we can also say there is no doubt the united states produced far more consumer goods than the soviet union. >> the standard of living was a tenth not -- >> that is why this was an important moment in cultural and political history because the soviets began to see the gap and even their leadership realized that this was a gap that could not be filled unless they made changes and that what is leads to some of the things that we discussed. are there any other questions? yes. >> i had a question about how the average american responded to the exhibit. when i read about in the 1950's, there is a dual image, yes, let's show them american prosperity, that will encourage them to move toward capitalism, others if we show them that, they will get our technology. just curious, articles in "life" magazine about the exhibit, what was the average reaction to it? >> tanya, you know about those articles in "life" magazine. >>> hard to say what the average american reaction was. it was publicized, "life" ran several story, it was a very big story we came through in the soviet union, kind of crossed the bar

first of all, the soviet union mollah existed. then after that time after the soviet union are even beginning with the gorbachev because during the years that disobedient existed it was an uphill battle to convince people in the last of the scale of the crimes, and come in fact, those who, as you say, the apologists, the -- those people who are really patsies by that the soviet regime often prospered in there careers for many @booktv very simple reason because they laid to residences, that insofar as anything that happened in the city he was kutcher intuitive, all that they had to do was find seemingly rational explanations for what was going on there, for people to be misled. it was much easier to believe that while the temporary shortages in the area and for security reasons the soviet forces have cordoned off large parts of the ukraine the better to feed the population than it is to believe that people were being blocked in there villages in order to deliberately -- deliberately so that would starve to death. >> scrutiny. >> ru

the russians didn't have things like movies about the americans invading the soviet union. our television affair was full of that stuff. that is what we watched at night. movies of the soviets coming and invading america. so we americans were plenty propagandized. >> i don't know i agree with that. >> i don't agree with that at all. difference of information, george, and i know it well, i know what eisenhower wanted, set up the information agency only outward, he knew what hitler had done, turned inward, he never wanted that, he got smith, they put a bill in congress that only information from the united states government could go out of the country. and as a result, when kennedy was killed and usia made a beautiful film about kennedy to protect overseas, a great human cry that people wanted to see it in our theaters and congress had to pass a special dispensation, a law to let them do it. >> you're talking about official things. our newspapers and our television and our movies go back and look at those things now, you will see stuff that will curl your hair, there was plent

soviet union in the one nine hundred forty s. it jumped to today and last apparently thinks that russian government operatives or the russian government excuse me has operatives in the obama administration and that somehow i have links to them by virtue of being boarded russia that's all news to me but walsh says in this piece no boris videos need apply now even i know that i wear a doctor to go to the radar was born in moscow after all so not really sure what his point is and i'm trying really hard not to laugh at it basically wash believes i'm a communist propaganda spy government operative because i question the n.y.p.d. actions well then i guess that that makes us senator robert menendez newark mayor cory booker the muslim public affairs council the a.c.l.u. and over thirty other organizations doing the exact same thing calling for investigations in this case i make small propagandise two or maybe just spies to be honest or slightly confused considering his logic makes no sense at the end there so for being culturally offensi

the present masters of the soviet union have said to us, peaceful co-existence until we bury you.t our internment by catching up with us industrially and then surpassing us. they're working hard at it. today the 200 million inhas been tan tants state bend their backs and their talents to the will and sputnik and its successors have proved the uss proficiency in the area of technical ability. throughout the vast stretches of this empire, you find new industrial cities, plants, assembly lines, the most modern equipment. soviet products of every description awaiting delivery and reaching industrially backward areas of the noncommunist world. teams of russian technicians are available to operate this regime. this is economic penetration, paving the way for political takeover. the end of soviet friendship which usually precedes an attempt at economic penetration has been reaching into every part of the road which shows the slightest to receive it. recently we've seen it extend into our own hemisphere into turbulent cuba where it was embraced as a triumph of soviet policy. a few statist

it is the 20th anniversary of the soviet union, the end of the soviet union. many people in russia blame him for the economic conditions in which they live. they blame him for the end of the country that many felt was the cradle to grave welfare state instead of a totalitarian system. i have great respect for him. you can also see people's weaknesses. you talked about all salvador. what about the priests and nuns? to me, that is the people power in that situation. flm was a revolutionary force seeking power. the people power were trying to alleviate poverty, trying to find balance. >> liberation theology had a stronger effect on the underlying society. i have to read this. you are listening to the commonwealth of california radio program. our guest is katrina vander huegen editor and publisher of "the nation." i watched you on colbert. he asked you to repudiate the obama three times before the cock crows. [laughter] >> he said at the end that i filibustered him. >> he went after you. >> one of the bright lights in the bush era was when he spoke of the white ho

on human rights great deal and of course the later history of the decline and collapse of the soviet unionindicates that was a very significant factor. that many of these groups and the soviet era begin to embrace human rights in the beginning of the end. you know, i am just curious whether this day, three decades later you feel you are vindicated in your views during those early discussions of the cold war was still going on? >> guest: you know, at the risk of sounding self-promoting, i have to say yes i do feel that way. and i don't think that in any way i deplored the fact that reagan won four of my program and nixon's notions regarding the talent. nixon had the talent which is basically status quo. you keep what you have, we won't let alone yours, you don't meddle in hours. my view is totally different. i viewed as equally horrible secularism and i was always the soviet union had to be transformed or encourage to disintegrate. and make no bones of the fact that i favor encouraging these to disintegrate and help the process along. the fact that the end happened peacefully was a great th

that literally first i thought it was a joke he ledges that twenty years after the fall of the soviet union the evil that it did lives on in the form of its fellow travelers now apparently well represented in the obama administration and its penetration agents and most sinisterly in the hidden moles of continuing illegals program now when you click on the link within that quote which he told us to do it takes you to an article about george cobol now for those of you who don't know that he was an i when born new york educated war vet who was later exposed to spies for this. you know the one nine hundred forty s. he jumped in today and last apparently thinks that russian government operatives or the russian government excuse me has operatives in the obama administration and that somehow i'm links to them by virtue of being boarded russia that's all news to me but walsh says in this piece no boars we didn't need apply now even i know that i would wear a doctor to go under the radar was born in moscow after all so not really sure what his point is and i'm trying really hard not to laugh at it b

that he somehow connecting me to every piece of propaganda there was out there to put during the soviet union which makes perfect sense right but it's not. spend too much time on that when there is better material to dig into he continues on saying there is no contradiction at all between not wanting every american citizen treated like a potential terrorist and the same time not worrying much over whether the new york city police department is keeping prophylactic tabs on historically and culturally antagonistic newcomers whose coreligionists are responsible for nine eleven yes because muslims are responsible for nine eleven than every muslim should be kept tabs on just because they are muslim and why p.d. was totally justified in having an undercover cop going to rafting trip with college students who have done absolutely nothing wrong the n.y.p.d. is also totally good for running surveillance on grade school children because they're muslim and as a group historically and culturally antagonistic you know i think this is my biggest problem with washes response the fact that he has no qualms w

we have a lot of business still to do with the leaders of the soviet union and i don't want to see anybody their eye. >> gorbachev resigned december 25th, 1991, and the soviet union dissolved the following day. >> had president bush not handled the end of the cold war the way he did it could have ended with a bang not by a whimper. >> by the grace of god america won the cold war. >> bush reelection campaign was based in part off tn the benefi the peaceful end to the cold war. >> people will do great things if only you set them free. if we can change the world we can change america. >> free market, a compassionate government and service were key components of the 41st president's agenda. bush clearly agreed this emphasis would include change. >> service to others is a rich source of meaning in life. >> george and i have seen communities gather around parents with a gravely ill child helping them take care of the other children>> president bush began his bid for reelection with approval ratings of 89 percent. >> who do you trust in this election the candidate who raised taxes one time and re

the world war ii had ended only five years before, and a new cold war with the soviet union was just beginning in earnest. moscow had just carried out its first successful atom bomb test in august of 1949. another wartime ally, china, had just seen the end of a long civil war and mao's forces were now leading the world's most populist nation. on the neighboring korean peninsula, the year 1950 would see an invasion of the south by the north and quickly drew in the forces of the united states and our allies and partners around the world. in response to these and other changes in the security landscape, president truman and truly extraordinary group of senior advisers responded by embarking on a series of programs and reviews and initiatives that brought abouts national security and foreign policy systems, and think about it, the marshall plan and the establishment of the department of defense and an independent air force, and the formation of the cia, and the development of multinational bodies like nato, the united nations, and the development of nsc 68 and the containment policies to

that john glen and nasa laid the ground work for what would eventually become, the defeat of the soviet union in the space race eventually putting man on to the moon it was a time of the cold war american ambition to beat the soviets, and embrace the space program was greater than it is today over the weekend surviving members of the mercury team accompanied john glen and scott carpenter the only still living original 7 astronauts out to the old

we have a lot of business still to do, with the leaders of the soviet union and i don't want to see usanybody in my administration, sticking it in their eye. >> gorbachev resigned december 25, 1991, and the soviet union dissolved the following day. >> had president bush want handled the end of the cold war the way he dit could have ended with a bang and not with a whimper. >> by the grace of god, america won the cold war. >> the bush re-election campaign was based in part on the benefits of the peaceful end of the cold war. >> people doll great things, if only you set them free. if we can change the world, we can change america. >> free market, a compassionate government and service were key components for the 41st president's agend a. bush clearly believed this emphasis would encourage real change. >> service to others is a rich source of needing in life. >> george and i have seen communities gather around parents with a gravely ill child, helping them take care of the other children. >> president bush began his bid for re-election with approval ratings reaching 89%. >> who do you tru

came out from the soviet union system and not to come to the new one we are in the middle and if you want to in the wind somebody you have to see what the hell you are make the invitation for we want to use it in the future in a new world all the rich people will be how it's a punish because they are not so good and you are simple people workers the collective farmers you will be together with me will give some people that is the it's a propaganda nothing else lot of thank you thank you xan thank you letter and just to remind you that my gets on the show today were journalist and filmmaker sean ramsey and filmmaker and journalist politician and businessman of lattimer samantha banks was a pleasure talking to you in just a reminder that spotlight will be back with more first time comments on was going on and outside russia until then stay on russia today and take a. mission free cretaceous a free transfer charge free m.h. three.

soviet union, assuming he'd be shot. >> that he'd be shot. and he wasn't shot. >> rose: and he claim climbed his way back to the top? and always had the... always knew, always had his eye on that mr. smiley. >> there's also this, the glasses. you look for something, and the voice. you got that voice from le carre didn't you? >> the more you work on it the more you own it and the further it gets away from an impersonation but he is... i thought what better place to start than with... >> rose: and you tried on how many pair? 200? >> something like that. >> rose: what were you looking for? the kind of glasses he would wear? >> yes. and also i imagined smiley as a wise old owl that had these big eyes hoke see everything and he hears everything. the great thing is he doesn't have to rush. he doesn't have to rush to anything. if you imagine smiley as a spider in a web, he's here, the food arrives he feel it is twitch on the thread but he thinks "i'll get it later." >> rose: (laughs) >> he's that confident. so i wanted to physicalize that idea. ther

then when the soviet union -- soviet empire collapsed, soviet union collapsed and the wall came down and the red army went home and communist china is moving towards state capitalism, we said, our war is over. the cold war is over. bring the troops home. give the europeans nato. get out of all these bases and things because we've been -- we had to pay an enormous amount, americans did. but the neocons basically move to the world democratic refr lugs sort of policy you saw george bush with. then they went for the war in iraq. they went for the war on serbia. they wanted to nation-build in afghanistan, and the older right, the older conservatives split. some of them went with the neocons and some said this is wilsonism and not kwefsh active. this is new word ordinary nonsense. it's utoppian. we can't build the societies and things like that, the 19 skrerld kids and marines. you can't build societies in afghanistan that are based on thousands of years of tradition. we split with them, and it's become very acrimonious. it's mainly an old right neoconservative split. i think those of us w

from the soviet union system and not to come to the new one we are in the middle and if you want to talk in wide somebody you have to say what the hell you make the invitation for what they use it in the future in a new world all the reach people will be how it's a punish because they are not so good at hugh are simple people who work as the collective farmers here will be together with me will give some people that is the it's a propaganda nothing else out of it thank you thank you sean thank you letter and just a reminder that my guests on the show today were journalist and filmmaker sean ramsay and filmmaker and journalist politician and businessman of lattimer symantec thanks was a pleasure talking to you in just a reminder that spotlight will be back with more first time comments on was going on and outside russia until then stay on russia today and take it. from los angeles to chicago to birmingham twenty trauma centers have closed since two thousand severe problem is not enough inpatient beds not enough urgency department beds and not enough nurses commandos that's to take care of

in the soviet union they were secretly burra trees in the country's major cities their research focused on ways of enhancing people stamina for a global war effort it was primarily aimed at naval officers manning nuclear powered submarines. how much more potential does the human body have the answer is about forty percent protein synthesis can be increased precisely by forty percent of human life to can be extended by forty percent and that's what we are concerned with. however soviet gerontologists failed to find a solution to a crucial call them the average age of soviet leaders before perestroika was around eighty doctors could help keep their kidneys and liver as an order their old brains were incapable of generating fresh ideas. of. the bad thing about the soviet union was that its ruling body the politburo consisted of people who had gone senile individually they were smart people in their younger days but when you have a group of eighty year olds getting together it's really not a productive thing. scientific fiction has already described cases of the brain living on after the bo

with certain major very important and fundamental issues in russia's economy which was that the soviet union was a very powerful industrial country that did have a lot of what is what is used the term of its kind of its own technology it had created its own area of expertise and a lot of independent from the rest of the world because of that because of the the wall the russian word for technology today is no how no how good is the russian front technology that that's right and even kids now i mean i talk to kids about movies because i also. so make films movie maker film maker yeah and i talk to kids and they don't know even nouveau russian classics much less so the world is changing and russia is changing too and you really get that feeling i first came here in ninety one and then i was again spent some years here in the beginning of the nineties saw the coups saw the political the political movements but it led the way back to back to that subject i think. it's it's kind of you usual thing is well we what we want to do but he says you know of course there are a lot of specifics a can't be

the psychological structure of-identity lead to a crisis when the soviet union collapsed. we had no one to define ourselves against. the gulf war of 1991 helped fill the gap for a time but the clinton years were largely meaningless without an enemy. we had no idea who we were so we filled the space with o.j. simpson and monica lewinsky. the islamic world did as the greatest favor of vegetable. attacked us. overnight terrorism replaced communism and george bush jr. like reagan in characterizing the soviet union did not hesitate to frame this as a cosmic war between good and evil. crusade. wrong word to use with arabs by the way. there was no possible discussion of american foreign policy. it was tantamount to treason as susan saw tech lost her job with the new yorker and others suggested. our enemies were evil or in st. anne that is the end of the story. to this day under the obama administration, american tax dollars pay for workshops that teach the police and military that islam is an evil religion out to destroy america and we must therefore be destroyed first. these wor

and the soviet union, accused the u.s., and he was pushed off the podium. when the sugar quota problem, when president eisenhower limited or took away the sugar quota, this was out of castro pushing and pushing, that is when he formally had an agreement with the soviets. then it was not until april 1961 that he formally declared himself a [inaudible] . by that time it was so obvious. >> you came when you were six years old. your dad ended up working in mexico, and then it you got your education there. at what point did you become a u.s. citizen or how did that work? >> u.s. citizenship is quite a story, because for us it was quite easy. we spent two years in miami, three years in new york, and we became citizens in new york before moving to mexico. i remember the judge in the brooklyn courthouse saying you have more of a right that those who have been born here, because you chose to come here. it was all part of this welcoming attitude. so when we went to mexico we were u.s. citizens. >> got your education there. teamed up with kellogg down their driving an

take the old soviet union. military power, communist ideology and economic integration were centripetal forces that helped hold the union together. but they were weak, and when the centralized economy proved bankrupt, centrifugal-- or devolutionary-- forces proved stronger. different languages, religions and large distances helped these areas spin away, as in a centrifuge. the new central asian republics joined the slavic countries in the southern caucasus to form the commonwealth of independent states. but the north caucasus remained within russia itself, despite a bloody resistance that goes back to the 19th century. geographer ronald wixman. wixman: when the czarist government came into the caucasus, they committed unspeakable brutalities. the russians literally had to commit genocide, but they couldn't get the people to simply accept russian rule. the leader of the greatest revolt is shamil-- shamil the avar. he unified the entire north caucasus-- which included chechens, who were dagestanis at the time-- a

you better believe just like when the soviet union resolved from 15 republics. the chinese watched the gorbachev period very very carefully and embarked upon policies that did just the opposite, which is to say, to hold on to politics, to loosen up the economy. they were informed by that chapter plaipg out righ playingn their border and rest assured they'll be informed what plays out with respect to the jasmyne spring in the middle piece. >> charlie: there is this near ofear of tension and fear f instability seems to go deep into their being whether it's religious organizions i organize seems to be this notion that somehow there is a threat there and therefore they have to exercise a very tight control. are they realistic? >> well, their sense of stability really draws from who innethey are and their culture d tradition and their sense of hierarchy. what stable he means and listen they reflect on history probably a whole lot more than we tend to do here in the united states and all you have to do is look at the last century starting with the box ire boxer rebell