Book Read Free

Three Days in Moscow

Page 35

by Bret Baier


  “Just over a month ago”: Ibid.

  In January, Gorbachev grabbed: Serge Schmemann, “Gorbachev Offers to Scrap A-Arms Within 15 Years,” New York Times, January 16, 1986.

  “pie in the sky”: “Thatcher Calls Nuclear Free World ‘Pie in the Sky,’ ” UPI, March 28, 1986.

  “I think President Reagan”: James Baker, “Reagan,” The American Experience, PBS, February 23, 1998.

  “There is no way”: Ronald Reagan, The Reagan Diaries, ed. Douglas Brinkley (New York: HarperCollins, 2007).

  “And I want to say”: Ronald Reagan, “Address to the Nation on the Explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger,” January 28, 1986, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.

  It had long been: Peter Hannaford and Charles D. Hobbs, Remembering Reagan (New York: Regnery Publishing, 1995).

  “Well, we know that”: Ronald Reagan, “The President’s News Conference,” April 9, 1986, The American Presidency Project; http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=37105.

  “What are we to make”: Saltoun-Ebin, Dear Mr. President.

  “aggressive criminal action”: Jonathan A. Becker, Soviet and Russian Press Coverage of the United States: Press, Politics and Identity in Transition (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1999).

  “This is also the night”: Ronald Reagan, “Remarks at the Annual White House Correspondents Dinner,” April 17, 1986, The American Presidency Project; http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=37150.

  “The offer was rejected”: Jack F. Matlock, Jr., Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended (New York: Random House, 2004).

  “They launched an unrestrained”: Mikhail Gorbachev, Memoirs (New York: Doubleday, 1996).

  “his personal Cuban missile crisis”: Grachev, Gorbachev’s Gamble.

  “Look at the Chernobyl catastrophe”: James Graham Wilson, The Triumph of Improvisation: Gorbachev’s Adaptability, Reagan’s Engagement, and the End of the Cold War (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2014).

  “mad as h—l”: Ronald Reagan, The Reagan Diaries.

  The Soviet leader wrote: Mikhail Gorbachev, letter to Ronald Reagan, September 14, 1986, National Security Archive, George Washington University, Washington, DC.

  “I could see”: Grachev, Gorbachev’s Gamble.

  “I opted for Iceland”: Ronald Reagan, The Reagan Diaries.

  “They will get Daniloff”: Gorbachev, discussion with assistants on preparations for Reykjavík, September 29, 1986, National Security Archive, George Washington University, Washington, DC.

  Chernyaev shared Gorbachev’s fondest hopes: Anatoly C. Chernyaev, My Six Years with Gorbachev (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000).

  “In order to move Reagan”: Ibid.

  “As far as the SDI”: Ibid.

  “The American people”: George P. Shultz, Memorandum to the President, October 2, 1986, National Security Archive, George Washington University, Washington, DC.

  In an intriguing addendum: Richard Solomon, memo to Ronald Reagan, National Security Archive, George Washington University, Washington, DC.

  “something out of an”: Kenneth Adelman, oral history with Stephen Knott, September 30, 2003, Ronald Reagan Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center/Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

  “If observers sometimes regard”: Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph.

  “There is a Russian saying”: Memorandum of Conversation, Reagan-Gorbachev, First Meeting, October 11, 1986, National Security Archive, George Washington University, Washington, DC.

  “He could well afford”: Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph.

  “I’ve given you”: Memorandum of Conversation, Reagan-Gorbachev, Second Meeting, October 11, 1986, National Security Archive, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

  “If we both eliminate”: Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph.

  “This all depends”: Memorandum of Conversation, Reagan-Gorbachev, Final Meeting, October 12, 1986, National Security Archive, George Washington University, Washington, DC.; see also Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph.

  He scribbled a note: Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph.

  “I’d just never seen”: James Kuhn, oral history with Stephen Knott, March 7, 2003, Ronald Reagan Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center/Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

  “the two leaders”: Grachev, Gorbachev’s Gamble.

  “I still feel”: Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph.

  “Mr. President,” he said: James Kuhn, oral history with Stephen Knott, March 7, 2003, Ronald Reagan Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center/Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

  “He [Gorbachev] tried to act”: Ronald Reagan, The Reagan Diaries.

  “My first, overwhelming intention”: Gorbachev, Memoirs; also Gorbachev’s reflections on Reykjavík on the flight to Moscow, October 12, 1986, National Security Archive, George Washington University, Washington, DC.

  “In a way”: Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph.

  Chapter 8: “Tear Down This Wall!”

  Howard Baker was: Howard Baker, oral history with Stephen Knott, August 24, 2004, Ronald Reagan Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center/Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

  “Some of us”: Tom Wicker, “The Shovel Brigade,” New York Times, November 23, 1986.

  “He chewed me out”: Max Friedersdorf, oral history with Stephen Knott et al., October 24 and 25, 2002, Ronald Reagan Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center/Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

  “What are you telling”: Nancy Reagan, My Turn.

  Reagan was resistant: Ibid.

  “Mr. President, this”: Frank Carlucci, oral history with Phillip Zukow, Stephen Knott, and Don Oberdorfer, August 28, 2001, Ronald Reagan Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center/Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

  “Help,” he pleaded: Author interview with Ken Duberstein, October 26, 2017.

  Reporters such as Chris Wallace: Author interview with Chris Wallace, July 18, 2017.

  “I liked everybody”: Author interview with Marlin Fitzwater, July 19, 2017.

  “Regan just could not”: Ibid.

  “A few months ago”: Ronald Reagan, “Address to the Nation on the Iran Arms and Contra Aid Controversy,” March 4, 1987, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.

  “As difficult as it is”: Cheryl Hudson and Gareth Davies, eds., Ronald Reagan and the 1980s: Perceptions, Policies, Legacies (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).

  “it has been a long time”: Jason Saltoun-Ebin, Dear Mr. President . . . : Reagan/Gorbachev and the Correspondence That Ended the Cold War (CreateSpace, 2011).

  “Isn’t it strange”: Romesh Rafnesar, Tear Down This Wall: A City, a President, and the Speech that Ended the Cold War (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2009).

  “we will never”: “Kohl Assails Berlin Wall; East Germans March in Tribute to It,” Los Angeles Times, August 14, 1986.

  In April, Dolan: Author interview with Anthony Dolan, October 23, 2017.

  “From the air”: Peter Robinson, How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life (New York: Harper, 2003).

  “The two of you thought”: Ibid.

  Dolan was enthusiastic: Author interview with Anthony Dolan, October 23, 2017; also Anthony R. Dolan, “Four Little Words,” Wall Street Journal, November 8, 2009.

  “Those were Reagan’s words”: Howard Baker, oral history with Stephen Knott, August 24, 2004, Ronald Reagan Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center/Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

  “You know, Dick”: Richard Allen, oral history with Stephen Knott, May 28, 2002, Ronald Reagan Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center/Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

  “It’s funny”: Frederick J. Ryan, Jr., oral history with Stephen Knott, May 25, 2004, Ronald Reagan Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center/Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

  “When the President”: Malcolm Moos, oral history with T. H. Baker, November 2, 1972, Columbia University Oral History Project/Dwight D. Eisenhower Library.

  “One day this ugly wall
will disappear”: Robinson, How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life.

  The NSC’s Peter Rodman: Peter Rodman, correspondence, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

  “The Brandenburg gate speech”: Peter Rodman, letter to Colin Powell, June 2, 1987, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

  “The boys at State”: Author interview with Kenneth Duberstein, October 26, 2017.

  “Behind me stands”: Ronald Reagan, “Remarks on East-West Relations at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin,” June 12, 1987, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.

  Reagan was nervous: Marlin Fitzwater, Call the Briefing (New York: Crown, 1995).

  She was nervous, too: Ibid.

  Reagan scrawled an annoyed note: Ronald Reagan, The Reagan Diaries, ed. Douglas Brinkley (New York: HarperCollins, 2007).

  “She’s already bought the groceries”: Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph.

  “We were gradually freeing ourselves”: Mikhail Gorbachev, Memoirs.

  In a devastating attack: Ibid.

  “He would suddenly appear”: Ibid.

  On November 9: Ibid.

  “President Reagan is little more”: James Gerstenzang and Robert Shogan, “Conservatives Hit Reagan on Treaty: One Calls President ‘A Useful Idiot of Soviets’; Criticism of Accord Mounts,” Los Angeles Times, December 5, 1987.

  “a useful idiot”: Ibid.

  Imagining the embarrassing specter: Fitzwater, Call the Briefing.

  “I knew Gennadi Gerasimov”: Author interview with Marlin Fitzwater, July 19, 2017.

  “I have often felt”: David K. Shipler, “The Summit; Reagan and Gorbachev Sign Missile Treaty and Vow to Work for Greater Reductions,” New York Times, December 8, 1987.

  Reagan began by: Memorandum of Conversation, President’s Meeting with Gorbachev, December 8, 1987, National Security Agency Archives, Washington, DC.

  He gave Gorbachev a card: Ibid.

  Gorbachev finally said: Memorandum of Conversation, President’s Meeting with Gorbachev, December 8, 1987, National Security Agency Archives, Washington, DC.

  “We can only hope”: David K. Shipler, “The Summit; Reagan and Gorbachev Sign Missile Treaty and Vow to Work for Greater Reductions,” New York Times, December 8, 1987.

  “May Dec. 8, 1987”: Reagan, An American Life.

  “We have listened”: Memorandum of Conversation, President’s Meeting with Gorbachev, December 8, 1987, National Security Agency Archives, Washington, DC.

  “An American scholar”: Ibid.

  “Probably, they put more”: Kathleen Osborne, oral history with Jim Young and Stephen Knott, April 26, 2003, Ronald Reagan Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center/Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

  “A boundless world stretches far”: Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph.

  Nancy had secured: Ibid.; see also Nancy Reagan, My Turn.

  asking Raisa if she knew: Barbara Bush, A Memoir (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994).

  Raisa had a habit: Nancy Reagan, My Turn.

  He was bouncing: Author interview with Kenneth Duberstein, October 26, 2017; also Memorandum of Conversation, President’s Meeting with Gorbachev, December 9, 1987, National Security Agency Archives, Washington, DC.

  He finally said: Memorandum of Conversation, President’s Meeting with Gorbachev, December 9, 1987, National Security Agency Archives, Washington DC.

  But Gorbachev had: Ibid.

  In Russian, Gorbachev recounted: Ibid.

  With vodka and champagne flowing: Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph.

  The next morning: Fitzwater, Call the Briefing.

  “I thought you’d gone home”: Author interview with Marlin Fitzwater, July 19, 2017.

  Reagan recounted an incident: Memorandum of Conversation, President’s Meeting with Gorbachev, December 10, 1987, National Security Agency Archives, Washington, DC.

  That reminded Gorbachev: Ibid.

  Baker whispered: Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph.

  “We have not agreed”: Ibid.; Memorandum of Conversation, President’s Meeting with Gorbachev, December 10, 1987, National Security Agency Archives, Washington, DC.

  “Well, we’re going”: Ibid.

  “Oh, all right”: Ibid.

  “During World War II”: “Remarks on the Departure of General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union,” December 10, 1987, The American Presidency Project; http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=33804.

  “In bidding farewell”: Ibid.

  “Before,” he said: Gorbachev, Memoirs.

  Chapter 9: The True Mission

  Kenneth Adelman saw it: Kenneth Adelman, oral history with Stephen Knott, September 30, 2003, Ronald Reagan Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center/Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

  “As you know”: “New Year’s Messages of President Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev,” January 1, 1988, The American Presidency Project; http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=34831.

  “a complete turnabout”: Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 25, 1988, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.

  “Talk about reform”: Jack F. Matlock, Jr., Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended (New York: Random House, 2004).

  “What he didn’t understand”: Caspar Weinberger, oral history with Stephen Knott, November 19, 2002, Ronald Reagan Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center/Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

  “Could it be”: Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph.

  “My visit to the Soviet Union”: “President Reagan’s Goals for the Summit,” in The Moscow Summit 20 Years Later: From the Secret U.S. and Soviet Files, National Security Archive, Washington, DC.

  “This is an expansionist empire”: Author interview with Charles Krauthammer, May 2, 2017.

  Krauthammer could see: Ibid.

  chose that point: Larry Speakes, Speaking Out: The Reagan Presidency from Inside the White House (New York: Scribner, 1988).

  Don Regan exacted his revenge: Donald T. Regan, For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988).

  “an act of spite”: George F. Will, “Regan’s Book Important, If True,” Washington Post, May 11, 1988.

  “I had become”: Nancy Reagan, My Turn.

  “I feel terrible about this”: Ibid.

  In a meeting: Meeting with Non-government Soviet Experts, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

  Land of the Firebird: Suzanne Massie, Land of the Firebird: The Beauty of Old Russia (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981).

  Improved bilateral relations: Meeting with Non-government Soviet Experts, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

  “As you know”: “President Reagan’s Goals for the Summit,” in The Moscow Summit 20 Years Later: From the Secret U.S. and Soviet Files, National Security Archive, Washington, DC.

  “In the past”: Ronald Reagan Remarks to the World Affairs Council of Western Massachusetts in Springfield, April 21, 1988, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

  “We applaud the changes”: Ronald Reagan, “Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session with Members of the National Strategy Forum in Chicago, Illinois,” May 4, 1988, The American Presidency Project; http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=35783.

  “I’m going to tackle him”: Ronald Reagan, The Reagan Diaries, ed. Douglas Brinkley (New York: HarperCollins, 2007).

  “What Reagan was doing”: Author interview with Marlin Fitzwater, July 19, 2017.

  “There is no true”: Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph.

  Chapter 10: Cry Freedom

  “The streets had been cleaned”: Don Oberdorfer, From the Cold War to a New Era: The United States and the Soviet Union 1983–1991 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998). (Updated from Oberdorfer’s 1991 book, The Turn.)

  Still, the human rights: Ibid.

  “If, as you say”: Ibid.

  “The two were like actors”: Matlock, Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended.

  “It’s like a gas mask”: Memorandum of Conversation, First
Plenary Meeting between President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev, May 30, 1988, in The Moscow Summit 20 Years Later: From the Secret U.S. and Soviet Files, National Security Archive, Washington, DC.

  “It’s been said”: Memorandum of Conversation, The President’s Meeting with Monks in Danilov Monastery, May 30, 1988, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, in The Moscow Summit 20 Years Later: From the Secret U.S. and Soviet Files, National Security Archive, Washington, DC.

  The plight of the Ziemans: Nancy Reagan, My Turn.

  Soon Jack Matlock was summoned: Matlock, Reagan and Gorbachev.

  “I came here”: Ronald Reagan, “Remarks to Soviet Dissidents at Spaso House in Moscow,” May 30, 1988, The American Presidency Project; http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=35894.

  “I don’t know”: From the US. standpoint, the gathering was a success; a Department of State cable was entitled “The President’s Human Rights Reception a Success,” May 31, 1988; see also “Full List of Attendees at President’s Reception for Refuseniks/Dissidents,” in The Moscow Summit 20 Years Later: From the Secret U.S. and Soviet Files, National Security Archive, Washington, DC.

  “As wartime allies”: Ronald Reagan, “Reagan’s Remarks at Dinner,” March 31, 1988, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

  “As I watched”: Igor Korchilov, Translating History: 30 Years on the Front Lines of Diplomacy with a Top Russian Interpreter (New York: Scribner, 1997).

  At one point, he turned: Nancy Reagan, My Turn.

  Before they started their discussion: Memorandum of Conversation, The President’s Second One-on-One Meeting with General Secretary Gorbachev, May 31, 1988, in The Moscow Summit 20 Years Later: From the Secret U.S. and Soviet Files, National Security Archive, Washington, DC.

  Gorbachev then launched: Ibid.

  “better dead than beautiful”: Korchilov, Translating History.

  Shultz suggested that Reagan say: Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph.

  “There were all these collections”: Author interview with Marlin Fitzwater, July 19, 2017.

  There was a side story: Al Kamen, “When Reagan Met Putin in Red Square?,” Washington Post, March 6, 2014; see also author interview with Marlin Fitzwater, November 14, 2017.

 

‹ Prev