after and had an exchange of notes with gorbachev himself. so you are asking about today. i'm not sure how the current american president works or how we advise him on this question and the technician i can't answer that. >> fair enough. going back to the question about the archives there is a fair amount of secrecy out there although the good news is there's an incredible amount of access to a a lot of the focus begins appropriately in sort of 84, 85, 86 in the fall of 85 we talk about the context of chernobyl and the sort of spy affairs as well is making it a challenging environment. that's what i did not see and perhaps i missed it is any reference to the american television program the day after which baird and 83 )-right-paren at the time of the speech, or the 1982 nuclear freeze march and this was still in ronald reagan's first term was curious because for my experience specifically in the nuclear arms control community, these are iconic. and in particular the day after is credited with a come to jesus moment for ronald reagan. >> i cou

when gorbachev comes to power, nixon meets with gorbachev. he finds this could be a man that reagan, as margaret thatcher said, could do business with. he senses there's an opportunity here to move forward and perhaps end the cold war, and he wants reagan to meet with gorbachev, but he wants reagan to do it from a position of strength. and so when reagan announces intentions to build a strategic defense initiative, nixon immediately doubts the science of this. he doubts that the technology of it will ever work. but he loves the idea of using it for leverage in a negotiation. and almost from the beginning, he sees fdi as a key bargaining chip for reagan. later on, when gorbachev threatens to pull out of any further negotiations unless reagan abandons fdi -- remember reagan walks out. he says no. nixon helps come up with a solution. nixon suggests to bud mcfarland, reagan's national security adviser, quote: i feel very strongly that the president could pull off a real coup by formally offering to mutually share with the soviets the results of o

gorbachev did not understand it.mbering interesting times with former president mikhail gorbachev. that's all from us this month here at the royal academy. we will be back next month with more first—hand accounts of extraordinary moments in history. for now from me and the rest of the witness history team, goodbye. hello there, we've seen heavy rain pushing across just about all parts of the uk over the last 2a hours but eastern england has had more than its fair share. this was how it looked for a weather watcher in norfolk a little earlier on and if i show you the radar picture you can see why it was so wet because the rain really did linger across these eastern areas. you can see the dark blue colours on our radar picture affecting parts of norfolk and suffolk for a good part of the afternoon. that rain easing through the next few hours and it will clear away as we get into the overnight period to leave a drier interlude. but only a brief one because behind me you can see our next weather system approaching from t

gorbachev did not understand it.president mikhail gorbachev to dissolve from us this month here at the royal academy. we will be back next month with more first—hand accou nts back next month with more first—hand a ccou nts of back next month with more first—hand accounts of extraordinary moments in history. for now from me in the west of the team, —— and the rest of the team, good night. as one weather system clears, another comes in from the atlantic. it does notjust sum up the weekend weather across the uk but pretty the next 7—10 days out there. this is next weather system coming in as we go into sunday. here is the next one that will come in on monday. more rain to come this weekend. not a washout, there will be some dry and bright skies either side of an area of rain that will be heavy at times as it spreads its way eastwards. this is how we start on saturday morning. chilly across the eastern side of the uk where we have had skies overnight and perhaps a touch of frost on the coldest parts of north—east scotla

with its new leader mikhail gorbachev in the middle of the 1980 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 that 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. or people's movement emerged in 1909 due to this. they advocated for independence of ukraine from the u.s.s.r. and became an incubator for leaders of ukrainian citizens. in 19011 of them new book founded svoboda an openly radical nationalist party preaching the good old principles of bondage era. just to. purge ukraine from the jews in russia ukraine for ukrainians and so on his statements got him 5th place in the simon visa center top 10 anti-semitic world leader rankings of 2012. it also sadly attracted numerous follow ups. dimitry are founded another extreme right organi

bush was president during the last years of macau gorbachev, because if i went back through time and i was looking for qualities in a president that will turn outhe o be important, i would want somebody with the human qualities and the diplomatic skill to build a relationship with gorbachev so that gorbachev to do things like open the berlin wall and allow the eastern european satellites to go and later on to join nato in a in a way that he didoi not feel tht george h.w. bush would make fun of them or embarrassing in certain ways. and so that we now set think much more clearly how lucky we were to have him as president. and everything i will say and want to add particularly susan and turn about this because both are and have been writing about first ladies. i have been doing this for almost 40 years, and i have written primaries about first light but i've been writing about a book about president with first ladies and i've met a number of them, including barbara bush and had the honor of and also of nancy reagan who kerry is -- how far along are you? >> i'm getting there. >> it's a t

in a 20 minute phone conversation that went on for 2 hours gorbachev said until i am sitting in this chair that if he'll be no repetition of $56.00 which is in order words was a clear message that miklos. your hands. and the more now the fences back to keep out a whole new wave of refugees the hunger in government is exploiting the fear of migrants to further its domestic agenda mental domain manolo. i don't know how many people right now would be happy if the iron curtain were dismantled today like it was 30 years ago. that. she may well be right many hungry and think like this ice cream man in the border town. we didn't know what was going on at 1st. we didn't know who these foreigners were. to get sick. but then more and more came and we got scared especially for our children because we didn't know what the refugees intentions were. it's an irony of fate but the refugees and all the hustle and bustle at the border brought him a lot of trade this season will now be his last. final stop. the romanian revolution in december 1909 was anything but peaceful. jon benet was at this barrac

kohl took advantage of the euphoria he convinced france britain and finally soviet leader mikhail gorbachev that a united germany would be at the service of europe. in record speed german unity was a great both nationally and internationally the 5 states of the former g.d.r. joined west germany on october 3rd 1990 called finally attained his goal a unified germany. while the berlin wall was of course a brutal symbol of germany's division today there's almost nothing left of it except for a few scattered reminders start easy to find most of them. where did the berlin wall go luckily this metal strip marks where it once stood but where can you see the pieces of the wall itself we are some tourists if they found the wall no. i have it set up there ok good yeah because i'm going to head up that way. i don't know and i never gave it was no no that's that's somewhere else i don't know on both sides of the former border lin has grown and grown together only long time residents remember it where all the wall just behind you behind me yes. there's nothing there. on the that's tough luck but it was t

it is a bilan open-air museumd of the soviet era, uninhabited since gorbachev was in charge.in time, tak. over by natu >> chernobyl, for me, is kind of a mecca, of sorts. back home, i'm a professor of russian literaturur history, cu i grew up in the height of the cold war. i remainder -- remember climbing under desks, when i see all this debris and dtruction, i is kind of symbolic of the soviet era. >> do you feelike chernobyl might have been the beginning of the end for the soviet era? >> absolutely. the moment gorbachev tried to correct soviet policies, i don't think he knew what he was opening up. aftermath of th burned pretty hot. >> asr, of septemore than 90,000 people have visited. it is already wel t abo number of people who decided to brave chernobyl in the whole of 2018, according tonehe exclusion dministration. >> this is actually my third trip to chernobyl, but my first ip since i watched the hbo show, and i've got to say, it is a different experience because a disaster i've lived with entire life, i but did not have an emotional connection to. now that i'm here, i

not gorbachev, sorry, russian of -- breshnev. you have all of these advantages in the air campaign. you had this wonderful advance and weaponry, but it brings complications into it. these laserguided weapons are more sensitive than to weather. seeker headset can be drawn off by bad weather. the general tried to shape his entire air campaign around precision weapons. he had a lot of laserguided bombs. what he did not have was a lot of guidance pods. heonly had six of them and needed to protect them for the whole duration of the air operation. he built the strategy for these air operations that were built around the strike package of a laser designator, and if you aircraft carrying bombs with air, suppression, tankers, and it became a really complicated, complex mode of operation. to fragility on the field of battle. these guys did not have a chance to talk on the phone to say, this is the plan. they are in indochina, there are no phones. they have to figure it out through what they can piece together airborne. once you find something that works, you do not want to change it. it's lik

or reagan all those years ago stopping to gorbachev and reagan.to get something done. then you see civil servants around the world and you just think that they are put masters and should be out on their owfi. masters and should be out on their own. they are terrible warriors. they are. the interesting product at this one will be sometime next week in the review, you will be reading a headline about what do labour do about this? because basicallyjeremy corbyn has said he will with his mps against anything the torturing back just because they are tory not because it is right or wrong but the pressure on the parliamentary labour party from the constituencies were saying you have to get this done and to see how they deal with that will be fascinating. there has been a letter today i think it was 19 or may be more labour mps writing a letter to the eu saying we are ready to vote in parliament for a deal. please get edessa —— a deal. where desperate to have no deal. many tories will not vote for. we still have a very difficult parliamentary arithmetic.

>> absolutely, i think it fell under heavy criticism from thend world for thathe moment gorbachev tried to correct soviet policies, the moment he tried to open things up, i don't think he knew what he was opening up. and i think the aftermath of that burned pretty hot. >> reporter:s of septemberha mon 90,000 people have visited, that's already well fove more than the number people who decided to brave chernobyl in the whole of 2018, according to the exclusion zone administration. this is actually my third trip to chernobyl, but my first one after watching the hbo television series and i've got to say it's a bit of a different experience because chernobyl is a disaster that i've known about all my life but i haven't had aa emotiocoection to it. and now walking around these abandoned buildings i'm imagining the drama that played out here that i saw in the show. chernobyl lies now in an independent ukraine; then, it was the ukrainian soviet socialist republic. and for ukrainians, who are all too familiar with the consequences of the disaster, the show has served as a fresh reminder of what

kohl took advantage of the euphoria he convinced france britain and finally soviet leader mikhail gorbachev that a united germany would be at the service of europe. in record speed german unity was a great both nationally and internationally the 5 states of the former g.d.r. joined west germany on october 3rd 1990 kohl finally attained his goal a unified germany. we remember those days very well someone who made those days possible is with me here in the studio right now the former east german civil rights activist caterine. i think it's good to have you on the show we've talked before here at the big table i want to pick up on the topic of the german chancellor angela merkel we've been talking about her tonight when you think about. her contribution to german reunification has she done enough. or has she let you down how do you feel. you know i in my opinion this is not a one man show or one woman show so we unification or democracy is a job for all of us so we have to make it possible we have to talk to each other and to understand each other it's about understanding another's position wh

kohl took advantage of the euphoria he convinced france britain and finally soviet leader mikhail gorbachev that's a united germany would be at the service of europe. in record speed german unity was a great both nationally and internationally the 5 states of the former g.d.r. joined west germany on october 3rd 1990 called finally attained his goal a unified germany. a stark about this more now with the views of thomas sparrow from our political bureau here in the studio good morning thomas morning brian we've just seen some incredible images of the hard to forget if you saw them all those years ago when the wall fell to the germans still feel that same enthusiasm that they did back then i probably wouldn't describe that as who is yes i'm older probably when they do look at those images they feel very happy about it most germans i think do feel that reunification is a very important step for germany in fact a recent poll also stressed that a majority are. once feel that unity has been achieved there are still very clear differences and i will speak about those differences in a moment but i

gorbachev, tear down this wall. >> we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things are easy but because they are hard. >> i love you, peter! i love you, too, lisa! lisa! lisa! oh, god, i love you, lisa! ( cheers and applause ) ♪ >> alec baldwin got dr. oz to pull out his six year old daughter's tooth. no medical reason. kid just owed him money. alec is a tough dad. captioning sponsored by comedy central (applause) and now david spade (cheers and applause). >> spade: yeah! hey. yeah! hi. good crowd, everybody, a

gorbachev and reagan. thatcher and reagan, whoever it was.en it away now because if you are the first year of gcse, you can say i did gcse and you are a lot younger than you are. anyway, i digress, but you know that when two leaders kick out all their advisors and their civil servants and even their press secretaries or whoever it might be, things are getting serious and you might actually get results. it's well worth them briefing that this was a private one—on—one meeting because it looks serious. it's not just it's notjust the british who believe that their political masters should not be let out on their own. they do say things which they cannot say in front of anyone else. they promised things. they promised things they cannot deliver. or they promised things that they will say something, like i've been in positions like this. you say something like i'm just telling you, ican do something like i'm just telling you, i can do that, but i can't take the blame for it. or don't push me on this one, because i really can't do it, but i could do

kohl took advantage of the euphoria he convinced france britain and finally soviet leader mikhail gorbachev that a united germany would be at the service of europe. in record speed german unity was a great both nationally and internationally the 5 states of the former g.d.r. joined west germany on october 3rd 1990 called finally attained his goal a unified germany. i. say here in us so vividly remember the euphoria you imagine this arms around her voice was an incredible that it was difficult not to be moved to but you see as we were hearing from chancellor merkel the process of unity is still has a long way to go there but there's still a generation of eastern germans and western germans who were born in reunited germany how do you think your work marcher older. and how do you think they feel on this day of germany and if acacia and. for them it's a little bit difficult to grasp i have to say i think what they would say is that this is the very positive message that a lot of people especially in a city like berlin which is very much a city where people live very close to each other collide

kohl took advantage of the euphoria he convinced france britain and finally soviet leader mikhail gorbachev that a united germany would be at the service of europe. in record speed german unity was a great both nationally and internationally the 5 states of the former g.d.r. joined west germany on october 3rd 1990 called finally attained his goal a unified germany. peter i certainly get goosebumps listening and watching that ceremony because we've both seen those events 29 years ago now 30 years on there was so much euphoria back then 30 years on would you say the greenough occasion has been a success. without a doubt in by and by and large the germany is a. natural entity is very broad one side and it has begun to grow together the question is the pace at which the 2 sides are growing together and whether that process is now moved into almost possibly reverse gear i mean it's interesting if you speak to east germans about or even speak to west germans about what happened in the pearl in the period in the last 3 decades or so say how their lives have changed but as a result of german reunif

he was talking about gorbachev. he is looking down intently and i said to him, sir, mr. president, what are you looking at? he says, look at those houses. those belong to working men and women. look how many of them have a pool. that is what freedom can do for you. he says, i'm going to show that to gorbachev when he comes here. craig: and he did. frank: he did. i remember thinking, that is so profound. that is so profound because we are in a battle with another system, which works? is it central planning our freedom? ?- or freedom i remember saying, that is why i love this guy. think, iran, i contra was difficult because he had clearly, he made an unforced error, he made a mistake. so you have to take your medicine. 1987, first six months of those were among the toughest years. craig: and the media was pummeling him daily. frank: i'm not going to say fake media, that is what happens. he made a mistake and we understood that. but we got through it and gradually worked our way up again and in 1988, it was a curtain call. craig: any more questions? >> can i >> i work in th

kennedy: gorbachev tear down this wall or i will play star ski and hutch 24 hours a day. >> the biggestt in world, unless you play by our rules, unlunless you bow before chinese government, say we're great. kennedy: appease. >> that is not american way. kennedy: i will not do it i will not stand by and let uighurs die, suderman thank you. >> thank you. kennedy: a bunch of morons are upset that ellen degeneres watched a football game, and she sat next to president bush, everyone should relax for a everyone should relax for a second, my fun fact: 1 in 4 of us millennials have debt we might die with. and most of that debt is actually from credit cards. it's just not right. but with sofi, you can get your credit cards right - by consolidating your credit card debt into one monthly payment. you can get your interest rate right - by locking in a fixed low rate today. and you can get your money right. with sofi. check your rate in 2 minutes or less. get a no-fee personal loan up to $100k. (danny) after a long day of hard work... ...you have to do more work? every day you're nearly fried to a c

that period.during he wanted to be strong in that meeting with gorbachev. sorry brezhnev. you have all these advantages in it isr campaign, but ironic in a sensor you have this wonderful advance in weaponry but it brings its own complication in two ways. one is that the laserguided weapons are more sensitive than conventional attacks to weather. you have seeker heads that could be drawn out by bad weather. that general -- decided to shape his entire air campaign around precision weapons. he had a lot of laserguided bombs. what he did not have was guidance pots. he only had six. no more were going to come. he needed to protect those for the duration of the air operation. for these a strategy air operations that were built around the package of a laser test -- lasered designator with air to air and sam suppression and tankers. complexe a complicated, operation which led them to fragility on the field of battle. these guys did not have it chance to talk on the phone beforehand to say this is the plan. they are in indochina. there are no phones. they had to figure it out throu

kennedy: gorbachev tear down this wall or i will play star ski and hutch 24 hours a day. >> the biggestket in world, unless you play by our rules, unlunless you bow before chinese government, say we're great. kennedy: appease. >> that is not american way. kennedy: i will not do it i will not stand by and let uighurs die, suderman thank you. >> thank you. kennedy: a bunch of morons are upset that ellen degeneres watched a football game, and she sat next to president bush, everyone should relax for a second, my memo next. 48 bales. all before lunch, which we caught last saturday. we earn our scars. we wear our work ethic. we work until the work's done. and when it is, a few hours of shuteye to rest up for tomorrow, the day we'll finally get something done. ( ♪ ) the day we'll finally get socome on!done. let's hide in the attic. no. in the basement. why can't we just get in the running car? are you crazy? let's hide behind the chainsaws. smart. yeah. ok. if you're in a horror movie, you make poor decisions. it's what you do. this was a good idea. shhhh. i'm being quiet. you're breathing on

when reagan met alone with gorbachev, one-on-one, no aides in the room.he first thing reagan did was call the team together, here is exactly what went on. here is what was said. there were no contemporaneous notes or things of that kind. >> right. you can't, you're not subject to -- >> president reagan nearly sort of gave away the whole shebang there, didn't he? you were in that famous meeting in reykjavik where he went way beyond where the allies were going and most of his national security advisors. neil: it worked out for him. >> you're right. presidents have to be able to have confidential conversations. otherwise -- neil: i think that is what bannon was saying. he is worried the genie is out of the bottle. it will only get worse. >> if you don't do that, there will be even worse. even less transparent than it is now because if presidents think every single phone call they make to foreign leader ends up on the front page of "washington post," they will find ways to communicate with leaders they will go -- >> the problem with this administration is alr

. >> do you think that gorbachev's going to make it? >> i'm in a minority on that.it. >> so, that was tom brokaw sitting down with president richard nixon at the dedication of his presidential library in 1990. it's an interview depicted on the front cover of tom's latest book, "the fall of richard nixon: a reporter remembers watergate." wow! what a really good time for this book. and tom brokaw joins us now. tom, talk to me, if you could, about parallels that you were seeing between this time and back then, but also differences. >> you know, there are not many parallels, quite honestly, about the climate, the two presidents, the time. the president, president nixon, when he was trying to defend himself in that last year, he knew that on those recordings he could be heard as part of the conspiracy. that's why we had an 18-minute gap at one point. he was going around the world trying to sort out his leadership, going to russia, to china -- not to china, in fact, at that time, but he went to egypt constantly trying to persuade people that he was the president, and they

and mikhail gorbachev understood that. so he, in effect, sued for peace. so i would say, you know, to ask yourself what price peace? was it worth running up the national debt as much as ronald reagan to end the cold war which included conflicts hot and cold, affected people on every continent and in which tens of thousands of americans died, to end that at long last and to do it at the bargaining table and not on the battlefield. >> host: kathleen's in lawrence, kansas. hi, kathleen. >> caller: hello. i want to compliment c-span. you're a wonderful program, and you have different points of view on. i'm calling in because i don't know where else to ask the question. i am older and not a technocrat. but i'm a liberal, i grew up in california, but i transplanted to the midwest, and i'm concerned about the midwest being just considered flyover states. anyway, my question is a constitutional one. i'm worried about the erosion of the power of congress, and and i'm wondering why when it takes a to ratify treaties, why just one person, the president, can pull out

then i found reagan and three days in moscow with gorbachev and bouncing back and show that. fdr and how they are and obviously general eisenhower was chosen by fdr to command d-day. reagan said he voted for fdr four times. so i said why not go back to the beginning. neil: which i didn't know reading your book that he was of mixed mind, even trying for a fourth term. >> he was. he convinced himself that war was going to be the thing that propelled him to continue to go. neil: even harry truman's selection, that was just sort of by the seat of his pants. >> truman was out of the loop. he was not in the inner circle. he didn't even know about the manhattan project and the atomic bomb. neil: even as a senator he complained about the fact that he couldn't get the president to talk to him. a lot of weird -- how did you get a lot of the information, particularly it's one thing to get stalin notes and churchill, you go to, you know, i guess to his bunker, whathave you, obviously hyde park in the case of fdr. i visited that place many, many times. it's sort of like a capsule in time.

obviously, as the rationale or the explanation rather than its systemic problems, rather than what gorbachevet cetera, et cetera, et cetera, rather than the strength of nato in the west. that for the entire four decades of the cold war competed successfully with the soviet union. but it's revealing. he came into office and nothing has changed his views that foreign policy is bad, that trade is bad. and what we're seeing in syria is essentially his acting out based on that. this is -- this is predictable. this is -- if nothing else, the guy is consistent. >> you know, willie, this is like donald trump -- mine, donald trump's not a 1950s man. he is like a 17th century man. this is a guy that believes you can have fortress america that only tall ships can make it across the atlantic. >> and moats. >> and the moats, the way he wants to defend the southern border is not with the greatest technology on the face of the earth, which we have, which our military uses on the battlefield, but he wants to build a wall. hey, china beat to us that by a couple of thousand years. the problem is, though, thes

bush, john mccain, john lewis, hillary clinton, muhammad ali, mikhail gorbachev, and the dalai lama.overage to get underway shortly. this is life on c-span. on c-span. announcer: ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats. the program will begin momentarily. announcer: while we wait for the weemony to get underway, have this. john conyers jr., a career war veteran, the longest-serving african member of congress in u.s. history, died today at 90. during his 53 years in the u.s. house, he built a reputation as a champion for civil rights. we are waiting for live coverage of the liberty medal ceremony to begin shortly, live on c-span. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the

gorbachev, tear down this wall."rted is not real. we are reassured by knowing that we're watching fiction. they want to bring an end to the trump nightmare if not we have to wait for quality drama and accommodate ourselves to continuing drama of b movie horror. what do you see when he occupies the stage. >> why don't you just read all of my boom. it would make this interview so much easier for me. i loved that. now what was the question again? >> when you see him performing as an actor what do you see? >> as a citizen i just sit there wanting to throw things at the screen. he kind of drives me crazy as a performer. i think she a hous -- he is a l performer, and the miraculous thing is that people adore him for it. his fans can't get enough of it. and i don't know. i'm an actor, i'm accustomed to this paradox, things that i can't stand are often very successful. i wonder how shakespeare felt and everyone else was running to bear baiting. people are crazy about conflict. they love to be -- to have their blood boil. and