President of the philippines in the dining room at the top of the state department. Hers hosting a lunch for when an aide passed me a note saying the instrument government has Just Announced east has justvernment announced they will permit traffic from east germany to west germany. I read the note to the assembled group of the table. Proposed a toast and then excused myself to go to the white house to meet with the president. Host do you were member what you said in the toast . I dont remember the words of the toast except it probably spoke to the importance of the to the concept of freedom president all american , democratic and republican had fought since harry truman. Harry truman three george h w bush. I probably said some things about that. O beingber president akin quite moved by the news. Host what were your conversations like with president bush in the first few hours after the news . I went straight to the white house and the president and ocoughe cough brent sc and several others were discussing what our reaction should be. The president was quite clear. He said this is a big thing. Toreally is tantamount winning the cold war. The one thing we need to avoid is triumphalism. We have a lot of business to do with mikhail gorbachev, president of the soviet union, and the foreign minister. We hadere reformers whom been working with and wanted to continue to support. We had a lot of work to do. The president said i dont think we should stick it in therir eye. He held a press conference in the oval office. I remember sitting at the desk next to him. The press was all over him about why are you being more emotional about this. All, this is something america and her western allies have fought for for 40 years. The president said im not an emotional kind of guy. Im happy about this but i dont think we need to dance on the ruins of the berlin wall. Host was he emotional when the reporters left the room . What was it like in the hours and evening afterwards . Happy, he was extremely as we all work. He was counseling us to be careful and not to come across not to be braggadocio or triumphalist in our comments. We still had a lot of work to do with the soviet leaders. They were still supporting governments that we were opposing. People tend to forget that. Yes, it was a wonderful moment. For fort we had fought had certainly been moved forward if not achieved. The president was quite careful and quite right in saying we have a lot of work to do with these guys. Lets not stick it in their eye. Host when were you sure the wall would come down . Was there a point before . Well, we were not that sure the wall would come down. I will tell you quite frankly the collapse of the wall on that day came as somewhat of a surprise, even though we knew there had been protests. Human rights protests, protests for freedom all across the captive nations of eastern europe. Starting in poland of course and spreading from there. We knew the trend was very much in the right direction as far as we were concerned. I dont think anybody could have told you. Im not even sure the soviets could have told you that was going to happen on that day. Low level east german officials made an announcement that had something to do with visas. It was interpreted to mean we will open the gates and let people freely pass between east and west germany. Im not sure that was exactly message this low level wski im not sure thats what he meant to convey. Recall when i was next there. I was the only secretary of state ever to have gone to east germany. Bridge, thes the bridge of spies in the pot stamp dam when no american official had done that because the cold war was at its height. Host i want to end with one of the questions that president bush got in the press conference that you described on that day on november 9. Is this the end of the iron curtain . What were you thinking when the question was asked . What were your thoughts that day . My thoughts that day, and i think the president s was we had a lot of work to do. It did look like it was the beginning, if not the end, certainly the beginning of the end of the iron curtain. But before that we had been given president bush and i each had been given pieces of the iron curtain by the primitive hungary. Hungary was the first country to itdismantling parts was not the wall but it was parts of the curtain, the iron curtain. I still have the when i was given. It is a piece of the barbed wire that represented the iron curtain. That happened a little bit before but no one anticipated the events that occurred on november 8 and nine. Host do you have any sections of the wall . I have a section of the wall. Im speaking to you for the James Baker Institute at rice university. We have a big section of the wall right outside our building here on the campus of rice university. We had an event here not long ago with the forward ministers who were serving at that time for great britain, france and the United States and germany. One of the most moving things for me was when the day after this all happened i got a call from the west German Foreign minister. I answered the phone and said hello. Before he could come on the line his secretary said, mr. Secretary, i have the minister for you. Before i put them on the line, may i just say to you god bless america. I found it to be in a moving time and moving statement and moving event. Host secretary james baker from the baker institute, thank you for your time in your memory. Back in the berlin wall gallery in washington, d. C. Time for a few more of your calls, your memories from the daily berlin wall fell. Elizabeth, thanks for waiting in maryland. Caller good morning. I want briefly to say i experienced east germany from west