by Bret Baier
“Do you still think”: Multiple sources, including James Mann, The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War (New York: Penguin, 2009); Stanley Meisler, “Reagan Recants ‘Evil Empire’ Description,” Los Angeles Times, June 1, 1988; also Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph.
“It made them pay attention”: Matlock, Reagan and Gorbachev.
Chapter 11: The Speech
Josh Gilder: Author interview with Josh Gilder, February 23, 2018.
“Marlin, when you get here”: Author interview with Marlin Fitzwater, July 19, 2017.
Anthony Dolan viewed: Author interview with Anthony Dolan, October 23, 2017.
“Josh had a great understanding”: Ibid.
“Most of us”: Author interview with Josh Gilder, February 23, 2018.
“I know you must be”: Ronald Reagan, “Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session with the Students and Faculty at Moscow State University,” May 31, 1988, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library; https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/archives/speeches/1988/053188b.htm.
the speechwriters had lobbied: Igor Korchilov, Translating History: 30 Years on the Front Lines of Diplomacy with a Top Russian Interpreter (New York: Scribner, 1997).
“Standing here before a mural”: Ronald Reagan, “Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session with the Students and Faculty at Moscow State University,” May 31, 1988, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
“You could see at first”: Author interview with Kenneth Duberstein, October 26, 2017.
“Here’s a guy”: Ibid.
“It may have been”: “With Lenin Watching,” New York Times, June 1, 1988.
The “odd couple”: “Press conference Fitzwater-Gerasimov,” May 31, 1988, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
The summit could feel surreal: Author interview with Anthony Dolan, October 23, 2017.
“You could have stored meat”: Helen Thomas, Front Row at the White House: My Life and Times (New York: Scribner, 1999).
“Mrs. Gorbachev was”: Edward Rowny, oral history with Stephen Knott, May 17, 2006, Ronald Reagan Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center/Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
She was overwhelmed: Nancy Reagan, My Turn.
Chapter 12: Morning in Moscow
When the meeting began: Memorandum of Conversation, Second Plenary Meeting Between President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev, June 1, 1988, in The Moscow Summit 20 Years Later: From the Secret U.S. and Soviet Files, National Security Archive, Washington, DC.
“Proceeding from their”: Marlin Fitzwater, Call the Briefing (New York: Crown, 1995).
Reagan had glanced at it: Multiple sources for the signing statement conflict. Primary sources: author interviews with George Shultz, December 2, 2017, and Marlin Fitzwater, November 14, 2017, who were in the room.
“I thought Reagan”: Fitzwater, Call the Briefing.
“This enabled Gorbachev and Reagan”: Igor Korchilov, Translating History: 30 Years on the Front Lines of Diplomacy with a Top Russian Interpreter (New York: Scribner, 1997).
“maybe one rung or two”: Ibid.
“probably did more”: Jack Matlock, Reagan and Gorbachev.
“To hear that song”: Ronald Reagan, An American Life.
But as they passed: Nancy Reagan, My Turn.
At a friendly departure ceremony: Korchilov, Translating History; see also Gary Lee, “Reagan Lauds Gorbachev in Farewell,” Washington Post, June 3, 1988.
Riding to the airport: Author interview with Ken Duberstein, October 26, 2017.
“We arrived in Moscow”: Ibid.
“Reagan felt he had”: Ibid.
“In my view”: Mikhail Gorbachev, Memoirs.
“As some of you”: “Reagan Return Moscow Summit, June 3, 1988,” video; c-span.org.
“He [Bush] had pledged”: Jon Meacham, Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush (New York: Random House, 2015).
According to Colin Powell: Colin Powell, oral history with Russell Riley et al., December 16, 2011, George H. W. Bush Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center.
“Everybody walks into”: Author interview with Kenneth Duberstein, October 26, 2017.
Secret documents made public: Reagan, Gorbachev, and Bush at Governors Island: Previously Secret Documents from Soviet and U.S. Files on the 1988 Summit in New York, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book, ed. Dr. Svetlana Savranskaya and Thomas Blanton.
Gorbachev might have been feeling: Ibid., including record of Gorbachev’s conference with advisors to write the speech and media response; also Anatoly C. Chernyaev, My Six Years with Gorbachev (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000).
“The Russian steamroller”: “Gorbachev Eases Europe’s Fears,” The Guardian, December 8, 1988.
“Perhaps not since”: “Gambler, Showman, Statesman,” New York Times, December 8, 1988.
“Gorbachev’s UN speech had established”: Brent Scowcroft, oral history with Philip Zelikow et al., December 31, 2009, George H. W. Bush Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center.
Lunch at the Coast Guard: “Reagan, Gorbachev and Bush at Governors Island: Previously Secret Documents from Soviet and U.S. Files on the 1988 Summit in New York, 20 Years Later,” National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 261, December 8, 2008.
“He turned to Reagan”: Author interview with Kenneth Duberstein, October 26, 2017.
“In 1985, when I first”: “Reagan, Gorbachev and Bush at Governors Island: Previously Secret Documents from Soviet and U.S. Files on the 1988 Summit in New York, 20 Years Later,” National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 261, December 8, 2008.
“I will miss you”: Nancy Reagan, My Turn.
“I think the meeting”: Ronald Reagan, The Reagan Diaries, ed. Douglas Brinkley (New York: HarperCollins, 2007).
Chapter 13: The Fall
“Tomorrow I stop being President”: Ronald Reagan, The Reagan Diaries, ed. Douglas Brinkley (New York: HarperCollins, 2007).
Earlier that evening: Jim Kuhn, Ronald Reagan in Private: A Memoir of My Years in the White House (New York: Sentinel, 2004).
“Of all the things”: Michael Giorgione, Inside Camp David: The Private World of the Presidential Retreat (Boston: Little, Brown, 2017).
“Coming into”: Remarks at a Question-and-Answer Session with Members of the Center for the Study of the Presidency, March 25, 1988. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.
“Nothing can prepare you”: Nancy Reagan, My Turn.
“He was the same man”: James Kuhn, oral history with Stephen Knott, March 7, 2003, Ronald Reagan Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center/Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
“What a wave of affection”: Ronald Reagan, An American Life.
“My view is that”: Ronald Reagan, “Farewell Address to the Nation,” January 11, 1989, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.
“Mr. President, you fundamentally ended”: Author interview with Kenneth Duberstein, October 26, 2017.
“For a moment alone”: Kuhn, Ronald Reagan in Private.
“The world is quiet today”: Ibid.
“a friendly takeover”: Barbara Bush, A Memoir (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994).
“Nancy does not like Barbara”: George H. W. Bush Daily Diary, 1989–90, UVA Miller Center for Public Affairs.
“When I became Governor”: Ibid.
“I thought this must be”: Maureen Dowd, “The 41st President: Speech Writer; A Stirring Breeze Sparks Feelings, Then Words for a Presidential Vision,” New York Times, January 21, 1989.
Bush’s director of communications: David F. Demarest, Jr., oral history with Russell Riley, January 28, 2010, George H. W. Bush Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center.
“I don’t like”: Ibid.
“It was sad”: Barbara Bush, A Memoir.
Fitzwater recalled that: Marlin Fitzwater, Call the Briefing (New York: Crown, 1995).
“Look, dear”: Author interview wit
h Ken Duberstein, October 26, 2017.
When Bush entered the Oval Office: Author interview with Marlin Fitzwater, November 14, 2017.
“Brent was so tired”: Robert M. Gates, oral history with Tim Naftali, December 31, 2009, George H. W. Bush Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center.
“He won’t let you be”: Colin Powell, oral history with Russell Riley et al., December 16, 2011, George H. W. Bush Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center.
Some advisors were: Campbell Craig and Fredrik Logevall, America’s Cold War (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012).
“I’ll be darned”: George Bush, All the Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2014).
“the worst mistake”: Fitzwater, Call the Briefing.
“Imagine that an alien spaceship”: “Take Me to Your Leader,” New York Times, May 21, 1989.
Scowcroft would later admit: Brent Scowcroft, oral history with Philip Zelikow et al., December 31, 2009, George H. W. Bush Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center.
“Life punishes harshly”: Mikhail Gorbachev, Memoirs.
“Do you want to make”: Fitzwater, Call the Briefing.
“Well, I didn’t know”: “Ronald Reagan Celebrates Fall of the Berlin Wall, November 9, 1989,” video, ABC News, YouTube.
“He got a lot of grief”: James A. Baker III, oral history with Jim Young, March 17, 2011, George H. W. Bush Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center.
“The Berlin Wall has collapsed”: Anatoly C. Chernyaev, My Six Years with Gorbachev (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000).
“Twice in the twentieth century”: Michael Beschloss and Strobe Talbot, At the Highest Levels: The Inside Story of the End of the Cold War (Boston: Little, Brown, 1993).
“Decades have passed”: Mikhail Gorbachev, Memoirs.
“I think both Brent and I”: Robert M. Gates, oral history with Tim Naftali, December 31, 2009, George H. W. Bush Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center.
“The Gorky was”: Fitzwater, Call the Briefing.
When they met: Carl Bernstein, “The Holy Alliance,” Time, June 24, 2001.
“He’s my best friend”: Paul Kengor, A Pope and a President: John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and the Extraordinary Untold Story of the 20th Century (Wilmington, DE: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2017).
There were small signs: James A. Baker III, Work Hard, Study . . . and Keep Out of Politics! (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2008).
He spoke to Gorbachev: Transcript of Gorbachev–John Paul II Meeting, Vatican City, December 1, 1989, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book, “Bush and Gorbachev at Malta,” ed. Dr. Svetlana Savranskaya and Thomas Blanton.
“We are not here”: Author interview with Marlin Fitzwater, July 19, 2017.
“There are people”: Transcript of the Malta Meeting, December 2–3, 1989, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 298, ed. Svetlana Savranskaya and Thomas Blanton.
“The president walked out”: Fitzwater, Call the Briefing.
“an embattled leader”: Jack Matlock cable, “Preparing for Malta: Trade Policy Toward the USSR,” November 14, 1989, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book.
The most difficult conversation: Transcript of the Malta Meeting, December 2–3, 1989, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 298, ed. Svetlana Savranskaya and Thomas Blanton.
“the USSR and the United States”: Chernyaev, My Six Years with Gorbachev.
“The discussion that took place”: “Reagan,” The American Experience, February 23, 1998.
Riding the president’s golf cart: Giorgione, Inside Camp David.
Reagan and Gorbachev beamed: John-Thor Dahlburg, “Reagan Greeted with Hearty Bearhug by Gorbachev: Reunion: President Feels like Rip Van Winkle. He Tells Leaders Not to Lose Heart, Lectures on Capitalism,” Los Angeles Times, September 18, 1990.
“Yeltsin created parallel structures”: Condoleezza Rice, No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington (New York: Crown, 2011); see also Leon Aaron, Yeltsin: A Revolutionary Life (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000).
Gorbachev was exhausted: Gorbachev, Memoirs.
Chernyaev, who was staying: Chernyaev, My Six Years with Gorbachev.
“Soldiers, officers, generals”: Aaron, Yeltsin.
“My God, I’m glad”: Meacham, Destiny and Power.
“This was one”: Robert M. Gates, oral history with Tim Naftali, December 31, 2009, George H. W. Bush Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center.
“I’m feeling absolutely calm”: Conor O’Clery, Moscow, December 25, 1991: The Last Day of the Soviet Union (New York: Public Affairs, 2011).
“We’re now living”: “President Reagan’s 83rd Birthday,” video, C-Span Historical Archives.
“Eighty years is a long time”: Robert Reinhold, “4 Presidents Join Reagan in Dedicating His Library,” New York Times, November 5, 1991.
Chapter 14: Without Firing a Shot
Dick Cheney received a visitor: Richard B. Cheney, oral history with Philip Zelikow, March 16 and 17, 2000, George H. W. Bush Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center.
In late 1993: Peggy Grande, The President Will See You Now: My Stories and Lessons from Ronald Reagan’s Final Years (New York: Hachette, 2017).
When they walked: Ray Moseley, “Reagan Gets His Shot at the Berlin Wall,” Chicago Tribune, September 13, 1990.
“May you live 100 years”: Frederick J. Ryan, Jr., Reagan’s postpresidency chief of staff, recounted this story in Reagan Remembered, a compilation of memories of Reagan created by Gilbert A. Robinson (New York: International Publishers, 2015).
“Ronald Reagan won”: Margaret Thatcher first made this statement in 1991; she repeated it at her eulogy for Ronald Reagan in 2004; https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/110360.
“Pragmatism without principles is cynicism”: James A. Baker, III, Work Hard, Study . . . and Keep Out of Politics!
“Generally speaking”: Brent Scowcroft, oral history with Philip Zelikow et al., December 31, 2009, George H. W. Bush Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center.
“He learned that”: Peter Hannaford, oral history with Stephen Knott et al., January 10, 2003, Ronald Reagan Oral History Project, UVA Miller Center/Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
“He painted in primary colors”: Author interview with Kenneth Duberstein, October 26, 2017.
“I never thought”: Ronald Reagan, “Farewell Address to the Nation,” January 11, 1989, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.
“the forty-fourth anniversary”: Ronald Reagan, “Text of Letter Written by President Ronald Reagan Announcing He Has Alzheimer’s Disease,” November 5, 1994, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.
“As most of you know”: “President Reagan’s 83rd Birthday,” video, C-Span Historical Archives.
“I now begin the journey”: Ronald Reagan, “Text of Letter Written by President Ronald Reagan Announcing He Has Alzheimer’s Disease,” November 5, 1994, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.
Margaret Thatcher revealed: Alex Russell and Andrew Sparrow, “Thatcher’s taped eulogy at Reagan’s funeral,” The Telegraph, June 7, 2004.
Mourning his friend: Even Pravda published an article, “This Week America Mourns the Death of Ronald Reagan,” June 7, 2004, liberally quoting Gorbachev’s words of praise for the president.
In a New York Times: Mikhail Gorbachev, “A President Who Listened,” New York Times, June 7, 2004.
The Last Word
“Does the president”: White House Press Briefing, February 20, 2018.
“I looked the man”: Press Conference by President Bush and Russian Federation President Putin, June 16, 2001, the White House.
Asked by the BBC: Steve Rosenberg, “Mikhail Gorbachev: The Man Who Lost an Empire,” BBC, December 13, 2006.
“I want to tell”: Travis Fedschun and Lucas Tomlinson, “Russia Unveils Nuclear Weap
ons Putin Claims Are Immune to Interception,” Fox News, March 1, 2018.
“Americans, Poles and the nations”: “Remarks by President Trump to the People of Poland,” July 6, 2017, whitehouse.gov.
“Reagan took all that”: Author interview with Marlin Fitzwater, November 14, 2017.
“When you can’t make them”: Kenneth W. Thompson, Leadership in the Reagan Presidency Part II: Eleven Intimate Perspectives (Madison Books, 1993).
“I am convinced”: Mikhail Gorbachev, The New Russia (UK: Polity Books, 2016).
“When the Lord calls me”: Ronald Reagan, “Text of Letter Written by President Ronald Reagan Announcing He Has Alzheimer’s Disease,” November 5, 1994, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.
Appendix
“Thank you, Rector Logunov”: Ronald Reagan, “Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session with the Students and Faculty at Moscow State University,” May 31, 1988, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library; https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/archives/speeches/1988/053188b.htm.
Index
The pagination of this digital edition does not match the print edition from which the Index was created. To locate a specific entry, please use your e-book reader’s search tools.
ABC, 88, 139–40, 315
Abilene, Kansas, xiv–xv
Academy Awards, 28
Adams, Sherman, 96–97
Address to the Nation and Other Countries on United States–Soviet Relations (1984), 142–43
Adelman, Kenneth, 127, 227–28
Geneva Summit (1985), 162–63, 165, 166, 168–69
Reykjavík Summit (1986), 185
SDI and, 138, 168–69
Afghanistan. See Soviet–Afghan War
African Americans, 21
Aga Khan IV, 160–61, 295
Agnew, Spiro, 58
Air Force One, 11, 170, 272, 274, 293
Alexanderplatz (Berlin), 73
Alger, Horatio, 20
Allen, Richard, 71–73, 98–99, 120, 121, 205
Alzheimer’s disease, 27, 30, 228, 323–24
American creed, 10
American Life, An (Reagan), 29
Anderson, John, 81, 82
Anderson, Martin, 16, 64–65, 102–3, 104–5
Andrews Air Force Base, 93, 110, 274–75, 293
