that if you go to west berlin, can you get me yellow umbrella, or something, which you couldn't getn each year. i said i will go get the yellow umbrella. the second one said i have a little yorkshire terrier. i cannot find scissors to cut and become his country. so i was going to berlin for one day with my film festival and i was supposed to find a yellow umbrella and scissors to cut the dog which would be hard in any place. and i did find it but i completely missed showing in string of my feel so again i got back and i got back to prague and i opened the newspaper and they said that i won the golden bear in west berlin. but i wasn't really even better to win it, but still it was fantastic because it was one of those good things bad things. because all of a sudden everybody knew me and animation and i was invited to make series in london and i was invited to make series in switzerland. for television. i was becoming like well-known animation film director. the problem was that people in prague can travel at all and people outside who immigrated couldn't go back. all of sudden i was

but the corruption in prague if i wanted to get a passport the woman said are you going to west berlin? can you give me a yellow umbrella that you cannot get in eastern europe? then the second woman said i have little yorkie terrier i cannot find this scissors. so i was going to berlin for monday on the festival i was close to find a yellow umbrella and a scissors which would be hard and anyplace. [laughter] i did find a blood missed seeing my film so i go back to prague i open it is paper and they said i won the gold but i was not even there to win it. but it was one of the good things. because all of a sudden everybody knew we in innovation and i was invited to make films in london and switzerland and the animation film director but the people and prague could add travel and at -- at all and those who could not go back i had a pass for and i could fly and i was confused because i would see in london tomatoes then i would go to prague and sa can i have a pound of tomatoes and nobody would have those in april. it was creating problems and i remember coming to the bar in is iraq is like

they took everything that wasn't bolted down and that was including the power stations in west berlinnd move them to the soviet union and construction equipment and radio berlin which was the longest and strongest radio station in europe was in their sector of berlin. what we had was an 800 what radio station the was carried on telephone lines which there were very few so that to deal with the russian voice, the russians telling the story of what was happening. we use trucks and jeeps with announcers like that who went from square to square during the airlift announcing the news of the day. >> you mentioned in your introductory remarks you were talking about the general view of the soviets and what they were up to and what they were trying to close off the land. was it in the summer of 1948 that prompted a dramatic action? this was the closest that we can i guess before the cuban missile crisis of a shooting war meant between the soviet union and the united states believes, i certainly think that if the war had begun it would have begun in berlin that stalin had a meeting with the ger

west berlin was in the middle of the communist east berlin. so that made for kind of an awkward. >> host: east germany khrushchev east germany, is getting. so that made for an awkward relationship. and of course, stalin had cut off the road to berlin. at one point in 1948, and it was the famous berlin airlift. in 1958, khrushchev had made some menacing remarks about berlin and gave a six-month ultimatum about having some kind of treaty about the future of berlin. and the six months had passed, and nothing happened. and the soviet union and the three western powers were negotiating about it in geneva at the time. eisenhower hoped to break the stalemate, and he hope to do so by issuing this invitation to khrushchev to come to united states. the invitation was written out and delivered to a soviet official by an american state department official named murphy. murphy was instructed to tell his soviet counterpart that the invitation had strings attached, that any event that the talks in geneva resulted in a plan, and other words if they came to fr

i was an undergraduate on a year of study abroad that the free university of west berlin in 1988 and 1989. i went back to the u.s. to go to graduate school in september of '89, i had a good sense -- i did not know the berlin wall was going to come down. of course, you have the mass flow of refugees across central europe. in 2001, i was serving as a white house fellow. my first day will september 4th, and 2001. then september 11th occurred. before i was a student, i had no authority and i was a spectator. i had personal recollections of the context. as a scholar, it has been gratifying to look at the original documents. let me give you a sense of what is in the paper. i tried to establish a narrative. this is a story full of a lot of chance and contingency. this was accidental. that is well understood in europe but curiously not understood in the english language literature. it is important and that the opening of the wall is accidental because it catches everyone unaware. the date on which it occurs is significant because it happens early enough that gorbachev has enough time to deter

values of the united states and west, as cleavages and some obsolete conflict, it is simply staggering but it tells you a lot about his world view. i thought the berlincularly as you say leaving -- leaving out the great leader's reagan, thatcher, but john paul, and others. gorbachev was a hapless caretaker. to his credit, he did not shoot people in the streets. and i give him credit, because you have to make a choice. but the unraveling was our doing. and it was the pressure that was applied relentlessly. and i remind people who do not remember that everyone now is a post-cold war cold war year. the people who are underground after the war in france, people forget in the 1980's at the enormous struggle that reagan and thatcher had, and a large demonstrations against reagan's nuclear policies. the demonstration that had to face down when she approve the placement of the pershings and cruise missiles. all of this is forgotten as if everyone was on board. it was extremely partisan over all of those measures, the reagan supported the contras, except for a and that history, you are absolutely right, has been obscured and largely forgotten. >> israel has s

west as cleavages of an obsolete conflict. it tells you a lot about his world view. the berlin event was great, very telling.s a hapless character, but he did not shoot people in the street. you have to make a choice. but the unraveling, it was arguing, it was pressure applied to states. and i remind people who do not remember, the marquee in france, people forget that in the 1980's, the enormous struggle but reagan-thatcher had. the largest demonstrations in history. there was one in new york against the reagan nuclear policies, a free demonstration. a demonstration that thatcher had to face when she approved placement of the persians. all this when we thought everyone was on board in a pressure didn't learn much. >> israel has stated that and nuclear-armed iran is an existential situation for them, and it appears that europe and the obama administration have more or less accepted a nuclear- armed iran. do you suspect israel will attack, and if they do, how do you foresee the consequences of that happening? >> i think in the end, israel will, and the consequences will be grave. the only question is a techni

fundamental values of the united states of the west as a cleavages of some obsolete conflict is simply staggering. it tells you a lot about his world view. i thought the berlin telling. leaving out the great figures reagan, thatcher, pope john paul, shcharansky and others. gorbachev was the hapless caretaker. to his credit, he did not shoot people in the streets. i give him credit because you have to make a choice. the unraveling was our doing. . . all of this is forgotten as if everyone was on the board. it was extremely partisan, the arguments, over the reagan doctrine, the rearmament, etc. that has been obscured. you are absolutely right. >> israel has stated that a nuclear-armed iran is an existential situation for them. it appears europe and the obama administration has more less accepted a nuclear arms iran. do you expect that israel will attack? if they do, how you foresee the consequences of all of that happening? >> froi think in the end, there is a real well. at the consequences will be great. the only question is a technical one. can this be done? do they have enough intelligence? is the stuff that is critical accessible criticalair attack or not?

values of the united states and the west, as cleavages of some obsolete conflict, is simply staggering. but it tells you a lot about his worldview. and i thought the berlinevent was very, very telling. particularly, as you say, leaving out the great figures that reagan, thatcher, pope john paul, sharansky, sakharov, and others. gorbachev was the hapless caretaker. to his credit come he didn't shoot people in the streets. that's the only -- and i give him credit, because you have to make a choice. but the unraveling was our doing. and it was the pressure that was applied relentlessly. and i would remind people who don't remember then, everyone now is a post-cold war cold war your. like in france, the ones who are underground after the war. people forget in the 1980s, the enormous struggle that reagan, thatcher had. the largest demonstrations in american history. there was one in new york against reagan's nuclear policies. it was a freeze demonstration. the demonstration, thatcher had to face it down when she approved the placement of the persian and the cruises. all of this is forgotten as if everybody was on board and the pressure applied on the soviet