the book are wonderful. your own experiences in reykjavik. one image that you point beautifully is the sight of the two military officers from each side holding the nuclear football with the suit case and codes that will lunch a strike. you said the most memorable sight you recall from that summit. why is that? >> guest: the idea these two men were as close as you and i together and holding each of them in their pressed uniforms standing there and never looking at each other that i saw, holding a brief case and clutching it hard with their hand that had the codes to blow up each other's country. i thought god that is what they are talking about in this room. and hofty house is small. it is a small little house. and they didn't have room to spread out. we were up stairs in a parlor. there is a russian parlor and a military parlor and a zone tone them. and then the conference room on the first floor and the two guys in the hallway. and every time a leader left a fellow holding a football left. but to go and see the leaders go into the room as i

the summit was a surprise. everything about reykjavik was a surprise and so the kgb and the cia and the secret service knew about the summit before the state department did. so they go when to reykjavik and they rent all the rooms in the house. in the secret service goes to the u.s. ambassador of reykjavik nothing happens there but he enjoyed deep-sea fishing so is a perfect employment for the ambassador to iceland and he was told that the president is going to be in your house on october 9, 11th and 12th and the ambassador was quite excited about it and he said that the bad news is you aren't. they are going to take over your house and the ambassador by that time tried to find a room and he could not find a room and he laughs. okay so i remember thinking myself it's pretty shabby treatment of the u.s. ambassador. the only thing in all these hundreds of years that happen between iceland and the united states, the only thing that ever mattered and the u.s. ambassador is nowhere to be found. so that was my memory of it. years later i hear

the bible. and reykjavik that order the smallest dog lover. so we have eight of us sitting side-by-side unfolding chairs, the kind that wal-mart would be a shame to cell. side to side they telling us what he knew about the first meeting. secretary of state. all of a sudden the latch opens up. the door swings open and there's a seven-foot a secret service agent who says the president of the united state. so we did what any red-blooded american would do. he said appeared to rob eligibility. reagan looks a lot less that up with water. and then we come to a crisis because we had an eight seater there and there are nine of us now. there was the chief of staff of the white house. there was the secretary of day. there was the national security adviser in the arms control. so i know if i was going to say, what i did was offer the president a chair. and i hit the ground and i was on the floor and meanwhile this gigantic secret service guy had latched the door once again. and so we were in there. and it was a great, great moment because reagan cracked a

hero of reykjavik. and then the soviet union starts to fall. and september 26th i am reading in a new york city most and it says he committed suicide. in his office, with the chand leer, took the rope from the drapes, tied it up, and committed suicide. right down the hall from gorbachev's office. and then as if that wasn't bad enough something happened a week later. when i read that paper on september 26th, it was early in the morning. by that time collin powell was chairman of the joint chiefs. i called him up before 7 a.m. his secretary said well he is in a briefing already. and i said all right tell him i called and to call when i get a chance. and she said hold on a moment. and the phone ring and he said kenny, he always called me kenny, i felt the same thing. it is unbelievable what happened. i didn't say what i called for or who, but we both knew it was amazing. a week later his funeral takes place and no official attends. no body from the foreign ministry, no military honors, just his daughters, wife and a fe

was the real pinnacle. at reykjavik they met for 10 1/2 hours. as like an agatha christie story. they met in an isolated place at the end of the world in an old creaky house with rain lashing on the windowsill. and the house was thought to be haunted. and the two of them over a weekend experienced the most amazing things. and what did they experience is the terms for this deep reductions, the deep nest hiest history for nuclear weapons that's continued to this day and what neither of them could imagine, that the cold war would end within a very short time. it was amazing. the thesis of the book is that these 48 hours, reykjavik, represented the start of the end of the cold war, and the events coming out of reykjavik resulted in just that. the decline of the soviet union, the end of the soviet union and then the end of the cold war. >> ken, this is all fascinating stuff. thank you so much for bringing it all back. and it could never be more relevant than today with vladimir putin. thank you again. >> it's a great story. it's a great story. >> thank

bubbles generally are pretty big and when we had the one for the arms control talks that could have 25 people. in reykjavÍkthe order of the smallest ever because nothing happened in a slim and it was ever classified. so we have eight of us sitting side-by-side, right next to each other enfolding free chairs, the kind that wal-mart would be ashamed to sell. cheap as can be come all squeezed in, almost knee to knee and side to side so we are in this bubble. it schultz's telling us what he knew about the first meeting. and all of a sudden -- secretary of state. all of a sudden the latch opens up, door swings open. we look up and there's a 730 secret service agency said the president of the united states. he did what any red loaded american would do. he said. we are a belly to belly. reagan looks at all of us in does this make a great aquaria. we should put up with water. and then we come to a crisis because we hadn't eat cedar fair and there are nine of us now. there is a staff of the white house. there was the secretary of day. there's the national security adviser and their spears control. i knew if i was g

tell us about the time you were sitting around the table in reykjavik. >> what happened was on sundaye were in sudden death overtime and it was the last time that he was going to make any move or -- gorbachev was going to make a move. and he left the room, and all of us said good luck, mr. president. we knew it was going to be a big moment for him, big moment for us, big moment for history, big moment for our country. and within ten seconds he comes back in the room, and we're all kind of amazed. he looks around at each of us and he says, are we sure we're doing right by america. i don't want any summit fever to get ahold of us. i thought to myself, 27 years later i thought to myself when you're thinking about leadership quality, that's a wonderful leadership quality. >> you know, and i love the fact that one time in some down time real quickly tell us about the president, somebody accused him of slacking off. >> it was a press person saying mr. president you're slacking off. hard work never killed anybody. he looked at her and said i know. but why take a chance. >> funny stuff. you w

partners the other iraqis that unless you retain this prime minister maliki then the terrorist organizations will continue to reykjavikwhile in fact the government is supporting some of these terrorist organizations as is seen by the consequences of some of these starvation some of the terrorist organizations they're using weapons they are using because they are using more than vehicles which can only be provided to them by the government many of them are the same make the same use of the ones that are big used by the. military forces of the prime minister i want to move across to the wall raging over the border in syria it's turning the country said into an al qaida haven how much of a worry do you think this is for the iraqi leadership i think it's it's really this idea of. what if for the iraqi leader. because it's actually now the actions of the of the government is turning on the terrorist organization. to unify their positions the terrorist organizations were fighting each other when they're in the eastern syria or western iraq however now at the present moment there are more of them joining together creating la

the hearing is adjourned. president barack obama says he is reykjavÍk to waiting out a range of options for the violent insurgencyn iraq but he warned the leaders in baghdad that u.s. will not take military action unless they move to address the political troubles. "the new york times" reports sending in u.s. troops is not one of the options on the table. he spoke this afternoon from the south lawn of the white house. here's the reaction from members of congress. james imhoff says the motion deserves better answers than president obama and the democratic representative iraq is a quagmire we cannot control. it's time to stay home. texas republican representative, chaos and catastrophe in iraq is the result of obama's failed foreign-policy. this morning washington journal talked to a reporter about what is going on in iraq and here is a portion. >> is the u.s. going to intervene militarily in iraq and your view? >> it depends on what you mean by intervention. if you're talking about sending more advisers i think that it's very possible. we already have some very older women extremely limited capacity. if you are ta

reykjavik." and we conclude at 11 p.m. eastern with charlotte binelli who uncovers a collection of letters from a young german jew during the rise of the nazis. that all happens tonight on c-span2's booktv. >> and now from washington, d.c.'s politics & prose bookstore, elizabeth drew talks about the new edition of her book, "washington journal." the book, originally published in 1975, covers the dissolution of the nixon administration from september 1973 to august of 1974. this is about an hour. >> thank you, david. why don't you just keep talking, and i'll sit and -- [laughter] try in your words. they were lovely. it's lovely to be back here. first time since my last book, as david got -- [inaudible] and barbara were always very welcoming to me. they always said when's your next book? you're on. [laughter] and it was lovely. and as david said, brad and lissa have carried on the wondrous tradition, the ingenuity and made it keep going, and the fact that all of you have come tonight is a testimony to the job they do and the reverence for books that we all share. richard nixon's a hard man to let go of. [laughter] i first --

reykjavik." and we conclude at 11 p.m. eastern with charlotte binelli who uncovers a collection of letters from a young german jew during the rise of the nazis. that all happens tonight on c-span2's booktv. >> and now from washington, d.c.'s politics & prose bookstore, elizabeth drew talks about the new edition of her book, "washington journal." the book, originally published in 1975, covers the dissolution of the nixon administration from september 1973 to august of 1974. this is about an hour. >> thank you, david. why don't you just keep talking, and i'll sit and -- [laughter] try in your words. they were lovely. it's lovely to be back here. first time since my last book,