the u.s.s.r. particularly after gorbachev declined to intervene in the east revolutions and the achievements of this process cannot be understated. the arms reduction treaty became possible and was signed in 1988. eastern europe was evacuated with by the red army and the non-communist governments were far -- formed in the largely peaceful way. the world communist movement fell apart it had been any way but with the world movement people of -- people in russia in those republics had new freedoms to communicate with each other other, a travel abroad, listen to tv and radio from foreign countries , the agreements were made from conventional weaponry in europe and in that short space of time time, half a decade the end of the '80s, extraordinary decisions were taken to bring an end to the most terrifying nonmoral is in human history. there have been hundreds of cold war's but the british and the french specialized in the cold war and having engaged in many hot war as well but no cold war before the co

and the u.s.s.r. or summit meetings, we are dependent on kind of second-level briefings and dribs and drabs of what people will tell us. we just don't have the kind of access to what really went on that people are willing to provide several years after the fact, especially after an administration is over. so there was not one moment, there were just many moments when i said, "oh, if i had only known that!" c-span: give me some example. >> guest: well, one example -- and i cite this in the book; kind of the difference between daily journalism and how journalists look on something and what is actually happening. george shultz went to moscow in early november of 1985, a few weeks before the geneva summit. that's the picture there of sitting down at that meeting with gorbachev. all we had in our heads as members of the press was that shultz had better make a deal with gorbachev or the summit coming up in geneva was going to be a disaster because we had no confidence that reagan and gorbachev would be able

relationships with the unaided stays, as a positive thing but i have a concern what happened to the u.s.s.r in 1999 will happen to cuba with a socialist character of cuba will die. medea benjamin speak to that and eduardo galiano ads influence on her? >> guest: for those who don't know eduardo, run to the library and get the boat, open veins of when america, just one example of a writer who is just a beautiful literary writer but gets into an office full of latin america and also the way the u.s. has historically tried to subvert the wishes of latin american people. eduardo has had a tremendous influence on me as i was growing up and reading his books. you also talk about the character of the socialist revolution in cuba. i mention my love/a relationship with cuba. one of the exciting things about cuba is it is different and we need society's the try different things because goodness knows we have got so many problems in our capitalist society, entire sectors of the population who don't benefit from this economy tremendous inequality the climate crisis trying different ways of living in soc