All language subtitles for Cold War - S01E22 - Star Wars (1981–1988) (480p x265 EDGE2020).eng

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

I“ Where at least
I know I'm free I“

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

I“ Who gave that
right to me I“

I“ And I gladly stand
up next to you I“

I“ And defend her
still today I“

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

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.

[sings]
I“ Stand by your man! I“

I“ 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/O: 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
grindingiy 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 'SD|' -

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 how 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:
I“ "Twinkle, twinkle, little star I“

I“ How I wonder what you are I“

I“ Up above the
world so high I“

I“ Like a diamond in the sky... I“

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 O07,

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 88-20 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,
Vuri 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 travel led

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-
'glasnosf.

[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 88-20 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!"

"A|| 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

Gorbachevs 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: Gorbachevs 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
Gorbachevs 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-Generals
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 ]