Live Breaking News & Updates on Edward Shevardnadze
Stay updated with breaking news from Edward shevardnadze. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
The. Assistant general secretary gorbachev has unequivocably given me his word that the soviet union will respect the wishes of the germans to live as one nation that. But the soviet union also had conditions the foreign minister should read not say stipulated before the International Press that a unified germany would have to maintain political and military neutrality upon his return call brushed over this very clear message from the kremlin he didnt want to taint the good news. That the soviet union imagine if unified germany in late had stayed yes of course all this was said yesterday. Kohl strategy was successful and his popularity grew hed made further offers of Financial Aid to gorbachev to discourage the kremlin from doing anything to block the way forward. It does mean is none of this would have happened if the soviet union hadnt been in such a dire economic posit ....
And hes written a terrific book on the end of the cold war the bri principal author of the 9 11 Commission Report and hes writing a book on decisions for war in ways that illuminate old crises and old decisions like going to war in 1898 or wilson going to war, reassessing these decisions so were looking forward to phillips next book. At the same time hes doing about a dozen other things none of us can keep track of and sometimes we dont know about. So phillip. Thank you. Thank you. Im sorry to say we need to wait for james wilson to show up and so hes probably out there somewhere having a good conversation. If we can send the search party out. The state department is always late to the table. [ laughter ] one of the messages of this. So far its been a great panel. [ laughter ] its rather intimidating when youre sitting next to somebody who can refer to his book. We had grandchildren here they could sit on it. [ laughter ] oh, h ....
Bri principal author of the 9 11 Commission Report and hes writing a book on decisions for war in ways that illuminate old crises and old decisions like going to war in 1898 or wilson going to war, reassessing these decisions so were looking forward to phillips next book. At the same time hes doing about a dozen other things none of us can keep track of and sometimes we dont know about. So phillip. Thank you. Thank you. Im sorry to say we need to wait for james wilson to show up and so hes probably out there somewhere having a good conversation. If we can send the search party out. The state department is always late to the table. [ laughter ] one of the messages of this. So far its been a great panel. [ laughter ] its rather intimidating when youre sitting next to somebody who can refer to his book. We had grandchildren here they could sit on it. [ laughter ] oh, here he is. Glad you could join us. Thank you. All right, lets g ....
I will ask you questions and you will say whatever you darn well please. President bush, mrs. Baker, were very honored to have you here as we kmem rate the historic 25th an verse rid of the fall of the wall and the liberation of Eastern Europe. Let me start with a broad question. When did you feel certain that the wall would fall . Even if you didnt know when . What was that moment when you were sure . Im not sure i could pinpoint a moment, ryan. I mean, as far as i was concerned, it became somewhat of a surprise that it happened so quickly. We did know that things were moving in that direction. That a lot of east germans were going to hungary and then hungary was letting them go through to austria. So the wall had, in effect, been circumvented, not reached, perhaps. So it looked like things were going in that direction. And, of course, well, i can give you one specific example that illustrates it. When the wall was falling, in ef ....
Im not sure i could pinpoint a moment, ryan. I mean, as far as i was concerned, it came as somewhat of a surprise that it happened so quickly. We did know that things were moving in that direction. A lot of east germans were going to hungary and then hungary was letting them go through to austria. So the wall had in effect been circumvented, not breached, perhaps. It looks like things were going in that direction. Of course gorbachev had gone to berlin in early october and said the policy for policy for east germany is set in berlin and not in moscow. Which was a pretty clear signal that they were willing to cut him loose, that they were not going to use their army to maintain the empire in force in central and Eastern Europe, particularly respect to the gdr. So i think those events at least led me to think that it was very possible that it was coming but we didnt as far as i was concerned have any concrete sense that it would hap ....