but also the hostile policies were not making the soviet union a weaker. the soviet union's problems were in turmoil and by trying to change the external policies, we made it possible for gorbachev when he agreed to think of internal reforms. >> host: ronald reagan again the common perception is that he came to the office determined to launch against the soviet union and said a lot of things which at the time sounded prerogative it would require the staff today most people would agree with it including probably russian leaders but it was quite controversial. yet you are now telling a fascinating story about president reagan shortly after the assassination attempt writing to brezhnev against the advice of the state department. can you tell about that? >> guest: that shows his initial instinct wants to reach out to make him in contact to deal with the soviet leader's as leaders who were not only communist ideologues but also had the interest of their country at heart and of course brezhnev turned down that attempt. i'm not sure it was brezhnev, i think it was

expect them and so they conflict is in their mind as of the soviet union was the end of the cold war, but that is not the case. >> host: you were in moscow as u.s. ambassador during most interesting and important years of a profound change in the soviet union, 1987, 1991. and you build with gorbachev, yeltsin and a wide range of russian politicians. i remember you had not only the official residence, you also had a lot of seminars and you made the house the american club in moscow. do you think these people not just gorbachev but his associates, russian soviet political leaders of the time, did the understand what they were doing? what was the likely outcome of the effort, the collapse of the employer, of the nation as the new rate? >> guest: we did not encourage the breakup of the soviet union as such. we did all we could to encourage them to move in a space fashion to understand how the market economy works and things of that sort and yes we would bring in the electors who would like your other men russian about things that were internal to the soviet union. including things of history. i had robert, a biography of stalin, co

soviet leader. if we hadn't had gorbachev, this might not have worked. but also the hostile policies were not making the soviet union we could. the soviet union problems were intro. and by trying to change the extra policies we made it possible for gorbachev, when he agreed, to think of an internal reforms. >> host: ronald reagan, the perception is that he came to office determined to launch a whole brigade against the soviet union. and he said a lot of things which, at the time at least, sounded pretty provocative. evil empire stuff, today most people would agree with it. including probably on russian leaders. but at that time it was quite controversial, yet you are telling the book this fascinating story about president reagan shortly after the assassination attempt writing now to brush up against advice of state department. can you tell about that? >> guest: yes. i think that shows his initial instinct wants to reach out to try to make human contact, to try to deal with the soviet leaders as leaders who were not only communist ideologues, but also had the interest of the country at heart, if we could explain them

and that's why stone and the congress party, the soviet union were always depicted as fatherly teacher figures. and as you can see from this picture, what do you think is the focal point here in the picture? what part of stalin's face are you supposed to be looking at? the eyes, rite aid because the eyes are the symbol of his unique mastery of dialectical mattila's and. where as in korea in north korea the believe was and is that the korean people should remain naÏve. it's only logical if you are born pure, if you are born better than everyone else you don't need to be tampering your instinct with book learning. that way you will only dilute them. so it's better for the people to stay true to their pure instincts, for which reason can ill song and the workers party are not fatherly teacher figures instead there protect to figure that as you can see it from this picture, the focus is not on kim ill sung's eyes, the focus is on or his boom to use the korean war. if you read north korean poultry, the poets are often talking about the desire to wrest their faces against this expansive ches

and soviet union superpowers were nuclear weapons. we could destroy the world not once, twice, but some said seven times over. now, why you need that much power i don't know. but we never had the power to change the world in our own image using military force, nor did the soviet union and look at old problems in the world the middle east in particular. if we could have solved it then we certainly would have. and the idea that we emerge as the sole superpower able to use this great military power now that it was clearly much more than the successors of the soviet union i think it was a great illusion and we talked about a unipolar world and the russians thought we were acting arrogantly as if we were the only power that counted and others said well it won't last forever but there is a unipolar moment. and i say there never was because when the cold war ended particularly when the soviet union collapsed there was no longer a threat, perceived threat out there for the united states to protect others from so our power, our soft power whic

has a lot of oil and uranium and they gave up their nuclear weapons after the fall of the soviet union. so they were given a spot light to shine and be rewarded in effect for that and talk of democracy and human rights was left to the private sessions and not emphasized the way it might have been. gwen: in general why is it we seem to see him establishing more cordial, if you can call it that, relations with people like president medvedev rather than old allies like prime minister bnbn benjamin netanyahu? >> exactly. that's a critique you will hear from republicans in particular, president obama is attacking his friends and making nice with the enemies. and there's a lot of squabbling in the last few weeks with president karzai in afghanistan, with prime minister netanyahu in israel and that's created a real uncomfortable situation for the obama administration. they've now pulled back on the fighting with karzai. it was just a misunderstanding, who, you know, really that wasn't meant to be a big fight over whether americans are invaders or not. with netanyahu, it's a different situation. they're sti

>> that's what jack kennedy told the soviet union he would do if nuclear missiles were fired against any city in the western hemisphere. there would be a full response by the soviet union which he alone -- >> the commander in chief doesn't have to go to anybody else in order to make that judgment and call for the reaction. >> i think the president does have the power to do this initially to retaliate, but i do think once the first exchange goes, i think you've got to go with the congress to get the authority to wage continual war under the constitution. >> suppose there is a matter of time involved? >> then the president acts. >> this is a very tender question. let me hear from you. >> i think the president has that four and b because of the world we live in -- >> meaning what? >> you have the capacity for a devastating nuclear attack. >> we have to be able to respond absolutely quickly. >> so we can do it on his own authority? >> what if you do this while most of the missiles are in the air? >> you can call up norad and say okay, go with it? >> that was more apropos when there were t

soviet union. well, guess what? as we learned later, the soviets were in fact very scared of reagan's toughness in the cold war anticommunism, as he wanted to bring the soviets down. i want wall street to be just as afraid of the fed as the soviets were afraid of ronald reagan. when the fed does move and they ought to move soon, as mr. hoenig says, they shouldn't go in quarter points, they couldn't tell wall street that they're doing every minute and every day. they should surprise the street with tough half and three-quarter point changes. that will make wall street manage their risks and reduce their borrowings in a much more constructive way and will also prevent a new credit boom that will lead to a credit bust. i want the federal reserve to be thought of as a cowboy. you never know what they're going to do, both guns drawn, pulling the interest rate triggers. if they do that, then this credit cycle story will have a happier ending. you know what, folks? sometimes being tough and unpredictable is the best medicine. cowboy monetarism. >>> coming up, how they ran the company on the hill today. o. my god. i have two ideas

kind of secret reserve of strength, some military program that would give the soviet union and ed after the nuclear weapons were negotiated. i don't buy that last argument, i don't think gorbachev saw biological weapons as some kind of secret military assets, but i hear this year so as i close i like to tell you that for all his accomplishments the new information in this book that we've learned about gorbachev deepens our understanding of the pressures on him and deepens the puzzle of why given his dedication to glasnost and his enormous efforts of disarmament in the nuclear field he didn't do more to stop the dangerous biological -- biological weapons program so i'd like to close and hope you enjoy reading this book. i hope that you find new insights and new data for what is to judge how the whole cold war came to an end and i apologize because and this old talks have yet to tell you what "the dead hand" is in on that i hope you ask me some questions. [applause] >> we have time for questions. i ask people to try to be direct and concise and their comments and questions. we will go first down here and then go

between 45,000 warheads were reduced from a strategic forces of the soviet union then russia and the united states. and in many countries missiles and bombers and submarines but from this point* is less impressive because it 10 years duration time it is a reduction of four has will be a few hundred at best and even that was a new quite formal accounting rules. the main significance of the new treaty is not in its physical reduction. the main significance is restoration of the hormones dialogue of a strategic relationship between the two leading nuclear superpowers? after a long break, it is kept in mind we have not had a new strategic arms control treaty for 20 years since 1991. we never had a treaty that was signed supplemented or magnified and into force. we had that chain of unsuccessful sort which i mentioned but never had a formal binding treaty. here is the significance. basically we have a slightly different ceilings for the delivery of vehicles and agreed accounting rules and procedures. this is not surprising because the expiration puts it very tight schedule. and less than

soviet union. once at the camps, the polls were subjected to lengthy interrogations and the prisoners could not be induced to adapt -- adopt a pro-soviet attitude, they were declared, "hardened and uncompromised enemies of the soviet republic." so on march 5, 1940, joseph stalin and three of his henchmen signed an order to execute over 20,000 prisoners, all polls, to weaken any future polish military. in the forest, soviet secret police executed more than 20,000 polish nationals who were mainly officers in the polish military. and beginning on april 3, the killings were methodical. after a condemned person's information was checked, that individual was handcuffed and led to a secret cell that was insulated with felt to make sure no noise could come from that cell. the sounds were also heard -- masked by the operations of loud machines that were working in the factories. after being taken to the cell the victim was immediately shot in the back of the head. his body was taken out through an opposite door in the cell and laid in one of the five or six waiting trucks where upon the next condemned poll

. >> was nato, -- with nato, russians were not against nato in the early '90s. when the soviet union agreed for german reunification within the nato alliance, russians looked very well at the at and considered data to be -- looked very well at nato and considered a dead to be good and there was a top of russia eventually joining nato. yeltsin wins even made a very conspicuous statement saying russia will put the question of joining nato [unintelligible] and it produced such a reaction that corrected it in a few days, saying the typist made a mistake, that russia will not participate. but then, the attitude toward nato started to change. the crucial turning point was the bombing of serbia and. after that, at russia's started to see nato as an aggressive alliance that used its force arbitrarily out of united nations security council framework, out of for a mark of international law, at will. what is more importantly that it did not change the official attitude toward nato, but the grass roots, russian attitude toward nato. i lived at least half of my professional life in the soviet uni

the soviet union gained a strong foothold, which did not really expire until the soviet union expired. they were putting into place a command economy and basically a stalinist system. when i first started going back to vietnam in 1991, the system was extremely rigid and could only be called a stalinist system. but the other piece of this, which a number of people in this country -- and i count myself among them -- have worked assiduously for decades to bring about is the healing of that war here, in vietnam between the 2 million people of vietnamese descent here in this country and the existing forces in vietnam. this has been a very arduous and successful for the most part process. when i look at the vietnam of today -- and i've spent a great deal of time there not only during the war but afterwards, - i'm very optimistic. i've always believed, in in my younger days as a marine, that vietnam was one of the four or five most important countries to the united states when we look at our relations in asia. and this is evolving, and the country, as our trade relations have evolved, as our contacts h

worked -- when my husband was president, we started working with some of the nation that is were part of the soviet union to get their nuclear material out. but this hasn't been a high international priority. that's what we intend to make it starting this week. >> let me talk to a related topic, that is trying to deter iran from building a nuclear weapons program. secretary gates, is the notion of iran becoming a nuclear power inevitable at this point? is the strategy of the u.s. government becoming more and more containment? >> no, we have not -- we have not made that -- drawn that conclusion at all. in fact, we're doing everything we can to try and keep iran from developing nuclear weapons. we have -- we're probably going to get another un security council resolution. that's really -- it's important. but in its own right in terms of isolating iran, but it's also important in terms of a legal platform for organizations like the eu and individual countries to take even more stringent actions against iran. at the end of the day, what has to happen is the iranian government has to decide that its own secur

soviet union. once at the camps, the polls were subjected to lengthy interrogations and the prisoners could not be nduced to adapt -- adopt a pro-soviet attitude, they were declared, "hardened and uncompromised enemies of the soviet republic." so on march 5, 1940, joseph stalin and three of his henchmen signed an order to execute over 20,000 prisoners, all polls, to weaken any future polish military. in the forest, soviet secret police executed more than 20,000 polish nationals who were mainly officers in the polish military. and beginning on april 3, the killings were methodical. after a condemned person's information was checked, that individual was handcuffed and led to a secret cell that was insulated with felt to make sure no noise could come from that cell. the sounds were also heard -- masked by the operations of loud machines that were working in the factories. after being taken to the cell the victim was immediately shot in the back of the head. his body was taken out through an opposite door in the cell and laid in one of the five or six waiting trucks where upon the next condemned poll w

pilot because he had to worry about the soviet union, getting the budget under control, and partly because of internal weaknesses in his coalition. libertarians were less willing to go along with this than traditional conservatives were. let me conclude by saying that this form of post-modernism, this form of the existential and clients on our political concepts continues today. you can still see it on your tv 's and in movies, and in the political assumptions and rhetoric thing as someone as otherwise decent as president obama. you can see some touches of post-modernism and him. you might expect this from and who is a top of the 1960's who spent 10 years teaching constitutional law and a modern academy. post-modernism insists there is no truth out there by which men can buy their thoughts and actions. they i admit there is no objective support for liberalism itself. it is nothing but relativism to which reference has been added to pull them back from the nihilistic abyss. one expert called this the aversion to cruelty. so, a fully self-conscious liberal would be someone who recognizes pfft the values, but is moved. obama calls the same quality em

soviet union, that was a big state. we had members of the communist party who actually were in high positions. there was a conspiracy in the united states by very reputable people, who thought that marxism and lennonism was the way to go. that was much riskier than today. we could have had total nuclear obliteratation. even at the worst of the mccarthy period, in civilian courts. this is -- once we say that the situation today is like abraham lincoln, trying to do hero eck things, in this condition of true national emergency, once we say that this is -- this situation right now is like the situation that franklin roosevelt encountered when some germans came and were dumped off on long island on a submarine and he sees them and puts them before military commission, giving them no due process, i should say, if our situation is like that, this justifies under the laws or under the precedence of the united states, very repressive actions. very repressive actions by the president of the united states. so we have to be very careful. the presidency, as you were suggesting, you know, we've had many, m

soviet union fell apart, agreed to sell those weapons back to russia. the weapons of the soviet union in places like ukraine, the stans, other countries, were returned in that manner. host: is this the first treaty between the u.s. and russia? the first nuclear treaty? guest: there was another treaty which was signed with president bush and i believe president clinton. however, the verification provisions are very weak, so i would say this is the most substantive and important treaty with russia. host: providence, rhode island. redfred, good morning. caller: someone said something about the more nuclear weapons you have, the more colorful you are. there was a movie talking about the end of the world where they blew up a bomb and destroy everything, so if a couple of the clear bonds could destroy the world, we should be concerned. we go into other countries, but nobody comes into us to watch our nuclear program. lots of people come here to go to college. a lot of these people are coming here to go to college and then going back home to create these things, these weapons. host: ok, fred. . after a certain point, and additional nuclear weapon does not pro

last time we were there fighting with them in the war with the soviet union, they cut down all their and all they're left with is poppies, which leads to heroin. without that they don't have anything. we have to help them rebuild or they'll have no economy. the second thing you said was they have to have a functioning government. it was believed there was widespread fraud against 80% of the precincts add not a lot of people believe it was legitimate. third, getting rid of the bureaucracy. there's a lot of corruption and his brother is working the poppy that sends heroin to russia. none of the three on your checklist are in place. >> this is a very complex situation. let me focus on the economy. we have put about 1,000 civilians in there to try to convert crops from poppies to pomegranate to apples. afghanistan used to be the bread basket that exported food and we think they have the potential to do it. afghan needs help and we're there with the international community to provide assistance but afghanistan has to step forward and that starts with president karzai. >> p.j. crowley, ass

soviet union had i think it was a great illusion. and we talked about a unipolar world and the russians of course fault that we were acting arrogantly as if we were the only power that accounted. and other sit well it won't last forever but there is a unipolar moment. i say there never was because when the cold war ended, and particularly when the soviet union collapsed, there was no longer a threat, perceived threat for the united states to protect others from, so our power, our soft power, which was by far the most important of what we had before was diminished. but acting as if we could change the world, change of their country simply by using military and economic power was an illusion the superpower a illusion that my title talks about. >> host: well, mr. ambassador, a lot of people would say everything you said this correct, however, what's the big deal? russia was no longer a superpower. there were -- there were addicted like math to the monetary fund loans. boris yeltsin was an alcoholic and very often incoherent. after that, they got a vladimir putin who isn't a friend of the west, not a champion of democracy. look what pre

soviet union fell apart, agreed to sell those weapons back to russia. the weapons of the soviet union in places like ukraine, the stans, other countries, were returned in that manner. host: is this the first treaty between the u.s. and russia? the first nuclear treaty? guest: there was another treaty which was signed with president bush and i believe president clinton. however, the verification provisions are very weak, so i would say this is the most substantive and important treaty with russia. host: providence, rhode island. redfred, good morning. caller: someone said something about the more nuclear weapons you have, the more colorful you are. there was a movie talking about the end of the world where they blew up a bomb and destroy everything, so if a couple of the clear bonds could destroy the world, we should be concerned. we go into other countries, but nobody comes into us to watch our nuclear program. lots of people come here to go to college. a lot of these people are coming here to go to college and then going back home to create these things, these weapons. host: ok, fred. . guest: by pulling back you have the threat of accidental discharg

appeared to be the end of the cold war, the soviet union thereafter imploded, about a little more than a year after that, the soviet union was wound down. there were those who got together to celebrate the end of the cold war. it was a celebration. a 45-year cold war looked like it came to an end. but it didn't convince the communists that they had lost it philosophically. they didn't believe our free enterprise capitalism and our vigor that comes from being american was what defeated them. they thought they needed more managers that were more pure in their ideology. even though they had to scatter from the light they went back and reformed new alliance ps and allegiances and they come back at us again and again and again. even more insidious and harder to find and harder to identify, but philosophical enemies of the liberty and freedom of the united states and western civilization they remain, acorn remains an entity out there that has spent millions of dollars undermining the integrity of the legitimate ballot system here in the united states of america. they produced and admitted to over 400,000 false or fraudulent voter registration forms. and

soviet union handled the history they didn't like. >> let me give my answer and then roland. i have relatives who wereonfederate soldiers, i have relatives who were union soldiers and have relatives buried in the state of mississippi, i go and visit their graves. that doesn't mean you whitewash what the history, the cause was, i think your critics say that's what you're trying to do. >> i think governor mcdonnell was writing a proclamation for our organization. that's the approach he took. he changed it now because of the vitriolic opposition of people like roland. >> roland. >> here's the problem. your organization does not represent all virginians. he is the governor of the commonwealth of virginia, that means whites, african-americans, hispanic, asians, men, women, people who support confederate veterans and those who oppose them. when the governor makes this kind of decision, he has to make it for all the people in that particular state. that is what so is offensive. no right thinking person, especially any african-american would not sit here and support the praise and celebration of a group of pe

region, because it was from there that the soviet union launched sputnik, the first official satellite to orbit the earth. the world was stunned. americans were dumbfounded. the soviets had taken the lead in a race from which we were not yet fully prepared. but we caught up very quickly. president eisenhower signed legislation to create science and math education in grade schools and graduate schools. in 1961, president kennedy boldly declared before a joint session of congress that the united states would send a man to the moon and return him safely to the earth within the decade. as a nation, we set about meeting that goal, reaping rewards that have in the decade since touched every facet of our lives. nasa was at the forefront, many gave their careers to the effort. some have given far more. in the years that have followed, the space race inspired a generation of scientists and innovators including, i am sure, many of you. it is included advancements that have improved our health and well-being, water purification, aerospace manufacturing into medical imagery. the meeting right before i came out on stage, somebody said, it is more than jus

were stretched thin. and the invasion of georgia was meant to deliver a single lesson to the former soviet union eric this is what an american alliance gives you. this and as we used to say at my age, 35 cents will get you to the subway. the russians saw the ukrainian situation as deadly to them. not accidentally. we're just help an election in ukraine, and both candidates are pro-russian. one of them wasn't pro-russian and discovered later, yes, i am. it is clear that the game is over, and so on. could the united states have played it differently? could it have given the russians what they wanted? certainly. by totally destabilizing the american position in eastern europe, driving the bowls completely off the wall and probably the scandinavians next. de- stabilizing the balkans, making the church go slightly nuts and so on. this was possible to reset the button. reset it in 1995, you have the russians going crazy. reset it to 1985 and you suddenly discovered that bush's policy wasn't simply the fact that he was an unpleasant man. he may well have been, but it was constrained by reality. could the russian

reagan administration handled the soviet union which is to say that it was possible to have negotiations without abandoning the population in the gulag as long as you were willing to speak candidly about the gulag so that the people who were there knew which side you were are. if you are going to have negotiations with iran which we probably are not because the ayatollah don't seem to want it but if we are plenty of negotiations with iran it is double important, even more important than today and quite important today that we make those hour moral position clear. >> i will just repeat something i said earlier. there are a lot of states around the world, a lot of countries and international organizations that just say there must be peace, they're must be peaceful solution, peaceful resolution. we all want a diplomatic resolution. but we were seen by many as part of the problem. so i would not underestimate the fact that since the president has gone out of his way to try to engage and we have been completely rebuffed that there's more on the international consensus where the real problem is to meet spec the last question. then -- >> i operate under the ps

soviet union long denied and russia had only very recently come to terms with. this was the first joint commemoration, and yet the crash takes place over russian air space. were there suspicions in poland that somehow this might have been -- there might have been some russian hand in this crash? >> there are always conspiracy theories. this time, i think they are -- we haven't seen many serious ones. because the russian authorities have been completely open and i think we will have quick preliminary results of the investigation. russian response has been more than correct. the russian authorities and the russian people have shown empathy with our suffering. i think, partly, because prime minister putin was with our prime minister at that place three days before, and he felt the horror of katyn for us, where 5,000 polish officers died. and so he must have realized what it means to us, what soviet russia did to us, and why it's so horrible that people should die in that place again. so paradoxically, i think we have something of an emotional breakthrough in relations with russia. we've improved our relations with russia before, but now there's evidence that the

. >> was nato, -- with nato, russians were not against nato in the early '90s. when the soviet union agreed for german reunification within the nato alliance, russians looked very well at the at and considered data to be -- looked very well at nato and considered a dead to be good and there was a top of russia eventually joining nato. yeltsin wins even made a very conspicuous statement saying russia will put the question of joining nato [unintelligible] and it produced such a reaction that corrected it in a few days, saying the typist made a mistake, that russia will not participate. but then, the attitude toward nato started to change. the crucial turning point was the bombing of serbia and. after that, at russia's started to see nato as an aggressive alliance that used its force arbitrarily out of united nations security council framework, out of for a mark of international law, at will. what is more importantly that it did not change the official attitude toward nato, but the grass roots, russian attitude toward nato. i lived at least half of my professional life in the soviet uni

were always irish. ask the people of ukraine. they may have been subjects of the soviet union and citizens of the soviet union and have a passport, but they never stopped being ukranian. look at what happened in yugoslavia sclaff yeah once you got right of tito. that's what we do, too. as a matter of fact, the very proponents of this legislation afffirmed that i'm right. they recognize it. other wise, why would you allow people outside of the jurisdiction of puerto rico to vote and to determine its future unless you invested in them and inherently added themselves the nationality of puerto ricans. the gentleman from puerto rico says, separation between ethnicity. i'm not an ethnic puerto rican. i might be a lot more puerto rican than some puerto ricans are. i suggest the gentleman come to my city of chicago in the puerto rican community. there are many american flags, but two huge puerto rican flags. don't divide the puerto rican nation. it is a nation of people. it may decide that it wants to incorporate itself into the united states of america, but it always is a nation of p

delegation was led by senator john glenn and we were meeting with a number of dissidents in poland, people fighting against the repression coming from the soviet union. and senator glenn said a few words and then -- i ask that senator mikulski who is so proud of her polish heritage to say a few words to these freedom fighters in poland. it was one of the most remarkable speeches i ever heard. she was so powerful talking about her background in baltimore, her heritage. i've never, ever forgotten the statement made by the senator from maryland. it was one of the most remarkable statements i've ever heard in my professional career. mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from illinois is recognized. mr. durbin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consentheene proceed to the immediate consideration of senate resolution of 497 submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 479, expressing sip by that for the peep -- sympathy for the people of p oland in after the devastating plane crash that killed the president, first lady and other civic leaders on april 10, 2010. the presiding offic

republic of prague were earlier today, president obama and russian president dmitry medvedev signed a new treaty that would limit long-term blueprint -- a clear weapons. u.s. and soviet union signed the original treaty in 1991. following the signing, the two leaders took questions from reporters. this is one hour. . >> ladies and gentlemen, president of the united states, barack obama. and the president of the russian federation president medvedev, the treaty on measures for the production and limitation of strategic offensive arms. >> [speaking in russian and then translated] the president of the united states of america barack obama. and the president of the russian federation, dmitri medvedev, are signing the treaty between the united states of america and the russian federation on measures for the further reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms and the protocol to it. [no audio] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] [no audio] [no audio] [no audio] [no audio] [applause] [applause] [applause] >> good afternoon, everyone. i am honored to be back in the czech republic with president medvedev and r chour czech host for this treaty. happy to

soviet union. we had built a bomb in 1945, and used it. the soviets caught up in 1949. that is when the arms race began. in the 1950's it was thought that atomic weapons were the thing to do. we had nuclear death charges, torpedoes, mines. the army even had a nuclear bazooka called the david crockett that would filefire abt half a mile. these were seen as prestigious items, weapons to be used in the normal combat. but the time kennedy came, that is when we began to limit the number of weapons. those that we were applying. the word tends to have arms control talks with russia. there was a limited test ban treaty signed, then in the atmosphere of tests, but no real strategic reductions took place for many decades. host: let's get to telephone calls. we can also be reached by twitter and e-mail. waterford, new jersey, valerie, on the end of in a mine. caller: good morning, susan. i'm so happy your guest has addressed the historical park that ronald reagan played and the whole production of nuclear arms. i have been dumbfounded at watching the current coverage on president obama's nuclear posture talks. now the treaty being signed this morning. there has been

soviet union new that there would be a retaliatory strike in greater measure. al qaeda terrorist organization with no return address had no such fear of reprisal. even if the president were prepared to negotiate, there was no phone number to call. this comes from a book published by graham allison, who is a diplomat. it was described first to me in a little piece in "time" magazine march 11, 2002. and the book that describes the detail of it is pretty harrowing and is a pretty frightening prospect. i won't read more of it. i've read a fair amount of it. but after some while it was determined that this was not a credible intelligence piece of information. but for a month or so it was great, great concern about the prospect of a terrorist group having stolen a nuclear weapon, smuggled it into an american city and being able to detonate it. then we're not talking about 9/11. then we're talking about a catastrophe in which hundreds and hundreds and thousands of people are killed and life on earth will never be the same. when and if ever a nuclear weapon is detonated in the middle of a major city on this planet, life will change as we know it. that brings me to this question

of the soviet union and into 2006, there was a renewed investment on ensuring that conventional weapons also did not fall into the hands of people we did not want to see have them. i think we weren the ukraine again in 2005 with senator lugar and going through a facilitate that was very, very slowly destroying huge stockpiles of large munitions, big shells, the type of thing that, honestly, could easily be strung together to create the i andam ied. there are to be -- there are huge stockpiles left over from other years. in the wrong hands, these materials could easily be used to do harm throughout the world. >> why are you not going to the united nations for the convention? >> 46 countries are represented here as well as a series of international organizations that the president believes are necessary to do this. i do not think this is duplicative. the press and has a strong concern for the threat to john talked about the type of materials -- the type of groups that want these materials. the president believes we must do everything in our power and that is certainly not duplicative of what the united nations does. >> did you say it was okay that the uranium is moved to russia?

all the soviets need to run an truman did not answer him and on june 26, two days after that the phones rang all over the country where people had phones, western union telegrams were delivered to the pilates cruz mechanics, air-traffic controllers. transportation experts who made up the berlin airlift the airlift. edwina had been a captain with a b24 have had just finished alfred university in upstate new york kent had been accepted at the university of new mexico law school. his wife had gotten a job as a schoolteacher and albuquerque. this is what happened then. the 1090 years had a sweet voice western new guinea operator nobody called him that since flying the be 24 per you have a telegram from the air force. i will read it and send it on by direction of the president of the united states you are ordered back directive to be for the berlin airlift within 48 hours. that happened to all over. many people were from small towns and that night police spread out to knock on the doors and tell them they had 48 hours to report to active duty. the first day they were able to move only 70 tons and as one british pilot said the airlift is a collection of aircraft parts fl

soviets need to overrun billion -- berlin is shoes. truman did not answer him and on june 26th, two days after that, phones rang all over the country where people had phones, western union telegrams were delivered to the pilot's's cruise, mechanics, statisticians, air-traffic controllers, transportation experts, people who made up the berlin airlift, the daring young men, in my book. this was one of the men and i will stop. and wind gear had been a lieutenant bombing with a b 24, had just finished alfred university in upstate new york and had been accepted at the university of mexico law school. his wife had gotten a job as the schoolteacher in albuquerque. lieutenant year, wet -- weston unit operator. no one called him that since he returned home flying be 24s. you have a telegram from the air force. i will read it and send it on to you. for direction of the president of the united states you are ordered at back to active duty for the berlin airlift within 48 hours. that happened all over. this was a different country than. these were small towns and police spread out to knock on the bourse and tell them they had 48 hours to report on active duty. the first day of the berlin airlift