isan, strong we need our republican colleagues to stand up for the good of this country. i am asking our republican colleagues to do four things. first, they can start by andsing to water down instead decide to

where are the republicans who roared approval when reagan told gorbachev to do it on the wall? where are the republicans you demanded a strong response when pugin annexed crimea? -- when putin annexed crimea. now is the time for republican colleagues to join us and stand up. if we wait much longer, our global lines is will fracture, ,he institutions will crumble our allies will consider , and pugin's russia will emerge stronger for it and that's what he wants -- putin'ssia -- russia will emerge stronger for it. speaker ryan today said nice things but talk is not enough. we need action. action.an, strong we need a republican colleagues to stand up for the good of this country. i am asking a republican colleagues to do for things. first, they can start by andsing to water down instead decide to ratchet up sanctions against russia. in the house, there's right now effort to ratchet the sanctions down. given what mr. putin said today, given the indictments, that cannot happen. sanctions should be ratcheted up. as you know, the house republicans have been wishing a provision in the d

gorbachev, open this gate. mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall. >> and the rest as they say is history among those growing up on the other side of the wall, the east side was a young woman named angela merkel, now chancellor of germany. with us tonight to talk about what it is we're witnessing, our friend steve schmidt, a political veteran of the bush white house, mccain presidential campaign, among other stops. steve, i have a two-part question, where and who will the grown-ups be who rise up and say, mr. president, now you're playing on house money and this is not the way we intended it with nato and, second, steve, what is it we're witnessing today? >> well, brian, thank you for having me. what we're witnessing first off is the sundering of the most successful military alliance in the history of the world which has kept the peace in europe for the last 73 years and has led europe from destruction to prosperity, held back soviet totalitarianism and help spread freedom across all of the captive nations of eastern e

gorbachev was offering him everything. we can have arms limitations, this treaty or that but you've got to give up your missile defense and he kept saying no i'm not doing that. so he's not going to give you anything and he said that's fine. so it breaks down, they walk outside and there's a great scene where he isn't normally this aggressive and is literally in his face talking to him saying you did this, you made the mistake that you are going to regret this and it's clear that he is very angry. all of the regular people came back and said this is a terrible mistake. he had such a good deal all he has to do is give up this missile defense thing. six months later gorbachev came to an integrated every single thing reagan wanted and gave up on trying to stop the missile defense. i think trump understands that model if you are the most powerful nation in the world applying sanctions and can bring economic pressure to bear you don't have to say yes. it's the other guy that has the problem and so it's interesting to see how he

about the relationship between reagan and gorbachev. you know, sometimes just having the meeting was a goal in and of itself. i think that the president just like reagan understand the relationship between the two heads of state and between the worlds largest nuclear powers, is something, and achievement in and of itself. this is the first meeting. i think something needs to happen. from a military standpoint, i think president putin will want to talk about a number of very large and relatively robust exercises, nato has been having here last month they just had one in poland. and in lithuania, estonia with 19,000 soldiers from 19 countries. he is also going to want to talk about president putin authorizing legal aid, antitank missiles to the ukrainians. that is something far more robust and harder on the russians than the obama administration ever considered. i think on the flipside, as a number of folks have mentioned, we've nuclear nonproliferation. we have the new treaty due to expire in a few years. that would extended both sides o