All language subtitles for remux-The.Eighties.S01E03.WEBRip.x264-ION10_track3_[eng]

President Reagan:
The only morality they recognize

is what will
further their cause.

They reserve unto themselves
the right

to commit any crime,
to lie, to cheat.

The Russians
are gearing up for war.

Frank Reynolds:
The Senate today approved

a record
$136.5 billion defense budget.

[ Crowd chanting ]

Stahl:
The largest anti-nuclear protest
in U.S. history.

Brokaw: President Reagan
is now much more eager

to meet with the new leader
of the Soviet Union.

Reporter:
Do you have an agreement,
Mr. President?

Mr. Gorbachev,
tear down this wall.

♪♪

[ Gunfire ]

Frank Reynolds:
In Afghanistan today,

Soviet troops are reported
on the move in several areas.

But it is also clear the
Russians are meeting resistance

from Muslim tribesmen
and units of Afghanistan's army.

Buchanan:
In 1980, the Soviet Union
had moved into Afghanistan.

It was in Nicaragua.
It was in the Caribbean.

There was a feeling
that the United States --

and I felt it --

the United States could lose
the Cold War.

Powell: There was a model
of behavior during the Cold War,

and we have
often described it as

it was the red side of the map
and the blue side of the map

separated by the Iron Curtain.

And the rest of the world,
we competed for.

That fundamental clash between
communism and capitalism,

between dictatorship
and freedom,

was the dividing line
in the world

that people assumed
would last forever.

But there's a revolution
starting to stir.

Frank Reynolds:
There has been an unexpected
development abroad.

Polish workers
in the Baltic area

are standing firm in their
strike against the government.

Bierbauer:
The demands of the striking
Polish workers in Gdansk

included a free press,
release of political prisoners,

and the right to strike,

even though these workers
had assumed the risk

of striking illegally.

Service:
Along comes solidarity,

but it's not a union
run by communists.

It's a union
run by Polish patriots.

So it's a tremendous threat
to the USSR

because of
the possible contagion.

It would just wipe out communism
if it were allowed to spread.

Randall:
One of the principal players
in this country's season

of worker discontent,
Lech Walesa

spent part of the weekend
reinforcing the link

between Poland's workers
and the Catholic Church.

It's impossible
to understand solidarity

without understanding the impact
of Pope John Paul II.

The Soviets are very nervous
about John Paul II.

He is an anti-communist,
and he's beloved by the Poles.

These pressures are
forcing the Polish government

to figure out
how to keep control.

The strike by Polish
shipyard workers is over.

For the Polish strikers, it was
a day worthy of hyperbole,

Lech Walesa
telling his followers,

"We are now co-masters
of this land."

Lech Walesa and solidarity
are showing that you could have

an independent union
in a communist country.

And the question was,

How independent were they
going to be allowed to be?

How the U.S. deals with Poland,
with the Eastern Bloc,

and, of course, with Russia
will be early challenges

for the foreign policy of the
president-elect, Ronald Reagan.

Zelizer: Reagan had spent
much of his career

blasting the Soviet Union

and attacking
any Republican or Democrat

who had said we can negotiate.

He had been the leading opponent
of détente during the 1970s,

the policy of trying to ease
relations with the Soviets.

Brinkley:
What he disliked about détente

was that they were hitting
the negotiating team as equals.

Reagan thought,
"There are two superpowers,

but we have moral superiority

because democracy's
inherently good

and Sovietism
is inherently bad."

The only morality they recognize

is what will
further their cause,

meaning
they reserve unto themselves

the right to commit any crime,
to lie, to cheat.

I think when you do business
with them, even at a détente,

you keep that in mind.

And everybody went, "Oh, this
cowboy-shoot-from-the-hip-actor,

doesn't he understand
that's not diplomatic?"

And, boy, did he get
the Soviets' attention.

But there was a lot
of tsh-tshing about whether

this was appropriate
for the president to say.

Brands: Ronald Reagan
had a more radical view

of American goals
in the Cold War

than any president before him.

As he put it,

"My policy toward the communists
is very simple --

We win, they lose."

It shocked people.

It sounds as if, sir,
you're saying

that there isn't going to be
any summit meeting with the --

No, I don't know,
but I do believe this --

that it is rather foolish
to have unilaterally disarmed

by letting our margin
of safety deteriorate

and then you sit with a fellow
who's got all the arms.

What do you have
to negotiate with?

The Senate today approved

a record $136.5 billion
defense budget

for fiscal 1982.

The vote was overwhelming --
92-1.

Reagan was trying
to spend the USSR into oblivion.

He said, "What we spend
on our armed forces

is a much smaller proportion
of our economy,

than is the case with you.

Now see if you can compete."

Naftali: Ronald Reagan's
clear anti-communism

made many people worry
that though he didn't want war,

the effect of his thinking

would be the coming up
of unwanted war.

Reporter:
In Poland, the state counsel
has decreed the introduction

of martial law beginning today.

Lech Walesa,
the leader in solidarity,

is said to be
in a government guest house,

not under arrest.

But dozens of Polish activists
and dissidents

have been locked up,

along with some former leaders
of the communist government.

Naftali: There was concern that
the Soviets were going to invade

and that the Poles,

in their drive
for self-determination,

were gonna go beyond
whatever mental threshold

the Soviet leadership had.

At the Vatican today,

Pope John Paul II
expressed concern

for the worsening situation
in his native Poland.

Pope John Paul told
some 200 Polish pilgrims

he knew were in the crowd

that they and all fellow Poles
should pray for peace.

Service:
The Cold War became as cold
as it had ever been before.

It got so cold, it was capable
of becoming hot.

[ Indistinct shouting ]

Rather: There had been rumors --
today, confirmation.

Deaths and injuries among
the enforcers and resistors

to the military rule
imposed since Sunday.

[ Indistinct shouting ]

President Reagan: Tragic events
now occurring in Poland,

almost two years to the day

after the Soviet invasion
of Afghanistan,

have been precipitated
by public and secret pressure

from the Soviet Union.

The United States
is taking immediate action

to suspend major elements
of our economic relationships

with the Polish government.

Mann:
The first crisis in Poland

provides a vehicle
for Reagan to begin to think

that maybe the communist system
in Eastern Europe

is not as stable
as people imagined.

Moyers:
This is the Pershing missile.

A new version of it
will soon be deployed in Europe.

This is the cruise missile,
also to join NATO's arsenal,

based on European soil

and pointed
toward the Soviet Union

and the Communist Bloc.

Reagan started pushing to have
Pershing missiles in Europe

and say, "We're going t
o really start ratcheting up

The Cold War even further."

Many of the demonstrators
you'll see in the next two days

will be protesting the
deployment of the new missiles.

They fear that,
in the event of war,

this would make Europe
a battlefield

and leave America unscathed.

[ Crowd chanting ]

Kalb: They are,
for the most part, nonviolent,

trapped by geography
on the front line

of the East/West struggle.

The fears in the Cold War period
in the early 1980s

was that if things went wrong,
they would go totally wrong,

that we might be at the cusp
of total nuclear war.

Stahl:
The largest anti-nuclear protest
in U.S. history today

engulfed Manhattan.

Morton:
Police say up to 700,000 --
comparable to the largest

of the anti-Vietnam rallies
of a decade ago.

Clayburgh: This is life.
This isn't political.

This is about
the future of life.

Adelman:
Ronald Reagan thought that the
freeze movement was ridiculous,

that the number
of nuclear weapons --

some 40,000 in the world --
were way too high,

that to freeze them
would lock in Soviet superiority

in certain numbers
that he wanted to eliminate.

In your discussions
of the nuclear freeze proposals,

I urge you to beware
the temptation of pride,

the temptation of declaring
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.

Adelman: Reagan delegitimized
the Soviet Union.

Now, the trouble is,

you're both poised with
these weapons at each other,

which is a terrible way
to live --

mutually assured destruction.

So Reagan said,
"Why don't we do something

and put a protective shield
between us

so that I can have
some other option."

And that was the birth of the
Strategic Defense Initiative,

called SDI -- or, unkindly,
called "Star Wars."

President Reagan:
What if free people

could intercept and destroy
strategic ballistic missiles

before they reached our own soil
or that of our allies?

Valeriani: The United States
is already spending

about a billion dollars a year
on research

into laser and directed energy,
or particle beam weapons --

the kind
of Buck Rogers technology

the president talked about.

Powell: President Reagan didn't
understand all the technologies.

What he understood was, "Wow.

If we have a defensive system

that stops
their offensive missiles,

then their offensive missiles
have no value and we're safe."

Naftali: The Soviets were
very nervous and very afraid.

There is a stasis,

almost a paralysis
at the top of the leadership.

They were fearful
that the Reagan Administration

would take advantage
of their weakness.

As a result of this,
the Soviets are very reactive.

If you were watching
this broadcast last night,

you probably went to sleep with
the same impression we did --

There had been
some kind of a hassle

between Soviet fighter jets
and a Korean Air Lines 747,

and we led you to believe

that the plane had landed safely
on Soviet territory.

Sadly, that was not true.

Shultz:
At approximately 1600 hours,

the aircraft strayed
into Soviet airspace.

The Korean aircraft was reported
by the Soviet pilot

at 10,000 meters.

At 1826 hours,

the Soviet pilot reported
that he fired a missile,

and the target was destroyed.

They went on a peaceful trip.

They weren't any spies
or anything like that.

I think the Russians
are gearing up for war

and doing everything
that they can to prepare for it.

Hoffman: It was not
an intentional hostile act

against Korean Air Lines.

It was a mistake of a system
that was falling apart.

President Reagan:
This crime against humanity
must never be forgotten --

here or throughout the world.

It was an act of barbarism,
born of a society

which wantonly disregards
individual rights

and the value of human life

and seeks constantly to expand
and dominate other nations.

The timing was particularly bad

because the United States
and the Soviets

were not talking at all.

Two great powers
are afraid of each other,

and KL007 happens

almost at the climax
of this period of fear,

and that makes 1983

one of the most dangerous years
of the Cold War.

Service:
Because of the suspicions
about Ronald Reagan,

the Soviet intelligence agencies
thought that under the cover

of a military exercise
called Abel Archer,

a first nuclear strike on Moscow
could be launched.

Brands:
When Reagan discovered

that the Soviets
actually did think

that the United States might
launch a preemptive strike,

it was kind of one
of these moments -- "My gosh.

I'm gonna look upon them
in a different light."

An estimated 100 million
Americans watched last night

as some of the horror
of a nuclear bomb attack

on the United States
was portrayed in a TV movie.

[ People screaming ]

Brinkley:
Reagan processed a lot
of history through movies,

and the fact that this fear
of nuclear annihilation

was very real,
he started feeling

that maybe he was put on Earth
here to avoid nuclear war.

Just suppose with me
for a moment

that an Ivan and an Anya
could find themselves,

oh, say, in a waiting room
with a Jim and Sally

and there was
no language barrier.

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?

They would have proven
that people don't make wars.

Reagan comes to understand
he's made a mistake

by not trying
to meet with the Soviets,

and his desire to do this
gets much stronger

after it becomes clear to him

that there's such a level
of misunderstanding

between the two adversaries

that an inadvertent war
is possible.

This is a CBS News
special report.

Gorbachev takes control.

When the death
of Constantine Chernenko

was announced today,
the world waited to see

who would win the struggle
for control of the Kremlin.

It was a short wait --
just 4 hours and 15 minutes.

Winning that power is
54-year-old Mikhail Gorbachev.

Now the world is watching --

watching what the new
Kremlin leader will do.

Gustafson:
The politburo has reached

for the youngest man
among the four members

and the one
who comes advertised, anyhow,

as the one
most likely to rock the boat.

Phillips: At 54,
Gorbachev is the youngest man

to lead the Soviet Union
since Stalin.

Unlike his predecessors,

Gorbachev might feel
less tied down

by the burden of Soviet history.

Gorbachev is really
a revolution in himself.

He is talking about
a new Soviet Union,

allowing some freedom of speech,
allowing a more open society.

Hoffman:
Gorbachev had seen how the gap

between how the Soviet people
live and what the party said

was growing wider and wider.

But he is a child of the system.

He did not want to destroy it.

He had in his mind,
"I have to save it."

[ Laughter ]

I want him to fight for peace
and for better life.

I think
that he will be a good leader,

and I like him.

Naftali:
Those first couple of years
of the Reagan first term,

Reagan didn't meet
any Soviet leaders.

And when asked about it,

Reagan said,
"Well, they keep dying on me."

Well that was true,

but he wasn't really making
much of an effort.

And there was a fear

that "If you don't
reach out to the Soviets,

they are so afraid of us,
they will do something stupid."

President Reagan
has had a change of heart.

He is now much more eager

to meet with the new leader
of the Soviet Union,

and he has sent
Mikhail Gorbachev a letter

suggesting a summit.

[ Indistinct talking ]

Hayward: All previous summits
had had a communiqué

worked out ahead of time
by the two foreign ministries --

"Here's what we're gonna say
at the end,"

and there'd be some gaps in it

that'd be filled in
during the meetings.

Reagan said, "Nope, we're not
doing any communiqués" --

says, "Whatever comes out
of the summit

will be what we develop
while we're there."

Plante: After 70 minutes
with their advisors,

Mr. Reagan invited Gorbachev

to stroll through the garden
to the pool house,

where they sat alone
before a fire.

Mr. Reagan talked
without notes --

not about arms control,
but of his personal feelings

about reducing the level
of fear and misunderstanding

between the two nations.

The main thing was that they met
each other as human beings.

Reagan, in particular,
had concentrated his attention

on Gorbachev as a person.

He spent more time
studying Gorbachev

than he did the esoteric things
having to do with arms control.

Wallace: It is understood
the president tried to dispel

Gorbachev's negative image
of the U.S.

Gorbachev wouldn't budge.

But he was not nearly
as combative as he's been

with other American officials
recently.

Reporter:
Is this a good sign?

[ Speaking Russian ]

[ Speaking Russian ]

I would think so.

Adelman: I was at lunch
when Ronald Reagan

came out of this first meeting
with Mikhail Gorbachev,

and he said, "This is
a new type of Soviet leader."

Wallace:
The president announced

Gorbachev will visit the U.S.
next year

and that they agreed
to accelerate the arms talks.

But the Soviet leader
was more negative.

Interpreter: The solving
of the most important problems

concerning the arms race
and increasing hopes of peace,

we didn't succeed in reaching
at this meeting.

So, of course, there are
important disagreements

on matters of principle
that remain between us.

Kur: The general feeling here
is that President Reagan

deserves credit
for starting a dialogue

with Soviet leader Gorbachev --

that, in the nuclear age,

any lessening of tension
must be applauded.

But many here pronounced
the summit only a modest success

because it failed
to achieve significant progress

on arms control.

[ Device clicking ]

Dean Reynolds:
The first word that something
was seriously wrong

came from this power plant
in eastern Sweden,

where workers coming on the job
registered

abnormally high levels
of radiation on their bodies.

[ Device clicking ]

And as tests were conducted,

similar, puzzling reports
of high radiation came in

from all over Scandinavia.

But still,
no accidents were reported.

Hager:
Finally, a surprise --

The radiation was coming
from 750 miles away,

at Chernobyl
in the Soviet Union.

A terse announcement picked up
from Radio Moscow.

Reporter: The Soviet government
reports an accident

at the Chernobyl
nuclear power plant

in the Ukraine.

The instinctive reaction
of the Soviet bureaucracy

was to deny that anything
had really happened,

as a result of which,
people died.

Not only were ordinary Soviets

not getting the truth
about Chernobyl,

the top leaders
were not getting the truth.

Gorbachev discovered
that he was also in the dark,

as the Soviet leader.

Rodgers:
Soviet newscasters deliberately
played down the incident,

reporting it
after the latest five-year plan

and crop reports.

Eight or nine minutes
into the news,

an announcer finally said
only two people had been killed

in the incident,
contradicting one news report

that the casualties
numbered in the thousands.

Chernobyl was not
a flash in the pan.

Every few weeks, there would be
something like Chernobyl,

because of the structural
defects of the Soviet system.

Stahl: Officials say
that because this took place

at the Soviet's newest reactor,
it's another indication

of the inferiority
of Soviet technology.

And they say the Soviets
brought on the accident

by not taking the same kind
of safety precautions

taken in the United States.

Naftali:
Chernobyl reminded the Soviets
that they couldn't play

in the game
of modern technology.

They couldn't protect
their own people,

and they couldn't hide it
anymore.

Dobbs:
Gorbachev's biggest challenge

was how to get his country
moving again,

and in order to do that,
he needed to end the arms race,

he needed to spend more money
on improving living standards

of ordinary people,
and for that,

he needed a relaxation
of tensions with the West.

[ Cameras shutters clicking ]

Reporter:
Iceland? Iceland?

Yeah, that's what I was here
to tell you about.

[ Laughter ]

Well, I am pleased to announce

that General Secretary Gorbachev
and I will meet

October 11th and 12th
in Reykjavik, Iceland.

The meeting was proposed
by General Secretary Gorbachev,

and I've accepted.

No agreements
at the meeting next week?

I don't know.

All we've agreed upon is that
we're gonna have a meeting.

[ Helicopter blades whirring ]

Andrews: Gorbachev needs
a show of progress overseas

to boost his stature in Moscow.

The irony of Reykjavik
will be that when Reagan,

the leader of the Free World,
meets Gorbachev, the autocrat,

it will be Gorbachev who most
needs the publicity back home.

[ Indistinct talking ]

At Reykjavik, the feeling was

we didn't have to prepare
all that much.

According to everything we knew,
it was gonna be

a "Howdy" and "Hello,"
a handshake -- a photo op.

And it turned out to be
anything else but that.

After the first morning,
when Reagan and Gorbachev met,

we were called into the embassy,
which is right nearby,

Reagan says,

"Gorbachev really wants
to reduce nuclear weapons."

So he hands a piece of paper
to no one in particular.

[ Laughing ]
All of us try to grab it.

We looked it over,
and it was a "Holy cow" moment.

"This guy really wants
to reduce nuclear weapons."

Here was a Soviet leader
who was not going by the script.

Here was a guy
who wanted to do business.

The first indication
that some progress

may have been made
at today's talks in Reykjavik

came at a White House briefing
here a few minutes ago.

There's no prediction yet
on the outcome of these talks,

but they do give rise
to some optimism.

Stahl: I was up there
as the clock was ticking down.

They had worked and worked
and worked and worked

on an arms-control agreement,

and at the last minute,
it fell apart.

Reporter: Mr. President!

Reporter #2:
Do you have an agreement,
Mr. President?

Do we have
an agreement, sir?

Will you meet again?

Buchanan:
When I saw Reagan come out
of that room with Gorbachev,

his face was a mask of rage,

and Gorbachev was very stiff
walking out,

and the guy beside me said,

"I don't like
the body language."

Rather: President Reagan
and Secretary Gorbachev

appeared to have reached
tentative agreement on much

of a historic breakthrough
arms-reduction arrangement.

But in the end,
the Soviets insisted

that President Reagan must drop
his "Star Wars" program

to get the deal.

President Reagan
wouldn't do that.

Adelman:
The Soviets really feared

that SDI was a lot more real
than it was,

that the Strategic
Defense Initiative

could really protect
the United States.

So it wasn't mutually assured
destruction at that point.

It was assured destruction
of the Soviet Union,

but assured protection
of the United States.

So they went crazy about SDI.

Interpreter: The president
insisted until the end

on retaining
for the United States

the right to test things
relating to SDI.

It would've taken a madman
to accept that.

After Reykjavik,
inside the United States,

there is astonishment,
and beyond that,

fear of what Reagan
has talked about doing --

banning nuclear weapons.

A Reagan Administration move

to sign an arms deal
with the Soviets

was criticized today
by former President Nixon

and former Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger.

The two men said it would be
"a profound mistake"

to eliminate all medium-range
missiles in Europe.

Many conservatives thought

that Reagan had been charmed
by Gorbachev,

and Reagan
actually had more problem

dealing with his hard right
than he did the left.

So Reagan had to constantly
let the right know,

"I know what I'm doing."

Reagan was being accused already
of getting soft on communism,

but he hadn't forgotten
the problems we still had.

Europe is still divided,
there was still a Berlin Wall.

[ Crowd cheering ]

There is one sign
the Soviets can make

that would be unmistakable,

that would advance dramatically
the cause of freedom and peace.

Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate.

[ Crowd cheering ]

Mr. Gorbachev,
tear down this wall.

[ Crowd cheering ]

Baker: It was perfect.
It was beautiful.

And he had to insist
on keeping it in the speech.

And he did it.

Don't let anybody tell you
it was a staffer

or anybody else that did that.

[ Crowd cheering ]

Zelizer:
Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union,

Gorbachev decides to do
something bold,

and he says, "Let's separate SDI

from reducing
the nuclear stockpile."

Once he does this,

it opens up the possibility
for a third summit.

This week's summit may prove
especially important --

even historic.

For the first time since
the onset of the nuclear age,

the United States
and the Soviet Union will sign

a treaty actually reducing
the number of nuclear missiles.

The INF agreement
involved the elimination

of an entire class of weapons --

the intermediate-range
ballistic missiles.

And it changes
the nature of arms control

because you went from
arms control to arms reduction.

You are now getting rid
of nuclear weapons.

Jennings:
Many American conservatives
are afraid

that Mr. Reagan is too anxious
for an arms-control agreement

to ensure his place
in the history books

as a peacemaker.

Well, I haven't changed
from the time

when I made a speech
about an evil empire.

And I think I could sum up
my own position in this

with the recitation
of a very brief Russian proverb.

"Doveryai, no proveryai."

It means "Trust, but verify."

[ Fanfare ]

The importance of this treaty
transcends numbers.

We have listened to the wisdom
in an old Russian maxim,

"Doveryai,
no proveryai" --

"Trust, but verify."

[ Laughter ]

[ Interpreter
speaking Russian ]

[ Speaking Russian ]

You repeat that
at every meeting.

[ Laughter ]

[ Applause ]

I like it.

[ Laughter ]

Hoffman: The improbability
of either of them --

Reagan, the Cold War hawk,
Gorbachev, the party guy --

doing this kind of thing,
it's just unheard of.

And they did it.

Zelizer:
Reagan had been at a low
in 1987 with Iran Contra,

and many Americans
didn't like him,

they didn't trust him.

The negotiations
with the Soviet Union,

in many ways,
saved his presidency.

Jennings:
Well, Mr. Gorbachev may not have
seen much of America,

but he certainly made sure
that a lot of Americans saw him.

Motorcades don't very often turn
a lot of heads in this city,

but when they stop on a dime,
so does everyone else.

Man: I would like
to say hello to you.

I want to say hello to you.

Woman:
That was very special.

He didn't have to do it,
and he did it.

I am very surprised
and pleased.

Reporter: What do you think
of Gorbachev?

The guy is a P.R. genius.

I mean, jumping out of the car
like that -- unbelievable.

Bierbauer: Congressional leaders
say they gave President Reagan

a round of applause at a morning
after the summit meeting,

but there was caution
against euphoria.

Well, it was sort of
a love feast this morning.

Everybody applauded
when the president came in.

Reporter:
The president has now said

that Gorbachev's
a different leader,

that he no longer wants
world domination.

Do you agree?

It's one thing
to sign the INF agreement.

It's something else to follow
through on a number of areas.

I still don't trust him.

Brokaw: Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev tonight

is saying
that the war in Afghanistan

is about to come to an end.

Gilmour: Today's announcement
seems to be another indication

of how anxious the Soviets are

to get themselves
out of Afghanistan,

out of a war
they have not been able to win,

out of a war that has proven
too costly to continue.

Because of Afghanistan,

communism was
no longer affordable.

The idea of promoting
your ideology around the world,

defending its interests
became too expensive.

White House officials
are thrilled at the idea

that when the president arrives
in Moscow

for a summit with Gorbachev
in late May,

it now appears that the Soviets
will have already begun

their pullout from Afghanistan.

[ Fanfare ]

[ Crowd cheering ]

Troy:
Ronald Reagan built his career
saying communism is evil.

And the notion that five years
after his "evil empire" speech,

Ronald Reagan lands in Moscow
and is welcomed and is greeted

is mind-blowing.

And just about like
every other American tourist

who comes to Moscow,

President Reagan today
toured Red Square,

which is the historic center
of this capital, of course.

He had the best possible
tour guide -- Mikhail Gorbachev.

Donaldson:
So friendly was it all
that at one point,

President Reagan threw his arm
around Gorbachev

and, at another point,

completely took back
his "evil empire" pronouncement.

Reporter:
Do you still think you're in
an evil empire, Mr. President?

No.

Why not?

I was talking about another time
and another era.

The warmonger Reagan
is essentially saying

the Cold War looks
as if it's coming to an end.

President Reagan:
Freedom is the recognition
that no single person,

no single authority
or government

has a monopoly on the truth.

It is the right

to put forth an idea
scoffed at by the experts

and watch it catch fire
among the people.

Petersen:
In Gorbachev's Soviet Union,

food has become
even harder to get.

Once, there was a selection --
maybe two or three cheeses.

Now there is only one.

There is a dangerous undertone
to the complaints.

"We ate better," they say,
"in the days of Brezhnev."

There was stress
in the Soviet system

because they were trying
to change it

in a system
that was unchangeable

and unable to adapt
to a modern world.

Gorbachev thought
the United States

is so far ahead of him,

the Soviet system
is so far behind,

"We need to accelerate
the reforms."

Interpreter:
Today, I can report to you
that the Soviet Union

has taken a decision
to reduce its armed forces.

Within the next two years,

their numerical strength
will be reduced by 500,000 men.

The numbers
of conventional armaments

will also be
substantially reduced.

Service:
Gorbachev was relaxing the
Soviets' grip on Eastern Europe.

They didn't really have
much choice about this,

because they couldn't bail out
the East European economies.

So what were they gonna do?

Mann: The impact
in the United States

is that finally,
the critics of Reagan --

and this is in the final month
of his presidency --

acknowledge that things are
fundamentally changing.

[ Applause ]

Jennings: In China today,

change in the name of democracy
was the issue.

More than 100,000 people
defied the government

and took to the streets,
demanding democratic reform.

Mann:
In Beijing, the demonstrations
grow and they grow and they grow

to the point where they reach
a couple million people.

And in the middle of all this,
in comes Mikhail Gorbachev.

This was gonna be a visit

in which
the Chinese Communist Party

hoped to improve its relations
with the Soviets.

As the sun rose here,
it was clear

that the Chinese students'
protest for democracy

is still gaining strength
and urgency.

Students are dropping
from exhaustion,

some now are vowing to die
if necessary.

Naftali: The Chinese leadership
didn't know what to do

but recognized
that they couldn't reform

the way that they were
being pushed to reform.

They couldn't allow this
challenge to their authority.

Thompson: The Soviet leader
largely ducked questions

on China's student issue.

"I cannot be the judge,"
he said.

Forrest Sawyer:
In China tonight,

the government declared
martial law in central Beijing.

Ominously, foreign journalists
face severe new restrictions

that amount to a news blackout.

Chinoy: There is chaos
in Tiananmen Square.

There are bodies and injured
and dead all over the place,

and there is no way
to ascertain for sure

how many people
have been killed or wounded.

Mann: China is now restored

into a deeply repressive
Leninist regime.

It's a question both in Moscow
and throughout Eastern Europe --

"What's Gorbachev's attitude
going to be

towards people who want
to change the communist system?"

Brokaw:
While China's communist rulers

were brutally cracking down
on democracy,

Poland's communist leaders today

were accepting
a form of democracy --

the results
of parliamentary elections --

and admitting that solidarity
was the big winner.

Ensor:
For solidarity supporters,
the taste of victory is sweet.

The numbers are overwhelming.

In a dramatic announcement,

the government conceded defeat
in the election

and promised continued reforms.

Stupendous!

First time it had ever happened

in East European
communist history.

And this was contagious.

One of our producers
from "Prime Time Live"

went into East Germany
posing as a tourist.

Our producer took
a home video camera,

went to Leipzig, and found
an incredible scene there.

[ People screaming ]

Mann: In East Germany,

you see a series
of demonstrations for change,

and the question becomes,

Are these demonstrations gonna
be repressed and wiped out?

What is Gorbachev gonna do?

Petersen: This was the show

of Mikhail Gorbachev's
show-and-tell day,

the guest of East German leader
Erich Honecker

at a military parade through
the heart of East Berlin.

He preached reform,

and he offered
a Gorbachev proverb.

"Those being late," he said,

"will be punished
by life itself."

Baker:
Gorbachev felt like he could put
a happy face on socialism,

that he could modify it.

But the freedom genie
got out of the bottle,

and he couldn't put it back in.

Overseas, time has finally
run out for Erich Honecker,

the 77-year-old leader
of East Germany.

Honecker resigned today.

The official reason given
was poor health,

but growing political unrest
made today's change inevitable.

Jennings: The people have
their government on the run.

Today, in a bid
to convince people

that he's serious about reform,

the East German leader,
Egon Krenz,

who's had the job
for less than a month,

managed to convince
all the members

of the government he inherited
they should resign.

The question is this --
What next?

Sebestyen:
The pressure on the East German
government was getting enormous.

And as part
of the kind of package

to present themselves as human,
there'd been a resolution passed

which was gonna introduce
new rules about immigration.

Gunter Schabowski went
to this press conference.

He hadn't been at the meeting,

so he didn't really know
what was in it,

but he said, "Oh, here's
something I can tell you."

It was the biggest
administrative error in history.

Naftali:
When the East German government

just opened the window
a little bit

and said,
"Well, if you want to move

from East Germany
into West Germany, you may,"

that's all
people needed to hear.

[ Indistinct talking ]

[ Crowd chanting ]

History turns on these
magnificent little pivots.

There are border guards

who could've fired
at these first people.

But they didn't.

Instead of firing on those who
were coming close to the wall,

instead of firing on them,
they just let them do it.

[ Crowd cheering ]

Diane Sawyer:
It is the sort of news

that defies
the possibility of a headline.

What we know is that
we are standing in attendance

at a moment in history,

as you look now
at the Berlin Wall.

Baker:
We didn't really anticipate

that the wall
would come down like that.

But there was
so much pent-up emotion

and so much
of a desire for freedom

that it just overwhelmed them.

But it wasn't anticipated.
It was a surprise.

Powell: Our joy was
just watching the Germans

roll through that wall
and knock it down,

and start making
souvenir slices in it,

and it was
just a truly exciting night,

because we had wanted this
for 40 years,

and now it had happened.

The longtime Communist Party
leader of Bulgaria,

Todor Zhivkov,

suddenly and surprisingly today
announced his resignation.

It turns out that these regimes
are more brittle

than Gorbachev understood.

And it also turned out

that these regimes
couldn't find mini Gorbachevs.

He tried to encourage people
like him

to rise to the fore
in these countries.

They weren't successful.

Baker: Had Gorbachev
decided to use force,

this whole scenario
would've been totally different.

And furthermore,
the Cold War might have ended

in a far different way.

It might have ended with a bang
and not with a whimper.

Utley:
And finally this evening,

how can one sum up
the dramatic human events

we've lived through
these last months?

Perhaps in music.

At a concert tonight
in Berlin --

the conductor
was Leonard Bernstein --

they performed
Beethoven's 9th Symphony,

climaxing in "The Ode to Joy."

Except tonight,
one word was changed.

It became an "Ode to Freedom."

[ "Ode to Joy" plays ]

Reporter: The playwright
and human-rights activist

is Czechoslovakia's
first non-communist president

in 41 years.

John Cochran:
The new rulers of Romania
said tonight

that the deposed despot
Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife

were executed
after a military court

found them guilty of genocide,
stealing state funds,

and trying
to escape prosecution.

From our point of view,
there is simply no argument

about the most remarkable story
of the decade -- freedom.

In some cases, freedom
which had been unthinkable

as the decade began.

[ "Ode to Joy" concludes ]

[ Cheers and applause ]