Original subtitles

ARCHIVE- SONG: ♫ And I am proud to be an American ♫

♫ Where at least I know I'm free ♫

♫ And I won't forget the men who died ♫

♫ Who gave that right to me ♫

♫ And I gladly stand up next to you ♫

♫ And defend her still today ♫

♫ 'Cos there ain't no doubt I love this land ♫

I' God bless the USA!" I'

MIKHAIL GORBACHEV: [speaking Russian ]

Reagan was a staunch conservative.

So for him, coming from that background,

it was easier to make the move towards us

and meet us halfway.

Someone else might not have been able to do it.

And the chance could have been lost.

One more time!

[sings] ♫ Stand by your man! ♫

♫ Give him two arms to cling to and

NARRATION: A concert on the White House lawn for an ex- Hollywood

film star who was now President of the United States.

ARCHIVE - TAMMY WYNETTE: [sings] "Stand by your man..."

'DOC' FRAZIER: I knew that Ronald Reagan would bring this country

back to the place it belonged,

not make you ashamed you were an American,

make you proud to be an American.

Ronald Reagan had the ability to convey

whatever he was thinking of in terms that everybody understood.

He just seemed to have a warmness about him

that the people felt.

ARCHIVE- TAM MY WYNETTE: You're making me nervous!

I love you! You're wonderful!

Thank you!

ARCHIVE- V/0: Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the B-1 B!

NARRATION: A strident anti-Communist for most of his adult life,

Ronald Reagan believed America lagged behind the Soviet Union

in the arms race.

RONALD REAGAN: I urge you to beware the temptation of blithely

declaring yourselves above it all

and label both sides equally at fault,

to ignore the facts of history

and the aggressive impulses of an Evil Empire,

to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding

and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right

and wrong and good and evil.

NARRATION: In the first years of Reagan's presidency,

the Soviet Union's armed might appeared to be at its peak.

CASPER WEINBERGER: I had no doubt that the Soviet goal

was world domination.

Their military posture, their actions,

their foreign policy actions, their aggressive behavior-

all of this contributed to that single conclusion.

NARRATION: The Soviet Union had been the first into space

but now a fear lurked in the hearts of

top Soviet commanders -

fear of American technological superiority.

I had a meeting in Moscow with Marshal Ogarkov,

the Chief of Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces.

And he said, "You know, all modem military capability

is based on the computer.

You have little kids in America three years old

who know how to deal with computers!

It takes years here to train Soviet recruits in the military

to use them because they've never used them before.

We're afraid of computers!

If we start deploying computers,

it's going to mean loss of political control for

the Soviet leadership."

[ Russian announcement]

NARRATION: The ageing Kremlin rulers were still willing to bear

the crippling cost of being a superpower.

[ Cheering ]

For the peoples of the Soviet Union,

this meant a life where every day items were in short supply.

[speaking Russian ]

The standard of living was very low.

We lived from pay day to pay day.

We couldn't feed our children properly.

The food that was available was so poor and the queues -

we used to spend three, four, five hours

queuing for some lousy sausage!

NARRATION: Brezhnev introduced a new face

into the ranks of the Kremlin leadership -

Mikhail Gorbachev.

He was ordered to reform Soviet agriculture.

The land that Stalin had brutally collectivized

had never delivered plenty.

Soviet farming was grindingly inefficient.

When I became a director of large institute

which was responsible for space launches,

the first priority was to supply work force to

collective farms during the harvest

and only then to consider how we can save

our next launch program.

[speaking Russian ]

The system was breaking down.

People were rejecting it because it didn't allow them

to find satisfaction or to show any initiative in their work.

It didn't allow people to speak out freely.

NARRATION: President Reagan was portrayed by a vocal minority of Americans

and many Europeans as a war monger.

NANCY REAGAN PUPPET: Ronnie! You're not dressed up for Halloween!

Nance! If John F. Kennedy were alive today,

he'd be younger than I am.

I'm seventy-five years old

and I've got my finger on the button!

I just couldn't think of anything more scary than that!

Trick or treat, fellers!

[ explosion ]

NARRATION: The United States and the Soviet Union already

possessed nuclear arsenals large enough to wipe each other out.

Both sides were constantly introducing more powerful

and accurate missiles.

The renewed arms race and Reagan's anti-Soviet rhetoric

revived the anti-nuclear movement in western Europe.

Peace campaigners could not have imagined that the revulsion

they felt for nuclear weapons

also had an echo in the White House.

GEORGE KEYWORTH: The President viewed the concept of deterrence between us

and the Soviet Union as no different than holding

a cocked gun at each other's heads.

It was very clear to me from the beginning that he was,

to say the least, extremely uncomfortable and,

as I began to understand later on,

he was fundamentally, morally, ethically opposed to the concept

of mutual assured destruction

and deterrence as we know it.

NARRATION: Advances in computers and laser technology

promised to give Reagan -

and he believed the whole world -

a way out of the nuclear dilemma.

Work was going forward on a revolutionary

new defense system.

What if free people could live secure in the knowledge

that their security did not rest upon the threat of instant US

retaliation to deter a Soviet attack?

That we could intercept and destroy strategic ballistic

missiles before they reached our own soil or that of our allies?

I know this is a formidable technical task,

one that may not be accomplished before the end of this century.

I call upon the scientific community in our country,

those who gave us nuclear weapons,

to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind

and world peace - to give us the means

of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.

Good evening, this is the CBS Evening News -

Dan Rather reporting- tonight from Washington.

President Reagan today followed up last nights

defense policy speech.

He gave the go-ahead to develop a space-age system designed

to neutralize an enemy nuclear missile attack.

A system domestic critics today called

'too high-cost, too high tech, too pie-in-the-sky'.

Suppose we had been talking in terms of 1940

and somebody had said, "We can take a little atom,

an atom is something you can't see.

But when we explode that little atom,

we can destroy a whole city."

Would you have believed it?

Would you have said, "Let's try it?"

Franklin Roosevelt said, "Yes!"

Franklin Roosevelt is in history as a hero.

For what?

Producing an offensive weapon of mass destruction.

Ronald Reagan on the other hand came into office

and said, "Hey, we should have something that will stop this".

[computer sounds]

NARRATION: Reagan's Strategic Defense initiative 'SDl' -

nicknamed "Star Wars" after the movie-

envisaged satellite and ground-based weapons that

could destroy Soviet missiles with darts and laser beams.

It was a shock -

it's like all our hopes for beginning of the

understanding now dangerous is militarization of space,

just suddenly evaporated.

[speaking Russian ]

All the parity and stability created over

many years through arms procurement

and negotiations were disrupted.

It meant that we too would need to spend huge amounts of money.

It would begin a new phase in the arms race.

ARCHIVE - SONG: ♫ "Twinkle, twinkle, little star ♫

♫ How I wonder what you are ♫

♫ Up above the world so high ♫

♫ Like a diamond in the sky... ♫

NARRATION: Many American politicians and scientists campaigned against

what they saw as Reagan's expensive folly.

ARCHIVE- NARRATION: The heavens are for wonder, not for war!

Stop Star Wars! Stop weapons in space!

NARRATION: Reagan's critics said that SDI was hugely expensive

and would never work.

They were appalled by the deep cuts in welfare programs

that would be needed to pay for it.

[ explosion ]

Ronald Reagan soon discovered that his close ally,

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher,

was also critical of SDI.

A firm believer in the nuclear deterrent,

she tried to persuade her friend to abandon

his beloved "Star Wars".

ROBERT 'BUD' McFARLANE: Staff around the table afterwards said that Reagan

had really gotten hand-bagged that day.

And he called me into the Oval Office the next morning

and he said, "Bud, Margaret and we are just not getting along

on this SDI issue.

I wish you'd go to London and see if you can't at least

lower the level of criticism publicly.

We're going to have a tough time getting appropriations

if this keeps up...

She gave me the same lecture she had given two weeks before and,

seeing I was getting nowhere, I interjected during a pause,

"Prime Minister, President Reagan believes that there

is at least $300 million a year that ought to be sub-contracted

to British companies that would support SDI."

And there was a long pause.

She finally said, "There may be something to this after all!"

[ applause ]

NARRATION: Leonid Brezhnev died in November 1982.

The ailing KGB chief, Yuri Andropov, succeeded him.

Andropov was frightened by SDI

and Reagan's anti-Soviet speeches.

Convinced that the West was plotting war,

Andropov ordered a worldwide alert.

The KGB monitored every aspect of life in the West.

[speaking Russian ]

The banking system was to be closely watched,

as were the hospitals and road building programs.

Were the banks attempting to convert their system

to a war footing?

Were hospitals preparing new beds and setting up blood banks

for massive numbers of wounded?

NARRATION: The Americans stepped up spy flights in sensitive areas

along the Soviet Union's long borders.

Aircraft packed with electronic surveillance gear

looked like civilian airliners

and often flew close to passenger routes.

[speaking Russian ]

In this period '81, '82, and especially '83,

how did it feel on the front line?

Well, we were flying more often as there were more

spy planes provoking us.

We were in a constant state of tension.

NARRATION: On August 31st 1983,

a South Korean airliner, Flight KAL 007,

with 269 people on board,

left Anchorage for Seoul.

The plane strayed from its normal route

into Soviet air space.

[speaking Russian ]

I received a phone call informing me that an

unidentified plane had been spotted over Kamchatka,

and that our attempts to contact it had been unsuccessful.

I ensured that all the forces

at our disposal were immediately put on alert.

I said, "Take all measures so that it is either forced to land

on Sakhalin or, if it will not co-operate, shoot it down!"

[speaking Russian ]

I could see two rows of windows which were lit up.

I wondered if it was a civilian aircraft- military cargo planes

don't have such windows.

I wondered what kind of plane it was but I had no time to think.

I had a job to do.

I started to signal to him in international code.

I informed him that he had violated our airspace.

He did not respond.

[speaking Russian ]

Despite the signals from our planes including

warning shots with tracers,

the pilot failed to react, simply continuing on his course.

[speaking Russian ]

My orders were to destroy the intruder.

I fulfilled my mission!

NARRATION: The Korean airliner came down off Sakhalin Island,

killing everyone on board.

[ Grieving relatives/woman screaming ]

The United States reacts with revulsion to this attack.

Loss of life appears to be heavy.

We can see no excuse whatsoever for this appalling act.

[speaking Russian ]

We came to the conclusion that we simply needed to be honest

and admit, "An unfortunate incident has occurred.

There was a pilot error, bad weather,

one thing led to another.

It was not a pre-planned action -

no one wanted this.

It was a tragic mistake."

We went to Kornienko, the deputy Foreign Minister,

who agreed with us.

But he was not able to convince the leadership.

This was a question of prestige

and the military don't like to admit mistakes.

NARRATION: A mood of crisis now gripped both the East and West.

Arms control talks were broken off.

Soviet SS-20 rockets were now confronted

by Cruise and Pershing missiles deployed in western Europe.

The Soviet leadership believed a nuclear attack by the

West was imminent.

A British agent inside the KGB sent warnings to London.

[speaking Russian ]

When I told the British, they simply couldn't believe

that the Soviet leadership was so stupid

and narrow-minded as to believe in something so impossible.

I said to them "OK, I'll get you the documents!"

I think only a tiny handful of people knew the

full details of how fearful they were.

And we knew them, as is now public knowledge,

through some extremely well-placed agents

who were able to pass on the information that the Russians

actually feared that the West was preparing for aggressive

nuclear war against the Soviet Union.

NARRATION: Allied and domestic concern rose.

ARCHIVE- RONALD REAGAN: Good evening. Please be seated.

NARRATION: Reagan tried to reassure Andropov.

Just suppose with me for a moment that an

Ivan and an Anya could find themselves, say,

in a waiting room or sharing a shelter from the rain

or a storm with a Jim and Sally

and there was no language barrier

to keep them from getting acquainted.

Would they then debate the differences

between their respective governments,

or would they find themselves comparing notes

about their children,

what each other did for a living?

NARRATION: Ronald Reagan, encouraged by his wife Nancy,

consulted Suzanne Massie, a popular writer on Russia,

to help him understand his Cold War adversary.

SUZANNE MASSIE: President Reagan was, of course, a people person.

He loved people and he had a great instinct for people.

I had been told by these fellows at the White House that,

of course, if I were ever writing anything for the

President, it had to be single... double-spaced,

one and a half pages.

Well, what can you get from that?

President Reagan had never seen a Russian

in the first three years.

He couldn't go there.

He was an actor: actors like to absorb from feeling.

I said, "Mr. President, if you are re-elected,

will this policy of small steps toward better relations

be a continuing policy of your administration?"

And Ronald Reagan had a pretty eagle eye when he wanted to

and he looked down at me and he said, very definitely,

he said, "Yes! if they want peace, they can have it!"

NARRATION: But to whom in the Kremlin could Reagan talk peace?

In February 1984, Yuri Andropov died.

His successor, Konstantin Chernenko, was too frail

to start a dialogue.

The West looked for some small sign of change.

We needed to try to search out the people who would guide

the Soviet Union after Brezhnev, after Andropov.

And looking around,

there were about two or three possible people

in terms of age and seniority.

We dispatched invitations to all three and it was pure chance

that Gorbachev was the one who accepted first.

When Gorbachev came to the United Kingdom,

he indeed brought his wife, and that was one of the

first signs that we were dealing with someone quite different.

Soviet leaders very, very rarely travelled

with their wives anywhere.

I'm cautiously optimistic.

I like Mr. Gorbachev.

We can do business together.

We both believe in our own political systems.

He firmly believes in his-

I firmly believe in mine.

We're never going to change one another!

We'd better hang on for a moment!

[ laughter ]

NARRATION: March 1985- Konstantin Chernenko was dead.

At his funeral, world leaders paid their respects to

Mikhail Gorbachev and weighed up the new,

younger man in charge of the Soviet Union.

GEORGE SHULTZ: George Bush was there.

As Vice-President, he was head of our delegation.

When we walked out of that meeting, I said to George,

I said, "This is a very different Soviet leader

than any we've seen before!"

NARRATION: Russians too noticed the difference.

[ Raised voices! laughter from crowds & from Gorbachev ]

[speaking Russian ]

Gorbachev was greeted with great enthusiasm!

Everyone cheered in our institute.

We were all pleased that such an energetic

and educated person had become the new Secretary General

of our Communist Party.

[speaking Russian ]

We expected a miracle!

We thought he was the Messiah who had

come to introduce change.

[speaking Russian ]

The state of the Soviet Union

and its society could be described very simply with a

phrase used by people across the country,

"We can't go on living like this any longer! "

That applied to everything.

The economy was stagnating, there were shortages

and the quality of goods was very poor.

NARRATION: Gorbachev took over a superpower sick with social breakdown,

corruption in the Communist party -

and alcoholism.

To tackle these ills and to revive a decrepit economy,

Gorbachev called for reconstruction or 'perestroika'

and a new spirit of honesty- 'glasnost'.

[speaking Russian ]

I remember very clearly what Gorbachev said at that time.

He said, "There are two roads we can take.

We can either tighten our belts very, very tightly

and reduce consumption -

which the people will no longer tolerate -

or we can try to defuse international tension and

overcome the disagreement between East and West.

And so free up the gigantic sums that are

spent on armaments in the Soviet Union."

NARRATION: In Washington, Reagan had to overcome

objections from inside his own administration before he could

meet the new man in the Kremlin.

I truly believe that Ronald Reagan would have had

the foreign policy battle of his life,

if not the broadly political battle of his life,

starting within his own party and across this country,

if he had tried to reach out to Gorbachev without a seconder

for his point of view.

It took Margaret Thatcher to talk first with the

Gorbachev, and then to publicly say,

"This is a man we can deal with!"

NARRATION: Geneva, Switzerland- November 1985.

The stage was set for the first super-power summit in six years.

Reagan too was keen to find out whether he could do business

with Gorbachev.

I felt always that President Reagan was exactly the kind

of man that Russians under normal circumstances

would have really liked,

the kind of American that they would really like.

First of all, he's kind of an icon, you know,

he's a cowboy, and they loved that!

And the other was that he was very patriotic;

you really had the sense that he was going to break into

"God Bless America" every time you saw him-

and it wasn't corny.

He really believed it.

And the Soviet Union, even some of the most hard

and cynical Soviets, really respected patriotism.

NARRATION: Many people in the West wondered whether

the seventy-four year old Ronald Reagan was up to taking

on the fifty-four year old Mikhail Gorbachev.

DONALD REGAN: The president's aide came in and said,

"Mr. President, you know, do you wanna put your coat on? "

And he said, "Oh, I'm not sure."

And somebody said, "Well, it's very cold outside.

You should really wear a coat."

It was announced that the Soviet cavalcade was at the gates.

And Reagan turned and, without putting on his overcoat,

walked to the door.

And there was much speculation as to whether this

"tired old man", President of the United States,

could keep up with this "wily, energetic,

young, vigorous communist".

And to the amazement of the world,

the old man goes down the steps - lickety split-

meets and greets the Soviet leader who comes out

all bundled up in an overcoat, hat, muffler,

looking as though he were in Iceland rather than Geneva.

NARRATION: The Summit agenda - human rights,

Afghanistan and arms control-

was daunting but the body language was encouraging.

The two leaders immediately held a private meeting.

GEORGE SHULTZ: It was scheduled for ten minutes.

Twenty minutes went by, thirty minutes went by,

forty minutes went by and the White House

guy who keeps the schedule going came around to me

and he said, "I should go in and let them know that

they are going overtime."

And I said, "If you do that, you should be fired!

The name of the game, it shows they're getting along!"

NARRATION: But were they really getting along?

MIKHAIL GORBACHEV: [speaking Russian ]

I returned at the break to meet my colleagues.

They asked, "What's your impression?"

said I have met a caveman- a dinosaur!

The two leaders were divided above all by Reagan's

Strategic Defense initiative- Star Wars.

JOURNALIST: Are you getting along?

You can see that, can't you?

It was a shouting match -

not angry as much as two people, as I said,

passionate in their in their views,

with diametrically opposed positions.

And this was the occasion in which the President said,

"But you must believe that this is so important

for the safety of the world that I will give you

the technology as we, as we develop it."

And Gorbachev laughed and said, "Mr. President,

surely you understand I can't believe that-

since you won't even give us the technology

for milking machines!"

NARRATION: Mikhail Gorbachev left Geneva

without agreement on his main objective:

curbing the arms race.

But the United States and the Soviet Union were talking again.

One year into the Gorbachev era and the Cold War continued.

The Geneva call for a second summit was repeatedly postponed.

Fears of nuclear war remained - and even increased.

[speaking Russian ]

During that period, we had a lot of ideological training.

We were constantly told about Reagan's speeches,

so we called the US imperialists the "Evil Empire".

We started going out to sea twice as often.

We kept a huge number of submarines in the sea all

the time, as close as possible to the US and British coasts.

And the more submarines we sent out to sea,

the more you sent out.

This dangerous concentration and proximity

of nuclear submarines could lead to unpredictable consequences.

[ Helicopter]

NARRATION: A nuclear disaster did occur-

but not between the two superpowers.

In April 1986, an explosion ripped apart Number 4 reactor

at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

in Ukraine north of Kiev.

[ Russian rescue workers chatting ]

NARRATION: The disaster highlighted the incompetence of the

Soviet system as volunteers started the lethal task

of cleaning up the huge radioactive leak.

LARISA PORKHOROVA: [speaking Russian ]

The firemen who got burnt while helping to extinguish

the blaze were brought to a hospital near where I lived.

At the time, people knew nothing about radiation

and there was a lot of confusion about how it was transmitted.

The firemen died very soon after and when they were buried,

people were scared that the radiation would spread

from their graves.

NARRATION: Chernobyl, its surroundings and large areas of Ukraine

and Byelorussia were heavily contaminated

and emptied of their population.

ANATOLY CHERNIAYEV: [speaking Russian ]

Gorbachev knew even before that catastrophe about the

danger of nuclear weapons.

That explosion showed that, even without war

and without nuclear missiles,

nuclear power could destroy humankind.

NARRATION: Reykjavik, Iceland - the second Reagan-

Gorbachev summit.

Gorbachev now decided to re-examine Reagan's

first ever arms control proposal-

known as the "Zero Option".

Reagan had offered not to deploy Cruise and Pershing missiles in

Europe if the Soviets withdrew their SS-20 rockets.

Brezhnev had turned Reagan down flat;

the new American missiles had been stationed in Europe.

Now Gorbachev wanted to out a deal.

ANATOLY CHERNIAYEV: [speaking Russian ]

He understood that 'perestroika' and the internal changes were

starting to slow down,

that he had little time on his hands.

He had to decide:

either he could free up resources from the arms race

or he'd be forced to look for them elsewhere.

I was with him when he decided to

confront Reagan with the question:

did he or didn't he want an agreement?

Did he or didn't he want disarmament?

NARRATION: Ronald Reagan did want disarmament.

But would he give up his Strategic Defense initiative - SDI?

[speaking Russian ]

I said, "OK, let's not even leave a hundred missiles,

let's abolish them completely

and go for the zero option!"

This came as a shock! Everyone was surprised.

Reagan hit the table and said,

"Well, why didn't you say so in the first place!

That's exactly what I wanna do

and if you wanna do away with all the weapons,

I'll agree to do away with all the weapons!"

"All weapons? Of course, we'll do away with all weapons!"

"Good! That's great!

Now, now we have an agreement!"

"Yes! But you must confine SDI to the laboratory!"

"No, I won't!" said Reagan.

"No way! SDI continues!

I told you that! I am never going to give up SDI!"

[speaking Russian ]

I think that my principal position was

and remains the same.

The nuclear arms race should never be taken into space.

It was difficult enough to limit the nuclear arms race on earth.

Gorbachev pressed and pressed and, at one moment,

President Reagan, who was very clear in his mind about this,

wrote a little note and pushed it over at me.

It said, "George, am I right?"

I read this note and I said "Absolutely!"

and passed it back.

NARRATION: The chance to make the most momentous agreement since

the Cold War began -

the elimination by the United States and

the Soviet Union of all but one hundred nuclear weapons each -

was lost.

DONALD REGAN: I have never felt so sad for a person in my life

as I did for Ronald Reagan.

He had been at it for two days.

He had come, as he said to me, raising his fingers,

"Don, we were that close to an agreement

and he wouldn't give in!"

NARRATION: But what did the Soviets think?

[speaking Russian ]

At first glance, I would say that Reykjavik almost failed

because we were unable to sign an agreement.

But later, as we went to our press conference,

Gorbachev and I spoke in the car

and we agreed that it was not a failure.

And it was at that press conference that Gorbachev

uttered a phrase which became famous,

that it had been "ah intellectual breakthrough"

in relations between the United States

and the Soviet Union.

NARRATION: Ronald Reagan's friend, Margaret Thatcher,

was deeply concerned.

We were frankly caught quite badly by surprise

when we learned that discussions were encompassing

the concept of abolishing nuclear weapons altogether.

That would, of course, laid waste the doctrine of nuclear

deterrence and we we would have been left without the

very centre of our strategy.

Luckily, from our point of view,

the Reykjavik agreement never came to anything

because the Russians pushed their luck too far.

NARRATION: Moscow- another foreign aircraft breaches Soviet air space.

Passers-by watched amazed as a Cessna

light aircraft landed in Red Square.

Its pilot was a young West German - Matthias Rust.

[speaking Russian ]

Rust himself was treated extremely humanely.

Imagine if something like this had happened before

Gorbachev's time!

There would have been no dialogue.

He would have simply been lined up against the wall

and shot the next day!

[bells]

NARRATION: Gorbachev set Rust free,

but used the incursion as an excuse to dismiss

several members of the Soviet high command.

Media, the fax machine, the computer,

were opening up the USSR.

Gorbachev and the Politburo watched satellite television

in their offices.

After Olympic boycotts, the 1986 Goodwill Games

were seen live both sides of the Iron Curtain.

Soviet television was changing.

It risked a live debate with Margaret Thatcher.

So don't you think that the concept of nuclear deterrence,

in fact, invites the side that believes in it to use

the nuclear weapons in the end,

just to prove this threat from time to time?

Isn't a policy of conventional weapons,

with the terrible bombs raining down,

with the missiles, with the aircraft,

with the submarines, with the torpedoes, with the tanks,

with chemical weapons- isn't that based on the

possibility of threat?

[speaking Russian ]

I felt very embarrassed for our journalists.

It was so painful to watch.

At first, I was a little hurt.

Then I was roaring with laughter.

It was on this occasion that she made so many fans.

...And we're saying to anyone who dares to attack us,

"Do not do it, you couldn't win,

the result would be devastating!"

I think you're saying the same.

[speaking Russian ]

I have to say that Margaret Thatcher was one of the

politicians with whom it was very important

to maintain a dialogue because she was a very strong

personality and a strong politician.

And in spite of us constantly arguing with her at every

meeting we had, we respected each other's position.

NARRATION: Gorbachev's policy of 'Glasnost' brought pop culture

out into the open.

[speaking Russian ]

A new breed of young people was created by our intellectuals -

a breed that rejected all our Soviet past.

This was moral degradation!

Our youth was being turned into human robots!

NARRATION: The Soviet people were being plunged into wrenching change.

VALENTIN VARENNIKOV: [speaking Russian ]

We became particularly worried by the end of 1987.

We saw that the country was not going in the

direction it should.

The situation of the people was getting worse and worse.

The situation of the armed forces was no better.

NARRATION: Gorbachev reacted to growing opposition by pressing ahead

with plans to reform the Communist party.

[speaking Russian ]

[speaking Russian ]

The main achievement of Gorbachev's policies was that,

in the space of a year or two,

he made the fear disappear, as if by magic.

People had lost their fear of speaking and acting freely.

[speaking Russian ]

If I hadn't promoted the reforms,

if I hadn't tried to let the people breathe freely,

if I hadn't tried to open the door to glasnost and democracy,

to stir the society, to get it thinking and acting,

I would probably still be in

my Secretary-General's armchair today.

I could have stayed there a lot longer

since I am still quite young!

[LAUGHS]

NARRATION: Washington DC -

Ronald Reagan still pursued his "Star Wars" vision.

The Kremlin now believed that it would never happen

and therefore should not delay agreement on arms reduction.

Gorbachev, in the United States for the first time,

had come to sign an historic treaty.

His visit, seen live on Soviet TV,

enhanced his standing at home- and abroad.

[ Sirens ]

All I'd ever seen of Soviet leaders was Khrushchev

banging his shoe on the table

and some old men in drab uniforms all looking like

Mao Zedong, you know, had no personality

and looked like they were zombies!

But here comes Gorbachev: he's wearing a good,

well-cut Brooks Brothers suit and tie;

he even had on a white shirt!

He was outgoing, he was meeting people, he was joking

and he was getting along with people in Washington DC!

ANNOUNCEMENT BY MASTER OF CEREMONIES: Ladies and gentlemen.

The President of the United States

and the General-Secretary of the Central Committee

of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union!

[ Applause ]

NARRATION: A Russian saying Reagan had learnt from Suzanne Massie

now seemed appropriate.

"The Russians like to talk in proverbs.

It would be nice for you to know a few."

And I said, "You're an actor-

you can learn them very quickly."

And I gave him this...

Mrs. Reagan was with us at the time,

and she liked this one, and and I said,

"Here it is, and I'll..."

And it was "Doveryai, no proveryai".

Mr. General-Secretary.

Though my pronunciation may give you difficulty, the maxim is:

"Doveryai, no proveryai! Trust but verify!"

[ laughter ]

[speaking Russian ]

You repeat that at every meeting!

[ laughter & then applause]

I know of no one else of a leadership stature in the

United States in those days who would have moved forward

as Reagan did, to engage Gorbachev,

to engage the Western Alliance,

to truly lead the Western Alliance,

and to take us through what became, of course,

a very constructive introductory period

to the end of the Cold War.

[ Applause ]

NARRATION: Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev signed

a far reaching agreement.

For the first time, an entire category

of nuclear weapons was to be abolished.

In front of the world's cameras,

the Americans destroyed their Cruise and Pershing missiles.

The Soviets dismantled their SS-20s.

In another milestone in reducing Cold War tension,

inspection teams from both sides supervised the destruction.

In his last year as President, Ronald Reagan

paid his first ever visit to the Kremlin.

What Mikhail Gorbachev and the journalists wanted to know was:

what did Ronald Reagan think about the Soviet Union now?

REAGAN: ...Oh just fine!

JON SNOW - ITN: Do you still think you're in an Evil Empire, Mr. President?

No.

[speaking Russian ]

He said he wanted to take back his reference to

the Soviet Union as the "Evil Empire".

He found a good place to announce it -

right in the middle of the Kremlin.

But, nevertheless, he said that he was doing it,

not because he was wrong when he initially said it,

but because by 1988 the Soviet Union had come a

long way under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev.

It had become a different country.

...We find ourselves standing like this!

NARRATION: Together, the two leaders had seized their chance.

[ Applause ]

Subtitles ripped, converted and adapted by Juan Claudio Epsteyn

E-mail: epsteyn@hotmail.com