All right, United States history students
so this is it this intent of the failure
think about this this is an end of a
major chapter what an incredibly long
chapter you guys remember the 1920s in
the Red Scare of the 1920s the Palmer
Raids the foundation of the FBI j.edgar
hoover all that stuff that was really to
beat that was the first Red Scare and
then we had world war two and then we're
the Yalta Conference and then we had the
Truman administration and the Marshall
Plan the Truman Doctrine the Korean War
the Vietnam War the Cuban Missile Crisis
all of these conflicts that related into
the Cold War and for those of us who
grew up in the Cold War and I would be
one of these people I mean this defined
the United States of America there were
two superpowers in the world one was the
USSR they had a communist government an
economic system and the other was the
United States of America and we had a
democratic system in a more capitalist
economic system the USSR had their
friends the USA had we had our friends
and the world was divided and we arrived
in the middle of the 1970s it really
seemed like it was gonna stay like that
forever
in fact in 1975 there was a huge
international meeting called the
Helsinki summit and there was a document
that came out of it called the Helsinki
Accords in which almost every nation in
the entire world but especially the USA
and the USSR agreed that we would
respect and honor all other countries
borders and governments so in other
words there was going to be a communist
world there was gonna be a democratic
world and that was it and we were gonna
stay that way now we're gonna try to
play nice and so there'll be no more you
know Korean Wars and and and and Vietnam
wars and all that so it seemed like in
the middle of the 1970s at the exact
same time where when the Vietnam War
ended that the Cold War was going to
cool down a little bit it wasn't really
gonna be a cold war anymore but we were
just gonna adapt this live-and-let-live
philosophy there's gonna be a communist
part of the world and there's gonna be a
democratic part of the world yeah there
might still be a little tension between
us but hopefully no more fight
but then the 80s came along and the 80s
were a very exciting decade there was
certainly a change that was felt in
international relations and in terms of
what the Americans were doing and what
the Soviets were doing and that really
had a lot to do with the leadership of
both the United States of America under
the Reagan administration and the
leadership of the Soviet Union under the
Gorbachev administration these two
individuals did a whole lot to end the
Cold War so by the time we get to the
end of the 1980s many people believe all
the Cold War is all over and then a
couple years after that on specifically
December the 25th 1991 the USSR
collapsed and there there is no longer a
USSR there is instead the Russian
Federation and several other countries
that broke off of the USSR to form their
own country countries like Estonia
Latvia Lithuania Ukraine so how did all
this happen
how did the Cold War end this is
fantastic story
it's an exciting story but I apologize
my students this might also be a little
bit of a long story because man I love
this stuff so let's go back to where we
left off at the last last lecture let's
go back to the 1970s into the Richard
Nixon administration boy Richard Nixon
was a very complex and interesting
president great guy to study you know he
took office in 1969 vowing to bring
peace with honor with the Vietnam War
and you remember from the last lecture
that he had Henry Kissinger engage in
secret in secret diplomacy and Paris
France with with top North Vietnamese
officials while Nixon began a bombing
campaign of North Vietnam at the same
time we started doing an incursion into
Cambodia and then he also began a
Vietnam
Vietnamese ation process to pull out
more troops and in the end by 1973 we've
got a peace treaty and the Americans are
coming home especially the POWs and so
it was considered or rather it can be
said that he fulfilled his pledge to
bring peace with honor to a certain
degree at least not two years after the
peace treaty the North Vietnamese
violated the peace treaty and the
Americans sort of let them take over
South Vietnam so Nixon did that now
there are other things that Nixon did he
opened up diplomatic relations with
China China was another communist
country and so the way Nixon thought he
thought well okay if China's a communist
country in the Soviet Union is a
communist country and we don't like the
Soviet Union how about if we become
friends with China we become more
friendly with China the United States
had no diplomatic relationship with
China since it had become a communist
country in 1949 Nixon opened up
diplomacy with China originally he sent
over a table tennis team to play
ping-pong with the Chinese since the
Chinese love ping-pong so we engaged in
what Richard Nixon called ping-pong
diplomacy and after that rather
interesting international cultural
phenomenon happened Nixon goes over to
China and he opens up diplomatic
relations and he started Chinese
American trade this economic
relationship that is frequently in the
forefront of the news today was to
actually initiated by Richard Nixon and
what does this do well this makes China
have a more positive relationship with
the United States of America
and maybe this separates China a little
bit from the Soviet Union and so Nixon
feels like he is destabilizing the
Solidarity of the Communist world it was
a very interesting diplomatic move that
he made most people at the time really
admired him for it now the one thing
that people remember Nixon for today is
a very negative thing which is the event
that's commonly referred to as Watergate
what was Watergate well Watergate is
literally an office complex that was
and still is in Washington DC and in
1972 it served one of the offices there
served as the headquarters for the
Democratic Party's headquarters so Nixon
is the Republican candidate for the
presidency in 1972 the Democratic
candidate was a man named George
McGovern and in the summer of 1972 there
was a burglary at the Democratic Party
headquarters in that office in the
Watergate complex and the burglars were
caught they were interesting burglars
because they were all wearing suits and
they were clearly trying to steal not
money but information they were breaking
into the files of the Democratic Party
they were trying to plant two bugs
little microphone so they could listen
in to what was being said in the office
it was clear that this was political
now when the story broke in 1972 it made
the papers but it really wasn't as
important of a story as what was going
on in Vietnam and other things at the
time so people knew about it and there
was of course a trial and an
investigation it was clear that
Republicans were behind this I mean that
should seem obvious but the initial
investigation didn't reveal that the
upper level of the Republican Party knew
anything about this that this was sort
of a poorly conducted low level crime by
a few Republicans who wanted to you know
capture information from the Democrats
and so when you actually got to the
election in November of 70 72 I mean the
Watergate scandal seems like it's just
it's over and done with but then there
were two newspaper reporters from the
Washington Post
their names were Bob Woodward and Carl
Bernstein and these two guys started
investigating and they started talking
to people and they had a secret source
that they met with in a parking garage
who fed them information and they told
that they told the secret source told
Woodward and Bernstein to quote follow
the money these burglars who have gone
to jail have received a whole lot of
money to be quiet
all the money where does the money lead
and so they began doing this
investigation and reporting it in The
Washington Post this more information
that was exposed starts to suggest that
some upper level members of the Nixon
administration in the White House knew
about the-- about the break-in before it
happened that they might have been
conducting it so the Senate gets
involved and they do their investigation
and by the time you get to late 1973 the
Senate is is issuing subpoenas to
Richard Nixon's closest aides and one of
them a guy by the name of John Dean he
lets it be known that the President did
know about the Watergate break-in and
that he was behind it and it's revealed
that Nixon has tape recordings of all of
the people that he talks to in the White
House and that these tapes should reveal
what Nixon knew before the water great
break-in happened and so the tapes are
subpoenaed and as they listened to the
tapes they find that there's large
pieces of the tapes that have been
deleted Richard Nixon's
personal behavior starts to become
strange he begins firing the Attorney
General's who are behind who are doing
the investigation he seems to be acting
a little bit like a guilty man and then
in August of 1974 Richard Nixon becomes
the first and so far the only president
in American history
to resign it seems very likely that had
he not done this Richard Nixon would
have been impeached by the Senate and he
would have been removed from office the
Watergate scandal was a very interesting
thing in 1973 1974 the testimonies in
Congress were actually being broadcast
on television this was a day and age
where we remember only have three
television channels so a lot of people
were really absorbed and the
investigation you know did the president
know was president behind it it's pretty
exciting stuff but overwhelmingly when
the president United States
Amerika resigned in August of 74 it was
a fairly sad and disheartening day for
Americans no matter if they liked Nixon
or if they didn't like Nixon there was
an overwhelming sense that something was
wrong in the United States of America
Vietnam in 1973 even though peace with
honor had been achieved and there was
not yet the fall of Saigon that would
happen the following year but that was a
disheartening thing the entire Vietnam
War experience and then this it really
for a lot of people at the time
reflected a loss of faith in the
government now that's one way to look at
it and sort of it's it's really how a
lot of people felt back then but another
way that you could look at this whole
Watergate scandal is that government
works our founding fathers in the
Constitution of the United States knew
that all people are human beings
including presidents they're not perfect
and that should a president engage in
what the Founding Fathers called high
crimes and misdemeanors then there is a
process by which this president can be
removed from office this is so nobody is
above the law and when it starts to be
revealed that in all likelihood Richard
Nixon knew about the Watergate break-in
before it happened approved of the
burglary then the wheels of government
went into motion to investigate him and
to put him in and to begin the process
of impeachment but it never got to that
state and Richard Nixon resigned so it
was a disheartening moment for many
Americans at the time there was a sense
that our country and our government is
not in a good place right now but at the
same time the Constitution is working
all right so when President Richard
Nixon resigns the vice president United
States takes over now Richard Nixon's
original vice president was a man named
Spiro Agnew but Spiro Agnew had
previously resigned because he was
caught in a financial scandal he had
done illegal things and he had to resign
before Nixon once again a lot of people
were upset with the government so
Richard Nixon had appointed another vice
president he was confirmed by the Senate
he was from Mich
hey and coincidentally he played
football for the University of Michigan
he had also been on the Warren
Commission that had investigated the
assassination of John F Kennedy
and his name was Gerald Ford some people
like to say that Gerald Ford is the only
president never to have been elected and
that's true nobody elected him he was
appointed by Nixon and approved by the
Senate and when the very first thing
that Gerald Ford does is he pardons
Richard Nixon's Richard Nixon for any
crimes he might have committed related
to the Watergate event so even after
Richard Nixon resigned a lot of people
thought well he's still going to be
placed on trial for an illegal activity
and Ford says no and he proclaims our
long national nightmare is over John
Ford ran for president in 1976 to be
elected on his own terms but he did not
get elected probably at this point of
time after the Nixon in 40 years and all
that had happened especially with the
Watergate scandal I think a lot of the
American people wanted to drift away
from the Republicans and elect a
Democrat and a very different type of
Democrat and so Jimmy Carter was elected
president in 1976 and he took the oath
of office in January of 1977 Jimmy
dinner Timmy Carter was elected
president 1976
in large part because he was not a
Washington insider he was a very humble
man he was from Georgia
he was a peanut farmer he did serve in
the Navy in World War two and he was
pretty much the opposite of Nixon Jimmy
Carter was not a cocky individual he was
a very humble individual he was also
very straightforward and very honest
there's not a lot of political schmooze
and swagger with Jimmy Carter probably
no political schmooze and swagger with
Jimmy Carter whatsoever it's best to
think of him as a farmer from Georgia
and for a lot of Americans in 1976 that
seemed to be a bit of a welcome change
Jimmy Carter did something very
interesting in his inauguration when
Nixon was inaugurated in January of 1969
protesters mostly vietnam war protesters
lined the streets and threw eggs at his
car they held up posters with
obscenities on them and this was due to
the division and they anger in the
United States due to the Vietnam War
but look at Jimmy Carter here and his
and his wife Rosalynn they actually
during the inaugural parade got out of
their car and walked this was a symbolic
act to show that they were one with the
people they were not behind bulletproof
glass in the car and they were out and
walking and this parade like atmosphere
there's no sense that they're better
than anybody else there it's sort of
like they're pretty much saying hey
we're one of you and hey isn't this a
nice thing with American presidencies
since presidents have limited terms and
when we get tired of one type of
president and one political party in
charge for a while on them the other
political party comes around there's
usually this extreme contrast especially
when when one president goes out and the
other one comes in and the carter
administration reflected this in January
of 1977 now how did you McCarter do as
president of the United States of
America for a lot of Americans not not
not that great the 1970s are not
considered to be a great time things
weren't good so here's some of the
things that happened that America had to
deal with the United States of America
will lied a lot on foreign oil
especially oil that came from the Middle
East and one thing our country could do
was a shop around for you know whichever
country in the Middle East could offer
oil at the cheapest price and in the
1970s these countries that produced oil
they all got together and essentially
formed a union and said we're going to
band together and we're going to agree
all of us on the price that we will sell
our oil to the United States of America
or anybody this organization was called
OPEC OPEC stands for the Organization of
Petroleum Exporting
countries and so pretty much what this
means is the United States of America
can't get its gas for as cheap as before
and this helps lead to an energy crisis
so in the 1970s it was not uncommon for
gas stations to run out of gasoline no
we're Americans we're very dependent
upon gasoline for our personal cars for
airplanes for trucks for boats we need
gas and so with limited gas you would
have gas stations run out of gas and
then gas would be rationed in particular
ways depending upon your license-plate
number you would only be able to get gas
on certain days that was a method of
rationing gas but obviously this was not
good for the economy and it was really
annoying for a lot of Americans so was
Jimmy Carter's response to this Jimmy
Carter represented conservation he said
we shouldn't use as much one of the
things that happened during the Jimmy
Carter Administration is the speed limit
on interstates was lowered from 70 miles
an hour to 15 85 miles an hour so in
other words Americans are now expected
to drive slower that way will conserve
more gas it probably doesn't take too
much imagination to understand why a lot
of people when they found out that the
president said hey we want you I want
you to drive slower we're kind of
annoyed with the President of the United
States the other thing that Jimmy Carter
encouraged Americans to do was to do
what he did in a White House turn down
the thermostat that'll save energy as
well turn down the thermostat and wear a
sweater so turn down that thermostat
from 1772 degrees Fahrenheit maybe 66
degrees Fahrenheit that's a little
chilly but hey put on a sweater conserve
energy
some people were ok with this yeah
conserving energy that's good for the
environment what other people felt like
no I should be able to drive as fast as
I want or I want if I want to heat my
home I should be able to heat my home
and this was the 1970s probably the
worst thing that happened during the
Carter Administration was an event
called the Iran hostage crisis the
country of Iran is in the middle
it borders Iraq Iraq it is it it had
been on very friendly terms with the
United States of America following World
War two and then in the 1950s in the
1950s the United States of America
supported a king of Iran and this king
of Iran was very friendly to the West
but he was also a king so Iran wasn't
necessarily democratic and in 1979 there
was a revolution now here's what you
need to know about the revolutionaries
who overthrew the government of Iran in
their capital city of Tehran Iran they
were fundamentalist conservative Muslims
they did not like the United States of
America that they perceived as propping
up this king in the 1950s the king who
was referred to as the Shah was actually
out of her out not in Iran at the time
of the revolution he was in the United
States of all places receiving medical
treatment and these fundamentalist
conservative Muslims who overthrew the
government they didn't like the Unites
States of America and they referred to
the United States of America as the
Great Satan they believed that American
culture was evil so in the process of
the revolution young men students who
are in the capital city of Tehran
besieged the American Embassy they broke
into the embassy and the embassy is
technically American soil so this was I
guess you can sort of config call it an
invasion of the United States they break
into this building they break into the
American Embassy and they capture the
Americans who were working at the
embassy and they hold them hostage and
this was the Iran hostage crisis now
your Jimmy Carter what are you gonna do
how do you rescue these hostages
I mean hostage situation is a very
delicate situation because if you just
try to go and rescue them well the
hostages can always get killed by the
people who are holding them hostage but
Jimmy Carter did
launched a rescue operation for the
hostages and this turned out to be a
debacle this is a terrible image of what
happened our military went into Iran
flying these Apache helicopters they got
caught up in a dust storm and they
crashed the image that you see at the
bottom of the screen is the charred
remains of an American pilot who was
part of this rescue operation the
operation was a complete failure in the
United States of America and
specifically President Carter comes out
looking like well looking very foolish
Jimmy Carter will spend the remainder of
his administration attempting to
negotiate the release of the hostages
will those hostages ever come home yes
they will the Iranian government the new
revolutionary Iranian government
arranges to have those hostages sent
back to the United States of America
that day that Jimmy Carter steps down
from office
another major international event that
happened during the Carter
Administration was the Soviet Union
invaded a country to the south of it
called Afghanistan why did he die why
did the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan
in the year 1979 well in the capital
city of Kabul Afghanistan there were
communists that took power in 1979 and
then they were forcibly removed from
power the Soviet Union used this event
in Kabul Afghanistan as an excuse to go
into Afghanistan to support the
Communists there who were trying to take
control of the country and so the Soviet
Union invaded Afghanistan this
mountainous country that is part of the
Himalayan mountain range because the
Afghan people and the Afghan again
government are very well their
civilization is very undeveloped they
don't have major industries there's not
a lot of manufacturing that takes place
in Afghanistan
their military isn't seen isn't really
seen to be a very strong military the
Soviet Union when they went invade that
when they invaded in 79 they thought
that this was going to be a very swift
and easy takeover of an undeveloped
country and the Soviet Union was very
wrong
one way to understand the soviet-afghan
war which lasts from 1979 to 1988 is
that it's sort of like our Vietnam War
I mean Vietnam very rural it's very
undeveloped they didn't really have a
strong military that at least not a
traditionally strong military so people
thought probably back in the early 60s I
Vietnam who are they will be able to
destroy him in a week and we were cocky
and we were wrong and that's what the
Soviets did in Afghanistan they thought
this was gonna be easy and it was not
which is why a lot of people call the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan the
Soviet Union's Vietnam War all right but
we don't really know that back in 1979
but we look at the Soviet Union as doing
this incredibly aggressive move trying
to take over another country so the
United States how do we respond
President Carter how do we respond do we
send troops over to Afghanistan and we
send guns and over to Afghanistan what
do we do Jimmy Carter does none of that
his most significant response to the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was to
boycott the 1980 Olympics which were to
be held in Moscow that year so in other
words our way of showing our disapproval
to the Soviet Union was to hold our
athletes back and say we're not gonna
participate in the Olympics do the
Olympics still happen yes they do it's
just the United States is not there as a
form of protest now I imagine what the
American response of this is gonna be
we don't participate in the 80 Summer
Olympics we did it participate in the
Winter Olympics which happened here in
the United States and York but for many
Americans there was a great deal of
frustration about this there was a
feeling like come on the Soviets have
done this bad evil thing at least let us
kick their butt in basketball and did
this protest have any effect on the
Soviet Union no not really what it meant
is the Soviets actually took the
majority of the gold medals in the 1980
Summer Olympics this was probably a very
poor political move on the part of Jimmy
Carter two and a half years into his
administration Jimmy Carter gave one of
the most interesting presidential
addresses in all of American history in
this address of July 15 1979 he meant to
address the energy crisis and his
conservation policies and in this
address he gets spiritual he tries to be
absolutely honest with the American
people
he states openly and some people just
felt like this was a brutally honest
speech he states openly the American
people have lost their confidence in the
American government and we're forgetting
what it means to be an American we're
forgetting the spirit of our founding
fathers we're losing our collective
identity and were only concerned about
our own individual selfish pursuits
we're losing our American spirit and as
he addressed the American nation live on
television he pounds his desks a couple
of times while he's saying this it was a
spiritual speech it was also a
moralizing speech now some people when
they hear this speech they feel what the
president wanted them to feel which is
yes we need to do more to make America
wonderful we need to remember the vision
of our founding fathers we need to
become a family again work hard to take
care of each other but many other people
didn't like the moralizing now what they
sort of felt was a condescending tone of
the President of the United States of
America and this speech
coupled with his reaction President
Carter's reaction to the invade Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan coupled with the
unresolved hostage crisis all these
things paved the way for his loss in the
1980 election to the Republican
contender
the former Governor of California a man
by the name of Ronald Reagan and just
like Jimmy Carter was a very different
president from Gerald Ford and Richard
Nixon Ronald Reagan will be a very
different president from Jimmy Carter
and Ronald Reagan will play a very
important role in the ending of the Cold
War era Ronald Wilson Reagan will serve
two terms as president of the United
States of America from 1981 until 1989
his presidency will define the 1980's
one cannot talk about the 1980s without
discussing the impact of the Ronald
Reagan administration's and throughout
the entire scope of all American history
Ronald Reagan is typically considered to
be one of the greatest conservative
Republican presidents he passed away in
2004 and today he's considered to be a
bit of an icon so let's learn at least a
little bit about Ronald Reagan who he
was where he came from before we get
into what type of president he was
Ronald Reagan was born into a family of
actors both his mom and his dad were in
the entertainment business while
Reagan's childhood was defined by moving
around from town to town to town within
the United States of America a sad but
very formative aspect of Ronald Reagan's
youth was the fact that his dad was an
alcoholic and this was very embarrassing
for a young Ronald Reagan when Ronald
Reagan was only in elementary school his
dad came home one night drunk and passed
out in the front yard and little Ronald
Reagan had to go and drag
dad in to the house from the front yard
and this was a very embarrassing thing
no child should ever have to pull their
drunk dad in from the front yard while
the neighbors are watching so this had
an impact on long Ronald Reagan when he
grew up he avoided alcohol as an adult
man when he would go to parties and he
would be offered a drink he accepted it
he didn't want to be rude and he didn't
want to stand out as different but he
would only barely sip it Ronald Reagan
spent a lifetime avoiding intoxication
as a boy and a young man and all the way
through his adulthood
Ronald Reagan spent a lot of time not
talking about himself and his personal
experiences but rather when he engaged
in conversation with people he liked
making jokes this made him the young man
who was always fun to be around he'd
tell jokes he'd make you laugh and on
top of that he was an athlete he played
football and he all-around enjoyed
sports he was sort of seemingly the
all-american boy now take a moment to
look at this photograph right here this
is a photograph of a very young Ronald
Reagan in his late teens and as you can
see he was a lifeguard this was a summer
job for Ronald Reagan now of all the
presidents that we've talked about in
the United States history I don't think
I've ever talked about the summer job
that any of these presidents had when
they were a boy but I will with Reagan
and here's why after Ronald Reagan was
president in the year 1994 Ronald Reagan
publicly announced that he had
Alzheimer's and that he would begin to
remove himself entirely from public life
now I assume that most of you know what
Alzheimer's is it's a brain disease it
literally eats away the brain and the
consequence of this brain disease is you
lose your memory Ronald Reagan would
pass away in the year 2004 so for the
last ten years of his life he was
completely removed from the public where
he sadly gradually lost his memory he
forgot
almost everything about his life he
forgot that he was president of the
United States for two terms he forgot
that he helped to end the Cold War he
forgot about his acting career prior to
being a president he forgot that he was
governor of California during the 1960's
he even and this is very sad sometimes
didn't recognize his own wife or members
of his own family when they came to
visit him but what's amazing is the one
thing Ronald Reagan never forgot was
that he was a lifeguard as a teenage boy
so his family when they came to visit
him they would ask him to recall the
stories of being a lifeguard
they brought this very portrait to his
room and set it up so that he could look
at it it's interesting to think about
how our brain works and if one of us
should suffer from Alzheimer's all of
all the things that we're gonna forget
what is it that our brain is going to
remember and is there any significance
to that so whenever I think about the
character of Ronald Reagan where are the
things that I always try to remember is
his identity was intertwined with being
a lifeguard
now when Ronald Reagan entered his 20s
he followed the career path of his
parents and he became an actor and he
became relatively famous by the 1940s
and 1950s most Americans have heard of
Ronald Reagan of all of the films that
he made the one of there were a couple
of films that he was particularly proud
of one is a bit of a psychological film
in which Ronald Reagan become seriously
injured and how he copes with being
seriously injured and that film is
called Kings row and the other one is a
great football film which is probably
his most popular film let's remember
today and that's called and that film is
called Knute Rockne All American in
which Ronald Reagan's stars as the
football hero that he probably always
wanted to be now in the 1960s come
around and most Americans have
televisions Ronald Reagan got a job
hosting a daytime television series and
which they showed old movies and Ronald
Reagan hosted the movies and so he would
talk about the movies sort of before and
after commercial breaks and one of the
things that Ronald Reagan started doing
and one of the reasons why Ronald Reagan
got fired from this job is that he
started offering political commentary
during the film or I'm sorry not during
the film but as he's talking about the
film now interesting Ronald Reagan was
not always a conservative Republican
from his childhood through the early
1960s Ronald Reagan like many people of
his generation was greatly inspired by
the great Democratic President Franklin
D Roosevelt and Reagan was a big
supporter of Roosevelt and the New Deal
and the Democratic Party but with a
1960s role around the early 1960s Ronald
Reagan felt himself drifting more and
more and more towards conservative
politics and it was this conservative
political commentary during it that he
was issuing during these jobs where he's
supposed to be talking exclusively about
the film that first get him fired
but also it gets the attention of the
Republican Party because now here is a
famous American who is handsome he's
funny and he's politically conservative
so needless to say Ronald Reagan would
probably make a popular Republican
candidate in the 1960s he was very
supportive of Barry Goldwater if you
remember who Barry Goldwater was from
the Vietnam War lectures and then Reagan
gets into politics himself and because
Reagan is a Hollywood film star he's
living in California although he himself
owns a ranch up in on central California
around Sacramento Reagan becomes the
Governor of California for a period of
time during the 1960s and Reagan begins
developing and advocating for a
particular conservative view on American
politics
and on the roll he believes the United
States should play in relationship to
other countries especially in in the
Cold War how the United Sates America
should interact with the Soviet Union
and other communist countries so if
there is any phrase that we can best
associate with what Ronald Reagan thinks
about the government and the role of
government and and what it should be in
our lives it's this Ronald Reagan would
say the problem with government is
government so what's this mean all right
from Ronald Reagan's perspective even
though he was very influenced by
Franklin D Roosevelt during the 1930s
during the Great Depression era Ronald
Reagan by the time we get to the 60s
does not like the trend that began with
Franklin D Roosevelt and I'm talking
about the New Deal plans the idea that
the United States government should be
the caretaker for the people so Franklin
D Roosevelt who's one of the greatest
Democratic presidents in American
history he wanted to save America during
the Great Depression and how does he do
this he begins taxing the wealthiest
people millionaires in particular if you
are a millionaire during the FDR years
of the Great Depression seventy five
percent of your income is going to be
taxed the government then collects this
money and creates opportunity and
security for everybody in the United
States of America so these would be the
New Deal plans things like the Tennessee
Valley Authority the Civilian
Conservation Corps you remember all that
alphabet soup from the 1930s so we begin
to have increased taxation and the
government providing more jobs and
opportunity for everybody in the United
States
we have social security that comes
around Medicare and Medicaid and this
continues on through the 1960s where you
have lyndon b johnson and his reforms a
Civil Rights Act the Voting Rights Act
the Great Society geared towards ending
poverty in the United States of America
this had been the movement of the United
States or especially the Democratic
presidents from FDR all the way through
Jimmy Carter
in the late 1970s and by the time we get
to 1980 when Ronald Reagan successfully
runs for president the American economy
was in a state of what they called back
then stagflation stagflation is a
combination of two words stagnation and
inflation what had become stagnant were
wages people weren't getting a pay
increase they weren't making more money
but at the same time that your paycheck
is remaining the same we're having
inflation so goods are costing more and
more and more money and the Carter
Administration had not really been able
to deal with this economic recession of
the late 1970s and into the early 1980s
it lasted and if you remember Jimmy
Carter's general attitude was be more
conservative and I don't mean
conservative there and the political
sense I mean it in terms of your use of
energy use of gasoline and maybe be
willing to cut back on your personal
spending Jimmy Carter was definitely not
a materialist he was personally a very
spiritual man he was a very Christian
man and in his crisis of confidence
speech he tried to tell Americans to let
go of your desire to be a greedy
individualistic person we're all in this
together we should all pull together as
a team we should all work hard together
and he had vocht some of the imagery of
the founding fathers and the struggles
they went forward through to form our
country and we shouldn't forget that and
we should remember we're all a country
we should think collectively not
individualistically and those were
powerful words for some people they were
condescending moralistic words for other
people but the fact remained that the
economy wasn't that great if you wanted
to buy a house or a car in the late
1970s there were incredible interest
rates that you'd have to pay in order to
you know once you got your loan and you
had to pay the bank back and not
everybody had the money to do that so
along comes Reagan and what's Reagan say
Reagan says the problem with government
is government and what we need to now do
is reverse the tide
of creating a bigger and bigger
government with more government
institutions and more government
regulations we need to begin cutting all
that back so one of the very first
things that Reagan does when he becomes
president in January of 1981 is he
begins instituting economic reforms as
Reagan himself said we're going to turn
the bull loose as in the wall street
bowl all right there are several terms
that are that are used to describe
Reagan's economic policy
some people just simply call it
Reaganomics
probably a more easy to comprehend
metaphor for his economic policy is
called trickle-down economics a more
technical term for this is supply-side
economics so here is the theory of
Reagan's economic policy the first thing
Reagan says we're going to do is cut
taxes and cut taxes significantly now
with fewer taxes the government is going
to have far less cash to be able to fund
federal organizations organizations for
like the National Endowment for the Arts
less money for scientific research less
money for national parks
this means that organizations like these
and other organizations dozens of other
organizations they're gonna have to
start cutting programs they're gonna
have to start letting people go
in other words firing employees because
they can't afford to pay them it also
means that they're gonna be
organizations like the SEC the security
and exchanges Commission or the FDA the
Food and Drug Administration they're
going to have less funny funding which
means they're not going to be able to do
their jobs as effectively they're not
going to be able to regulate the banks
if it's the SEC or they're not going to
be able to monitor or regulate trading
on the stock market as well the FDA
might not be able to monitor food as
well or to regulate you know the food
that's being sold in grocery stores and
you might think to yourself
sounds awful less money for the Arts for
Sciences parks there's deregulation and
those are all important things in the
United States of America so why would we
cut that okay but here's the flipside of
all this and here's where the metaphor
of trickle-down economics should help
you understand
you know what Ronald Reagan is thinking
first of all when we cut taxes that
provides you as an individual American
with more money and that's a good thing
because if you have more money then you
can live a more secure life and this
makes you probably feel better knows I
don't think too many people out there
who don't enjoy having more money but
then you can also spend that money so
here we go this is what trickle-down
economics means if I have more money
than I can do more stuff with that money
I can use that money to go out and maybe
buy a car and that will help to
stimulate the automobile industry I
would be able to maybe invest more in
other companies and that would stimulate
what other companies I'm investing in
and then with deregulation that provides
more opportunities for those companies
to do things to make more money and so
what you're hearing here is hopefully
more money more money more money more
money than the American economy is going
to rebound and so that's what
trickle-down economics is and so if you
take a look at the image I have here on
this slide hopefully that makes sense
more people who have more money will
then therefore go out and spend that
money more people buying things means
more opportunity for sales for
businesses individuals have more stuff
businesses are making more money and
then from the business side of things
with deregulation there's more
opportunity for growth it also might
mean as a business you be able to do
some shady things to make your money but
you're still gonna make money and the
economy is going to grow so in a great
way to understand trickle-down economics
is to think about the wealthiest of
Americans now FDR's attitude was if
you're a millionaire we're going to tax
75 percent of your income with Ronald
Reagan he's like no we're gonna do the
exact opposite we're gonna allow you to
be as filthy stinking rich as you
can be because if you are super rich
then you're gonna go and you're gonna
buy you know mansions and Ferraris and
you know a yacht or whatever you're
gonna hire people to clean your house
for you you do all these things and
doing those things actually Genet like
is a boon for the economy it helps to
generate economic growth you're also
gonna probably invest your money into
companies as to help them grow and so a
small company gets an investment from a
from a millionaire that's great for that
small company and so it benefits all and
so hopefully I'm home for explaining
this you understand the concept of
trickle-down economics all right so this
was Reagan's plan and he begins
instituting it almost immediately in
1981 cut taxes cut government programs
reduce government spending let the
people have more money for Ronald Reagan
what was gonna save the the United
States of America was the
entrepreneurial capitalistic spirit that
he believed our country was founded on
all right now the big question is did
this work did the United States of
America have an economic rebound during
the Reagan administration
all right so in order to answer this
question it sort of depends on how you
look at it let's look at it first as you
know did this work for the night seats
of America in the 1980s and then did it
last
okay so first did it work yes it worked
was there economic growth in the 1980s
yes there was economic growth in the
1980s with Reagan's policies it sure was
a lot easier to will be able to afford a
home or a car by the time you get to the
late 1980s than it was 10 years before
in the late 1970s there was economic
growth now did it last
so the deregulation specifically of
banks ended up causing some trouble when
you get to the end of the 1980s going
into the early 1990s in 1989 there was
something called the savings and loan
crisis essentially what was happening in
the late 1980s because of deregulation
there were particular bankers who were
taking
people's money people who had invested
who would put their money into savings
accounts into banks and these bankers
were using this money for themselves to
invest in that they could make money for
themselves and then you know put that
money and you know give said hopefully
give the money back to the people but
anyway you had bankers who were using
people's money in a way that they
weren't allowed to and they tended to be
investing in what they called high-yield
investments you know these essentially
big gamble investments that would have a
big payoff in the end and this is not
legal they were not allowed to be doing
this but because of deregulation there
wasn't much oversight and they could get
away with it for a while until they
didn't make their money back and the
banks began to foreclose and the people
who put their money into these banks
they lost their money and this sparked a
recession in the early 1990s and because
there was this recession in the early
1990s some historians believe that this
is why in the year 1992 which was an
election year a democratic kid the
Democratic candidate whose name was Bill
Clinton was able to become president
because the Democrats were able to
criticize the Republicans on these lacks
two regulatory rules or this lacks
deregulation rather excuse me all right
so the trickle-down economics work well
it's up for you to decide there's my
brief and probably very incomplete
summary of it now the one thing
trickle-down economics did and Reagan's
attitude towards the government and this
whole economic theory that you should be
allowed to get as rich as possible and
and by pursuing wealth that actually
benefits everybody this had an enormous
cultural impact on the 1980s for some
people this defines the 1980s and this
certainly is reflected in the arts and
entertainment of the 1980s such as
television shows especially in the early
and mid 1980s television shows that
celebrated the lives of the wealthiest
Americans all fictitious people but you
know these super rich people television
shows like
Dallas television shows like Falcon
Crest television shows like the one that
you see this image of here dynasty and
all of these shows were extraordinarily
popular shows that a lot of adults
watched and for younger people in the
1980s people like me your teacher
there were pop stars that we saw
celebrating this new pursuit of
materialism and wealth and probably the
best example of a pop musician who
celebrated being wealthy and
materialistic would be the pop singer
that you see here Madonna Madonna
released her second album in 1984 it was
a highly socially controversial album
called like a virgin and the song like a
virgin was highly controversial for
sexual reasons but another single on the
song that was extraordinarily popular
was this one it was called Material Girl
slightly less controversial than like a
virgin but certainly noteworthy and
interesting in how Madonna unabashedly
celebrates material pursuits it's okay
to be wealthy
here are some lyrics let's take a listen
but perhaps the most famous example for
throughout the 1980s of this Reaganomics
attitude comes from not a song but a
film film comes it came out in the late
1980s it was called Wall Street and it
starred Michael Douglas as this big-time
executive who could be ruthless in his
pursuit of wealth he could be ruthless
and in terms of how he destroyed other
companies and there's this very famous
moment in this film in which he explains
here's why he's doing this here's here's
his justification of his pursuit of
wealth and he explains how and here's
the quote greed is good so we're gonna
listen to this excerpt and I want you to
pay attention to you I mean the whole
thing it's very short but also at the
end of it at the end of his little
speech here you get the Ronald Reagan
idea of the profit that the problem with
government is government because he
criticizes the United States government
for being a failing corporation alright
here we go let's take a listen I I am a
liberator of them the point is ladies
and gentlemen that greed for lack of a
better word is good greed is right greed
works greed clarifies and captures greed
for life for money for love knowledge
has marked an upward surge of mankind
and greed you mark my words well not
only save Teldar paper but that other
malfunctioning corporation called the
USA thank you very much all right now
there was a new word in the 1980s used
to describe people who subscribe to this
lifestyle in this culture of the pursuit
of material goods in the pursuit of
wealth
they were called in full young urban
professionals but nobody called them
that back in the 80s this was they were
simply called yuppies and the yuppies
were people like you see stereotyped
here
they liked fine clothes they liked new
devices they liked extravagant
lifestyles their car of choice was
always a BMW and these were the yuppies
of the 1980s and you think well boy has
American culture changed in the 1960s we
had the hippies and the hippies were the
opposite of all this they didn't want to
pursue material goods and wealth and
extravagant living no what did the
hippies value the hippies valued free
love expanding your consciousness drugs
rock and roll they some of them want to
live with him next to nothing in a
commune in Northern California or they
wanted to huddle together with like 12
other people in a town home in the
Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco
those were they hippies and you're like
wow the hippies and the yuppies these
are the exact opposite and in some cases
some of these former hippies from the
60s now become the yuppies of the 1980s
and in some cases there are the old
hippies from the 60s who just are
absolutely disgusted with the yuppies of
the 1980s and this kind of clash between
the hippie mentality and the yuppie
mentality also came out in a television
sitcom in the 1980s that was very
popular it was also when I was growing
up one of my personal favorite shows it
was called family ties now family ties
is sort of your all-american family
sitcom television show but part of the
family drama of family ties was you had
a mom and a dad that you see here and
mom and dad are old sixties hippies they
have a hippie attitude they are anti
materialistic they believe in love they
love rock music the dad works for her
and I forget what mom does but dad works
for the public television station so he
works for Pia
yes right and then there are the kids
and of all the kids the one that draws
the most attention is the boy now this
is the Keaton family and the boy's name
is Alex P Keaton who is played by the
young actor Michael J Fox now I'm
assuming not a lot of you have seen the
television show of family ties but you
may have heard of Michael J Fox he
became even more famous when he starred
in a film series called Back to the
Future now in family ties he plays a
very different type of character than he
did and back to the future where he was
a skateboarding time traveler and family
ties he represents a young Republican of
the Reagan era and so hopefully you can
see how this is gonna lead to some
comedy how the hilarity will ensue
because you've got mom and dad who are
trying to raise their son to be
anti-materialistic and not to pursue
well and their son who's a young Reagan
Republican he had a huge poster of
Richard Nixon in his bedroom
his favorite board game is monopoly he
will frequently like you see here in
this image wear a shirt and tie and
sometimes a suit to school he doesn't
carry a backpack he doesn't wear a
backpack but he'd rather carries a
briefcase that was the character of Alex
P Keaton portrayed by Michael J Fox now
the other reason why I always like to
talk about family ties is because let me
show you this image of all the sitcoms
in American history this is the only one
that I know of that was situated in
Columbus Ohio so this is I think reason
enough to go back and occasionally watch
the old episodes of family ties because
a it takes place in our hometown of
Columbus
alright so let's watch a film clip of
family ties and Alex peak heat and kind
of revealing his Reagan Republican
attitude here let's have some fun with
this okay yeah we're gonna need a
business manager to help us avoid paying
taxes
attack is a terrible hairy liberal
monster the only thing they can stop the
terrible attacks monsters is a
Republican
who wants to be a Republican all right
now Ronald Reagan is going to be one of
the major players in ending the Cold War
so let's talk about his attitude towards
the Soviet Union and towards communism
as a whole when Ronald Reagan first
becomes president in 1981 he certainly
did not seem like he was going to end
the Cold War but rather really heated up
he doesn't want to be friendly or
diplomatic with the Soviet Union he
wants to be really tough on him he
really perceives them as evil and he
actually uses this word evil when he's
giving a speech to evangelical
Christians in Florida in 1983 and it's
in this speech he cautions his listeners
don't think of and I'm and I'm
paraphrasing Reagan here he says don't
think of the Cold War as some big
misunderstanding
where both sides are equally at fault
democracy is right and communism is bad
this is a struggle of good against evil
and we are on the right side and in this
speech and here's where I actually have
quotes because this is exactly what he
says he refers to the Soviet Union as an
evil empire of course the Soviet Union
is going to know about all of these
speeches and they're gearing up there
they're starting to feel like oh the
United States of America might be ready
to go to war with us and the Soviet
Union has even more reason to fear when
Ronald Reagan as much as Reagan loves
cutting the federal budget for almost
every branch of Earth or not sorry not
every branch of government but rather
rather every department in the
government the National Endowment for
the Arts the the National Park Service
all that the one thing he actually
increases federal spending for and quite
significantly mind you is United States
military and our defense essentially the
United States of America begins flexing
its muscles its military might
during the Reagan administration we
don't cut back the amount of nuclear
weapons that we are producing we
increase the number of nuclear weapons
that we produce Ronald Reagan our
Lifeguard President believes strongly in
that the United States and military the
job of the United States military is to
protect the American people and we
should build up and strengthen and
celebrate the United States military we
have the ability to come up with the
most technologically advanced submarines
battleships and fighter planes in the
world including this one which was
developed in the early 1980s
this is the b-1b this is an airplane
that flies faster than any other
airplane it flies twice the speed of
sound and it's a bomber so we can fly
super fast to a target destination
bom-bom-bom turn around and get away
faster than any other plane can chase it
down it cost nearly 300 million dollars
per plane to produce and for the
Americans this makes us feel good we've
got this great weapon of war to defend
our country but for the Soviets the
Americans seem to be in both word and in
action acting very aggressively like
they're getting ready for a major
military conflict and this puts the
Soviets on edge but this reflects Ronald
Reagan's way of thinking America is
right democracy and capitalism is right
for him it's very black-and-white
there's no gray area here communism is
evil and we are going to develop our
capitalist economy we're going to
develop our military and we're gonna be
ready if it happens for a fight now let
me be clear
Reagan does not want the fight he simply
wants to be able to defend the United
States of America he also knows this
about the Soviet Union the economy of
the Soviet Union in the early 1980s was
struggling he knows that the United
States economy is stronger than the
Soviet economy so here's what he's
thinking okay if I build a hundred more
nuclear missiles then the Soviet Union
is going to feel like uh-oh the United
States has more nuclear missiles we have
to build more nuclear missiles so
they'll start spending money on new
missiles now when they start spending
money on nuclear missiles that's less
money they have to feed their people and
to provide goods and services for their
people which might cause a revolt within
the United within this USSR so by
building up the American military the
Soviet Union will feel you'll need to
respond maybe they want to build a b1 b2
or something like it and when the Soviet
Union starts doing that they won't have
the money to take care of the people
people revolt and maybe even overthrow
the communist system and this of the
Soviet Union so by developing our
military and by pouring billions of
dollars into our military it was for
Ronald Reagan and the Reagan
administration somewhat of a form of
economic warfare okay I hope that made
sense but Ronald Reagan is an
extraordinarily complex person he's a
very interesting president to study
Ronald Reagan when he built up the
American Arsenal there were protests all
over the world especially in Europe
because Europeans felt if there's ever
going to be World War 3 it's gonna
happen here where World War 1 and World
War 2 happened it's probably most likely
gonna happen in Berlin and so there are
all these protests in the street I
protest against Ronald Reagan and a
nuclear buildup in the United States of
America because they saw that as
potentially leading to a nuclear
exchange of the end of civilization and
there were also although to a lesser
degree protest here in the United States
of America some of these protests were
led by Ronald Reagan's own daughter who
was herself very against the nuclear
buildup that was happening in the United
States of America
that seemed to be de stabilizing the
otherwise you know live-and-let-live
attitude that was existing between
United States of America and the Soviet
Union since the middle of the 1970s but
Ronald Reagan's very much believed in
what he was doing until and get this
until he saw a movie this movie came out
in 1983 it was not a film that premiered
in the theater so this was actually a
made-for-tv movie the name of this movie
was
called the day after and the day after
is about what life would be like in the
United States of America and
specifically the town of Lawrence Kansas
in the United States of America the day
after a nuclear exchange now throughout
the entirety of the Cold War era but
especially in the 60s in the 70s and 80s
there were plenty of science fiction
films about what life would be like on
earth after a nuclear war there were a
lot of movies like this but the
difference with the day-after is that
the day after was written with the aid
of scientists most of the other movies
were made just out of you know people's
imagination like well what do you think
life would be like after a nuclear
exchange no who would live who would die
inevitably and all those posts nuclear
pop apocalyptic films there were
cockroaches everywhere since it was you
know this myth that cockroaches couldn't
survive everything and so the world
would be will be run by cockroaches or a
bunch of silly stuff like that in those
films anyway the day after was scripted
with the help of scientists who said
here's exactly what's going to happen
they chose a city in United States of
America that was not a primary target of
the Soviet Union so they chose the city
of Lawrence Kansas which is where the
University of Kansas is located and what
life would be like there so in Kansas
you would see the the mushroom clouds
from the nuclear attacks happening all
around you but you weren't hit directly
but what would happen would be the
fallout so the radioactive nuclear dust
would go up into the sky this this
fallout would snow down on you you would
breathe this stuff in and it would
destroy your central nervous system it
would destroy you from the inside out
and people would be dying all around
brains essentially turn to mush and
people become what it seems to be like
zombified and they walking around
killing each other and dying these
excruciating ly painful deaths was a
horrible very very upsetting film and of
course there were parental warnings that
came out about this film that his films
gonna be very difficult to watch and
then after the film was over there was
actually a panel of scientists who
discussed the film okay so you know
millions of Americans watch this
made-for-tv movie and were upset by it
and the president watched this
made-for-tv movie according to Reagan's
biographer Edmund Morris who was
spending time with the President and had
full access to the president's Diaries
Edmund Morris wrote in his biography of
Reagan which is called Dutch about how
depressed this movie made while Reagan
and how Reagan felt that he had to
dedicate his life to making sure that
this scenario never plays out in the
United States now here's something about
Reagan that I didn't mention he took the
oath of office in January of 1981 in
March of 1981 he was shot he was shot by
a man who was criminally insane and
Ronald Reagan came very close to being
killed that bullet ricocheted off of his
off of his rib it missed his heart
within millimeters Reagan was rushed
into surgery the surgeon struggled
greatly to remove the bullet without
causing further injury and this
experience profoundly impacted Wilde
Reagan first of all throughout the
remainder of his two terms as President
Reagan never fully recovers his strength
his physical strength but he also felt
like God had saved him
Reagan was himself a very religious man
very Christian man and he felt that you
know God was actively involved in having
him become president and that God had
spared him this assassin's bullet and
that he now owed the rest of his
presidential administration to God and
that experience coupled with watching
this movie inspired Reagan to do
something big he said I want to do
something to completely end the
possibility of nuclear war on earth all
right hey before I talk to you about
what that is it's worth noting that
Ronald Reagan always had a sense of
humor when Reagan was king ready to be
received anesthesia
to get knocked out before the surgery he
looked at the surgeon and he joked with
him he said why I hope you're a
Republican and then after he was done
with the surgery and his wife Nancy met
with them he saw her and she's in tears
and he said sorry honey I forgot to duck
sowho testimony I miss is so very Ronald
Reagan like you know he never you never
complained about anything he never
talked about his personal feelings about
anything
he always deflected anything with humor
and storytelling okay so all right so
back to the impact that this has on
Ronald Reagan's life with the
assassination attempt and and watching
the day after and his big idea for how
he wants to end the possibility of
nuclear war all right so this was a this
was a big dream that well Reagan had he
called it the Strategic Defense
Initiative or SDI here was Ronald
Reagan's vision he wanted to initiate a
program in the United States military
where we would launch into outer space
satellites artificial man-made
satellites that would hover over the
United States now at this point of time
in history both the United States of
America and the Soviet Union have
something called ICBMs an ICBM stands
for intercontinental ballistic missiles
and that should describe what they are
they're missiles that could be fired
from one continent and go to another
continent to attack them so in other
words the Soviets could launch missiles
from the Soviet Union these missiles
would go up into outer space and come
back down and rain nuclear bombs onto
United States from outer space okay so
intercontinental ballistic missiles
ICBMs they can be fired from one kind to
another and these missiles can carry
nuclear bombs all right
make sense so the so the Strategic
Defense Initiative was a program to
develop artificial satellites that would
hover bow
the United States of America they would
be equipped with laser beams and these
laser beams would focus in on those
incoming intercontinental ballistic
missiles and they woods a pom and they
would blow them up so that they would
never reach the United States of America
so these missiles would be blown up in
space okay so I hope that made sense and
I hope that helps you to understand the
title of this program the Strategic
Defense Initiative so the goal here is
to play defense to protect the United
States of America these satellites are
gonna sort of form an umbrella over the
United States of America way way way up
in outer space so that any missile
coming in to attack the United States of
America will be zapped and blown up in
outer space far from doing harm from any
human being all right when Ronald Reagan
announced this on television it was
accompanied with some high quality early
1980s graphics and this is what
Americans saw satellites in outer space
blowing up intercontinental ballistic
missiles that you might be able to tell
here are hovering over the Soviet Union
alright so hopefully the program makes
sense I want you to take a moment and
think about the practicality of this and
is this actually possible this is not
the year 2020
this is the year 1983 would it be
possible to actually have satellites in
outer space equipped with aggressive
laser beams that could accurately first
of all identify incoming
intercontinental ballistic missiles
identify them as such and then
accurately zap them when these things
are flying hundreds of miles an hour
through the air is that practical so
obviously scientists are gonna be
involved in this and they said well to
develop this type of technology it's
gonna cost billions of dollars and it's
gonna take years of research
SDI they tell Reagan will only become
functional they think at the very
earliest by the year 2000 which is 17
years off at this point of time this
idea of SDI is going to be this
extraordinarily expensive dream but
Reagan himself is passionate about it we
have to do this because once we have SDI
and he even believes at least a couple
of years later when he talks about it
once every country has SDI then we
eliminate the threat of any type of
intercontinental nuclear attack and will
stop the possibility of nuclear war okay
so that's SDI now a couple of things
about SDI first of all a lot of
Americans
we're like wait a minute we're putting
satellites in outer space equipped with
laser beams at least that's the goal
most of us Americans at the time we did
not call this SDI we called it Star Wars
yes
star wars after the film the film of the
1970s in the film series that was really
big by the early 1980s 1983 was also the
same year the Return of the Jedi that
third film came out and so Star Wars was
all the rage and we found out that the
president stays one to put satellites in
outer space equipped with laser beams
Americans simply refer to it not as SDI
but rather as Star Wars and so
newspapers and magazines actually had to
differentiate sometimes between if they
were when they were talking about Star
Wars if they're talking about Ronald
Reagan's plan versus if you're talking
about the film series okay so there's
that but then it this is an interesting
thing for Reagan to present because
Reagan has initiated this nuclear
buildup in the I States of America and
now he wants to spend even more money to
put these satellites in outer space
that'll destroy nuclear coming nuclear
weapon and nuclear missiles possibly
eradicate the possibility of a nuclear
war so these two things with Reagan you
know build up our nuclear arsenal
but you know put these things in our
space that'll stop a nuclear war from
happening it's kind of interesting he
does both of these things at the same
time the other thing is this is Ronald
Reagan this guy who wanted to cut
government spending significantly but
he's increasing it astronomically when
it comes to defense spending so Ronald
Reagan is a interesting contradictory
man but hopefully I've presented things
in such a way that you can understand
why he's making the decisions that he's
made okay let's talk about this conflict
that's going on in the world at the same
time if you remember during the Jimmy
Carter Administration the Soviet Union
had invaded Afghanistan the Soviet Union
had invaded Afghanistan because they
were trying to protect a communist
government that had taken over briefly
and the capital of Kabul and they
thought Afghanistan is a undeveloped
country they don't have the resources or
capacity to withstand a Soviet invasion
this should be low-hanging fruit there
should be a war that's really easy to
win maybe a little bit like the
Americans thought about Vietnam but it
wasn't it wasn't very similar to our
Vietnam War the Afghan people had
developed a hit-and-run style of
guerrilla warfare and this war became an
international cause for religious
reasons so let me explain the Soviet
Union and there caught a communist
government is technically an atheistic
government in other words there is no or
there was no religion in the Soviet
Union religion for reasons that I'm not
going to go into in this lecture was
considered to be bad part of the Soviet
goal and creating a society where all
people are equal wanted to get rid of
all religions which they saw as being
non-scientific backwards and
superstitious so they didn't believe in
freedom of worship they didn't believe
in religion and
for what it's worth this is one major
reason why Ronald Reagan who is a devout
Christian identifies the Soviet Union as
an evil empires because you're not
allowed to be Christian or Jewish or
Muslim or anything in the Soviet Union
okay
so when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan
they want to bring this atheistic form
of government to Afghanistan and
Afghanistan is filled with a majority
Sunni Muslim population
now this majority Sunni Muslim
population like most religious
populations like most religious
populations these people are they well
they have their religion they believe in
their religion but their willingness to
die for their religion not that many
people are probably willing to die so if
you get taken over by another country
and you're forced to abandon your
religion it would be a very sad
frustrating angry thing for you it would
be an anger provoking thing for you but
it's better than being dead
right but for a minority of passionate
very religious Orthodox conservative
Muslims for them this is a holy war and
so this conservative Orthodox Muslim
group created a militia and the name of
this militia as you see here was called
the Mujahideen the Mujahideen and the
Mujahideen were not exclusively Afghani
they made this an international cause so
they called upon all devout Sunni
Muslims from across the world come to
Afghanistan and fight the Soviet Union
and if we die we die in a glorious cost
and defend our faith and when we die we
go immediately to heaven so this was the
Mujahideen and sure enough this became a
rallying call for many conservative
Sunni Muslims to go to Afghanistan men
I think exclusively men to go to
Afghanistan to fight to
and Afghanistan from the Soviet Union
and then once the Soviet Union have been
driven out of Afghanistan then the
Mujahideen a conservative very
conservative Orthodox religious group
with some very specific ideas in terms
of how men and women should live their
lives they would rule Afghanistan
alright so the Mujahideen now of all the
people who came from around the world to
join the Mujahideen to fight the Soviets
I would like to focus on this one
individual this is a man who was born
and raised in a middle-class family in
Saudi Arabia
his name was Osama bin Laden as a young
man he left Saudi Arabia to go to
Afghanistan to fight the Mujahideen I'm
sorry to fight with the Mujahideen as
they are fighting the Soviets so okay
now let's step back from this situation
and think about it the Soviet Union has
invaded Afghanistan the group that is
the most successful in fighting the
Soviets are a group of radical Orthodox
conservative Muslims who are doing this
hit-and-run guerrilla style warfare
against the Soviets causing the Soviets
a whole bunch of problems the Soviets
can't fully take Afghanistan because
they can't eradicate the Mujahideen and
that's the situation in the early 1980s
now looking at the situation on whose
side or rather which side does our
government support which side is our
government going to cheer for for a
victory well it's the Mujahideen of
course they're the ones who are stopping
the spread of the stuff of communism in
the Soviet Union now starting with the
Carter Administration what is the United
States of America doing in Afghanistan
well technically nothing absolutely
nothing we were not getting involved in
Afghanistan at all now we were very
interested in what was happening in
Afghanistan so news reporters
and journalists were traveling to
Afghanistan to report on what was
happening most famous of which is this
very famous American news reporter Dan
Rather Dan Rather goes to Afghanistan
interviews the Mujahideen these poor men
with limited amount of arms and supplies
who are doing hit-and-run guerrilla
warfare tactics against the Soviets who
are struggling a fight for their freedom
and for them it's a religious holy war
so that they can practice their religion
but they have no help they have no
support and they question whether or not
in the end they can defeat the military
might of the Soviet Union dan Rather his
report plays on American national
television
there were many journalists who to
report it on on the situation
Afghanistan dan Rather was simply the
most famous and has had a profound
effect on a handful of Americans who
felt that the United States of America
should do something in Afghanistan to
help the Mujahideen to stop the spread
of the atheistic communist Soviet empire
and coincidentally one of those people
who was inspired by dan Rather and the
other journalists who were coming out of
Afghanistan was a member of our own
federal government and he was a Texan by
the name of Charlie Wilson who was in
the House of Representatives Charlie
Wilson was an interesting guy today in
history people look at Charlie Wilson as
one of the most important people who
ended the Cold War he is a very
significant part of this story but that
is not the reputation that he had in the
early 1980s Charlie Wilson's nickname
was goodtime Charlie he had gotten into
politics rather haphazardly he had stuck
with it he was a very popular guy his
nickname was goodtime Charlie because
among his favorite pastimes were getting
drunk on whiskey doing cocaine and
having parties with a lot of different
women and having all sorts of well fun
experiences with all these women at the
same time
that was Charlie Wilson not the type of
guy that you're gonna say wow there's a
stand-up American with good values he's
certainly not the type of guy who's
gonna change history but in fact he did
after reading and watching these news
reports Charlie Wilson was motivated to
do something about it
so he's in the House of Representatives
he's in movies and he's in Congress in
Washington DC so he approaches the CIA
remember the CIA the Central
Intelligence administration these are
our spies these are the people who
collect information for what's going on
around the world and he's able to ask
them what are we doing in Afghanistan
and the CIA reports nothing Charlie
Wilson like why not this is the Cold War
we've got the Cold War going on we
should be helping the Mujahideen and so
Charlie Wilson begins orchestrating a
covert top-secret operation
to help the Mujahideen so here's a
picture of Charlie Wilson in Afghanistan
with the Mujahideen what Charlie Wilson
did was this goodtime Charlie who has
connections with some of the wealthiest
socialites in Texas he approaches these
individuals and he acts he asks for
money donations of millions of dollars
telling these Texan millionaires you are
going to contribute to the fight for
freedom around the world this is a moral
cause we're gonna stop the Soviets from
taking over Afghanistan and he gets the
money the money is then used by the CIA
to purchase military weapons and they
deliver these military weapons to the
Mujahideen
so here's goodtime charlie in this
picture and I've already described to
you his personal life style choice her
choices and he's with the Mujahideen and
the Mujahideen are perhaps the most
socially conservative or they represent
their was socially conservative
lifestyle and the entire
world where men should be able to be
willing to fight and die for the cause
of religion that women have absolutely
no rights are to keep themselves
completely covered up when they're in
public and they are totally enslaved to
their husbands this does not seem like a
likely pairing but common enemy come at
a common enemy make strange friends and
Charlie Wilson finds the means to
support the Mujahideen I'll check out
this picture
here's Ronald Reagan meeting with a
delegation of Afghan freedom fighters
the Mujahideen again not a likely
pairing but everybody in this picture
wants to see the stop of the spread of
communism Ronald Reagan went so far as
to compare the Mujahideen with the
founding fathers of the United States of
America and coincidentally there's a
portrait of George Washington behind
Ronald Reagan as you see here this was
an amazing collaboration now
specifically here was the weapon that we
delivered to the Mujahideen this thing
is called a stinger a stinger as you see
here is a handheld missile launcher that
fires these heat-seeking missiles into
the air Afghanistan is a highly
mountainous country it is part of the
highest tallest mountain range in the
world the Himalayas Himalayas the
Himalayan mountains and so the Soviet
Union and getting troops in and out of
Afghanistan they have to do so by
helicopter and so this is going to be
what helps win the war for the
Mujahideen the Mujahideen can hide in
their caves and Afghanistan with their
stingers as soon as they hear the
helicopters that can pop out of the
ground they can fire this thing this
heat-seeking missile that gets shot up
into the air hones in on the helicopter
so you don't have to be absolutely
perfectly accurate there's not much that
the helicopter can do to get away and it
explodes killing everybody inside that's
what we did and guess what it worked in
the year 1988 after ten years of
fighting the Soviet Union withdrew
from Afghanistan the Mujahideen wins and
some people say that this is a major
cause for the collapse of the Soviet
Union they spent so much money trying to
take over Afghanistan just like the
United States America spent billions of
dollars in Vietnam all right
so this was a top-secret operation back
then today a lot of people refer this
and refer to this informally as Charlie
Wilson's War it was known in the CIA as
operation cyclone and it was great it
was this amazing story of his covert
operation in which we supported the
Mujahideen we stopped the spread of the
Soviet of the Soviet Union and we won so
great right but the story has sort of a
bad ending the Mujahideen after they won
with the help of the United States of
America now wants to take over
Afghanistan Andrew Andrew laughs gana
Stan and they think because the United
States of America supported them in the
fight against the Soviet Union that the
United States will help them establish a
rule over Afghanistan but now the United
States of America after the Mujahideen
is one it gets the Slovenian we're like
whoa wait a minute here this is a group
of conservative Orthodox Muslims that
believe 1 in a universal Islamic state a
Muslim country where there is no freedom
of religion you have to be Muslim women
have absolutely zero rights they've got
some very strange beliefs some very
old-fashioned beliefs about religion in
that there should be really nothing
taught in school no math no science no
literature other than the Koran and the
hadith and a religious upbringing
and that's it the soul of the United
States of America after this is over and
again this was a top-secret operation
we're not really nobody's really
acknowledging that the United States of
America has supported the Mujahideen and
that's America is like woohoo we don't
want anything to do with this group
anymore
so what happens to the Mujahideen well
when the 1990s come around the
Mujahideen is now gone but the people
who are there who were part of the
Mujahideen they've got new names they
form a political organization called the
Taliban and the goal of the Taliban is
to take over all of Afghanistan and to
create a theocratic country where
conservative Orthodox Muslims will make
the rules and they rule over the entire
population not everybody in the 1990s
was support in Afghanistan was
supportive of the Taliban and
essentially Afghanistan throughout the
1990s was very politically and
geographically divided and there were
little civil wars that were happening so
the Taliban defended itself by creating
a military wing a militia called
al-qaeda and in the 1990s after the Cold
War is over and there's no more Soviet
Union in the United States as the
world's single superpower al-qaeda led
by Osama bin Laden who had once upon a
time received guns and support from the
United States of America turns upon the
United States of America and begins
committing acts of terrorism against the
United States of America both in New
York City and an American embassies in
North Africa in the 1990s of course the
most famous terrorist attack that he
orchestrates is the terrorist attack of
9/11 2001 now there were many reasons
why the Taliban and al-qaeda went from
you know receiving support from the
assets of America back when they word
the Mujahideen in the 80's to turning
against the United States America and I
do not have the time for this lecture to
get into that
but in the course of American history
it's sad because you know operation
cyclone and Charlie Wilson's War it was
a victory but then this victory because
of what happened to Afghanistan after we
left it essentially led to the age of
global terrorism under Al Qaeda and the
Taliban
so here's Charlie Wilson reflecting upon
the whole situation what he had to say
about it and he said things happened
they were glorious and they changed the
world and then we screwed up the end
game and that is what happened in
Afghanistan in the 1980s back up to the
Soviet Union boy the Soviets are having
problems and these problems are almost
entirely economic problems let's talk
about the economic structure of the
Soviet Union in contrast in the economic
structure of the United States America
let's start with the United States of
America first here in the USA we have as
our Fallon as our foundation a
capitalist economy so what does this
mean it means that in theory we have the
laws of supply and demand which guide
our economy let's apply this it means
that all of us here in the night states
America we have things that we need and
we have things that we want these are
demands like for example shoes I think
it can be said we all need shoes so
where do we get our shoes from do we go
to the United States government to get
our shoes no the government does nothing
to provide shoes for the American people
where do we get our shoes from then well
other Americans know that we need shoes
and so they decide that they can make
money by making shoes and selling their
shoes so this is demand hey I need some
shoes and this is supply hey I want to
make some money so I'm gonna become a
shoemaker and or have a shoe store and
I'll sell the shoes and some of us pay
money to get the shoes and we're happy
because now we have shoes
and other people are happy because they
sold shoes and they get to make they get
to take the money of the people that
they sell the shoes to and it's a
win-win and the government for the most
part does nothing other than the fact
that they regulate the shoes and to make
sure that the shoes are I don't know
whatever the made of the actual material
that they said they are made out of that
they're not toxic material or that the
shoe sizes are accurate or whatever you
know for the most part of the
government's not involved and this is
how capitalism works and this is you
know when you get older how you're gonna
make your money you're gonna try to
identify a skill that you have something
you could do or something you can make
that you can provide to the American
people and you'll get paid for this
service or this is good that you sell
alright so that's a capitalist economy
the Soviet Union doesn't have a
capitalist economy the Soviet Union and
all communists they believe that well
capitalism creates a bad situation in
society because inevitably you're gonna
have a handful of wealthy people and a
whole bunch of poor people and that's
not fair that's not right you're gonna
have guys like John Rockefeller and
Andrew Carnegie and then the masses that
work in horrible conditions for next to
nothing who work for these super-rich
people and we got to get rid of that we
got to create a better more humane more
fair Society so here's how things work
in a communist country they have
something called a command economy a
command economy and so think of it like
this the government is commanding its
industrial sector with things to produce
with things to make okay so it works
like this and the Soviet Union to people
there need shoes
yeah of course everybody needs shoes ok
so here's what the Soviet government
does it takes a lot of people and a lot
of time and a lot of effort they
identify how many people there are in
the Soviet Union they do their best to
identify the shoe size is necessary to
fit the foot of everybody in the Soviet
Union and then they say ok we need this
many million shoes and this many sizes
and all of this and so they direct or
they command
a shoe factory somewhere in the Soviet
Union to produce the certain number of
shoes by a certain time and then these
shoes get loaded up into trucks and
they're sent all over the Soviet Union
which is the biggest country in the
world and they go to stores government
stores where the people line up like you
see here to go and buy their shoes for
the next year and that's literally how
things worked so imagine being a person
who grew up in the Soviet Union in the
1980s you how things would usually work
would be like this there would be a
government store there would be a truck
that would show up to this government
this government store and it would
unload its goods and you'd be like oh
what is it what is it it's being
unloaded and they'd be like oh it shoes
and so you'd be like ok and so you go
and you CNN line and you would buy shoes
most likely for yourself or it and your
family and so and you try to get you
know wherever you were in line the the
best shoes that you could your your
options would be so significantly
limited compared to a shoe store United
States of America today and you do your
best to get you know the shoes that work
for you you know what do you need you
need work shoes or dress shoes or what
and then um you try to get the right
size to the best of your ability for
yourself and most likely everybody in
your family I mean all the shoes would
be the same price because you did
actually have to pay for the shoes um
and of course everybody the Soviet Union
technically get receiving the same
amount of pay your goal was just simply
be as close to the frontal line as you
possibly could but these lines would
sometimes you'd wait two or three hours
for you know some shoes you know some
days would be pants days some days would
be sure to say some days would be toilet
paper day I mean you're not talking
about luxury items you're talking about
basic goods that you had to live that
you needed to survive and this became a
standard of Soviet life the command
economy wasn't working because the
Soviet Union wasn't producing enough
shoes and shirts and pants or the toilet
paper for for their people and why not
well because their government had to
make a choice
what are we gonna do are we gonna pay
for the war in Afghanistan or we're
gonna pay for more shoes and they
invariably chose war they didn't want to
lose a war and then when you've got
Ronald Reagan over the Unites States of
America building b1 bees and increasing
the nuclear supply of the United States
the Soviet governments like we got to
build new new weapons new fighter planes
and new war materiel you know whatever
we've got we've got to make this stuff
instead of making more shoes the impact
on the average person in Soviet Union
was devastating standing in line for
hours on end was a commonplace thing the
rates of alcoholism because of this
increased significantly because life was
so miserable also it was not uncommon in
these lines that you see here for fights
to break out because invariably some big
thug would come and try to ditch
everybody to get you know the better
shoes or whatever and people would cite
him like this was not an uncommon thing
so I want to say something personal
about this you know in the 1980s when I
was a boy I grew up in Upper Arlington
as an adult I had a friend who was the
exact same age as me who grew up in the
Soviet Union and she talked about this
um and I bring up shoes because she
specifically spoke about shoes she said
when I was in the seventh grade my feet
were growing you know because you know
your seventh graders are growing a lot
just like my mom went she stood in line
three hours to get me a pair of boots
because that she lived in the northern
part of the Soviet Union was very cold
so let's toe on the ground and she's
like these boots were too tight but I
had to wear them for an entire year in
my feet literally bled every day and it
was a year before I was able to get a
new pair of boots and my feet were still
growing now that's just one article of
clothing that's just one thing and you
need a lot of things really to you know
live a comfortable lifestyle and she
would tell me these stories and I was
like well I grew up in the United States
and I had a pair of boots and I had a
pair of sneakers and I had a pair of
soccer cleats and I had a pair of
baseball cleats and I had basketball
shoes and I had all these shoes I had a
dress shoes I wore to church and you
know it's other formal Affairs and you
know and she was disgusted but she I
mean she knew this was also the case as
well but I mean this is this was the
contrast between growing up in the
Soviet Union versus growing up in the
United States in the 1980s all right so
this what you have here then is
potentially a revolution because the
people would stand in lines would say
they would chant they have this chant we
can't go on like this we can't go on
like this we can't go on like this and
this statement is a threat
what's the government gonna do the
government's making choices with this
command economy and they're not taking
care of their people their people are on
the verge of revolution all right and
then 1985 comes around now throughout
the first half of the 1980s the
government the leaders of the Soviet
Union were all old men they were all
tough guys they didn't really respond to
the needs of the people but this changed
in 1985 with the advent of a new premier
of the Soviet Union and his name was
Mikhail Gorbachev and when Mikhail
Gorbachev took over the Soviet Union it
was clear that this man who was a devout
communist and a true believer in the
communist system was also a very
different type of leader Mikhail
Gorbachev believed strongly in the
Equality of all people which is
fundamental to the theory of communism
but he also believed that the Soviet
Union had grown into too much of a
dictatorship and Gorbachev believed in
the freedom of all people and so here's
a man who is going to begin the process
of trying to improve the lives of the
people in the Soviet Union
now Mikhail Gorbachev who was one of the
most fascinating people in all of world
history before you know anything about
his beliefs his political beliefs his
political ideologies what he
does as the leader of the Soviet Union I
want to show you a picture of Mikhail
Gorbachev and here is this picture
here's Mikhail Gorbachev with his wife
Raisa Gorbachev ah here's a picture of
the two of them now looking at this
picture what do you think it makes
Mikhail Gorbachev very different from
every other leader of the Soviet Union
Lenin Stalin Khrushchev all of those
guys that we talked about before what
makes Mikhail Gorbachev different from
this picture right here this picture
says a lot about Mikhail Gorbachev
there's two things that you should
notice one is he's smiling it's as
simple as that he's smiling Mikhail
Gorbachev had a sense of humor Mikhail
Gorbachev liked to tell jokes now let me
pause right there not only is that very
different from every other Soviet leader
who was very tense and rigid and had
this tough persona
Naoko Gorbachev is a man who likes to
laugh and tell jokes not only that that
makes him a great candidate for being
friends with another man who likes to
laugh and tell jokes the President of
the United States Ronald Reagan okay so
that's the first thing I want you to see
in this image the second thing I want
you to see in this image is that he's
standing with his wife now I know you're
not an expert on the history of Soviet
leaders but I guarantee you've never
seen a picture of any of those guys
standing next to their wives the women
though the wives of the Soviet leaders
were completely removed from them from
from from the men when they were engaged
in anything political women were
definitely kept in the background at
least the wives of the Soviet leaders
were kept very very much in the
background Mikhail Gorbachev relies upon
his wife in developing policies and in
fact the two policies that I'm going to
tell you about here he developed them
with the help of his wife
so when it comes to the ending of the
Cold War there's some feminism in here
Mikhail Gorbachev had a healthy
wonderful marriage in partnership with
his wife Raisa Gorbachev oh and when it
came to making reforms to improving the
situation for the lives of the Soviet
people Raisa and Mikhail Gorbachev they
both worked together to come up with
these two very important plans all right
guys I've got to teach you some Russian
here you need to know these Russian
words these are very important Russian
words these two things are glass toast
and perestroika glass toast and
perestroika these are the two things
that Mikhail Gorbachev Institute's in
the Soviet Union for the second half of
the 1980s to improve the lives of all
those Soviet people that were standing
in line
chanting we can't go on like this we we
need a better life here in the Soviet
Union
now Mikhail Gorbachev could have done
nothing he could have done absolutely
nothing and said no this is the way
we're gonna live and if the people tried
to revolt you know what he could do he
could gun them down it's a dictatorship
he has control of the military if you
want stop people from having a revolt if
they're trying revolt easy kill him he
had that power and he could have done
that and honestly had it been somebody
else in power in the late 1980s they
might have chose to have used force
against any type of revolutionary
movement that was happening there there
will in fact be at the end of the 1980's
two communist countries whose people are
suffering a very similar situation when
those people rose up their government
chose to use force those two countries
were Romania and China I mean they
slaughtered people but not Gorby Gorby
said no we're gonna have some policy
changes here and then I and here in the
Soviet Union all right so the first one
glass toast glass toast we must learn
some Russian here the last most is the
Russian word for opening so we're gonna
open up the Soviet Union by opening up
we mean freedom of expression and
freedom of travel so newspapers you are
not going to be subject to state
controlled censorship you can print
whatever it is you want to print
new writers can write whatever they want
to write musicians can can write
whatever songs they want to whatever
what everyone is saying you can now even
criticize the government you could have
you know satires like Saturday Night
Live you know stuff like that happening
in in the Soviet Union now there's also
a freedom of travel the Soviet Union is
not going to stop you from traveling and
then also in with the opening with with
glass most are going to be the
opportunities for foreign countries or -
or foreign businesses to come into the
Soviet Union to do business and this
should help to improve the the Soviet
economic system Hey so by the way by the
year 1991 American business that opens
up its first restaurant in Moscow is
McDonald's so because of the glass nose
policy there's now McDonald's and the
capital of the Soviet Union and this was
amazing in and of itself the Soviet
people were astounded by this I mean
this was an amazing historical
development it was a me it was an
amazing change of culture the oppression
that the Soviet people had grown up with
is now gone totally gone you could say
whatever it is he wanted to say could go
wherever it was he wanted to go is
something he could afford to go there it
was an amazing breath of fresh air the
likes of which you and I have never
experienced in our lifetime but that was
glass nose all right that's the first
program the other one is perestroika bit
of a longer word perestroika the Russian
word for restructuring okay so I talked
about the command economy that the
Soviet Union had all right so now there
will still be a command economy but you
will also have the opportunity to create
your own business so let's say you're
tired of waiting in line for shoes and
you're like you know what I think I can
make my own shoes and sell my own shoes
so I can begin the process of doing this
and doing this
legally so let's say I've got some
material around my house I feel like I
can make shoes whatever that would be
and you know I I can make some shoes and
I can sell them to my neighbors now
prior to perestroika this would be
illegal you're not allowed to do this
this is capitalism but but when
perestroika goes into effect um you can
now legally do this and so new
businesses can develop so it's it's a
command economy and it's got capitalism
in it too so it's what we would call
today a mixed economy and that's what
Mikhail Gorbachev wanted to do now sadly
this didn't work out this that great to
begin with because the first businessmen
were actually gangsters because there
were thugs that were going around so I
mentioned those government trucks that
were leaving the factories and like
delivering shoes to government stores
and every town
well gangsters got some guns and they
would just would go and hijack those
trucks and they would sell that those
shoes or whatever and dependently and
take all this money so there was
gangsters in the black market that had
been created in the Soviet Union in
1980s and essentially what perestroika
did was it legitimized gangsters
legitimized that black market and so
there are a lot of Soviets that didn't
like the fact that with perestroika
gangsters were now the wealthiest people
in her country they were the new
business class and they're like this is
the worst of capitalism all right
another aspect of perestroika involve
Eastern Europe and this is very
important for the end of the Cold War
previously countries in Eastern Europe
were controlled by the Soviet Union so
like for example in countries like
Poland in the year 1956 and Hungary in
the year 1956 and Czechoslovakia in the
year 1968 there had been various
uprisings where they had tried to break
free and do their own thing in terms of
having their own government that was
independent from the Soviet Union and
the Soviet Union wouldn't control that
the Soviet Union always responded in 56
and later on in 68 by sending in their
tanks in killing the people who were
leading
this revolution so in other words the
Soviet Union sometimes using a very
heavy hand was controlling these
countries in Eastern Europe now sewing
gorbachev comes along he says no more of
this no more of this all those countries
in Eastern Europe Poland Hungary
Czechoslovakia East Germany Romania you
do whatever it is you want to do you do
whatever it is you want to do we the
Soviet Union we are not going to control
you so if you want to break off the
Warsaw Pact if you want to form your own
if you want to become a democracy you do
whatever you so please you do whatever
you so please we're not gonna control
you anymore all right
I hope those two policies glass toast
and perestroika I hope that makes sense
please understand glass knows and
perestroika are very important reforms
which lead to the end of the Cold War
and ultimately the collapse of the
Soviet Union but we're not there yet
when Gorbachev issues these reforms the
United States of America just like the
people of the Soviet Union are equally
taken aback this guy is amazing he's
providing opportunities for capitalism
he's lifting all censorship in the
Soviet Union he's telling the Eastern
Bloc countries in Eastern Europe hey you
can go free can do whatever it is you
want this is amazing
check out the Time magazine there to the
left Gorbachev revolution can he make it
work is the cold war fading wow what an
amazing amazing individual and in the
White House Ronald Reagan was giving
direct reports in particular by his vice
president George Bush Senior not to be
confused with the George Bush was
president from 2001 to 2009 George Bush
senior had met Mikhail Gorbachev at a
state diplomatic visit in Moscow before
he was leader of the Soviet Union and
George Bush told told President Reagan
this guy is different he is very
different you can talk to him he's happy
he tells
jokes he likes to laugh oh and hey one
more thing about mikhail gorbachev most
of the leaders of the Soviet Union came
from very powerful communist families so
they were they tended to be the sons of
men who had had power previously so if
you were a leader of the Soviet Union
let's say in the 1930s during Stalin's
years of during World War two or
something like that then your son would
get premier education at Moscow
University or wherever they would study
political science and then they would be
almost guaranteed a job it's a assuming
that you were you know a respected
person of the the Soviet government they
would be guaranteed a job in a
high-ranking job in the Soviet
government so sort of these family
dynasties have been created in the soul
of a union doesn't sound much like
equality does it but politics was
politics all over the world and powerful
men want their sons to have
opportunities to become powerful too no
matter what political system you're
living in
and so Mikhail Gorbachev is an
incredible example of somebody who did
not come from a family that had a lot of
power he came from a rural family the
son of farmers and he got an education
in agriculture and actually developed
some methods of agricultural reform that
worked and so because he was a
successful agricultural reformer and a
good party communist he was promoted
within the government and so in 1985
rolls around and the government is
looking for the next leader of the
Soviet Union to handle this he Kannamma
crisis they're like well here's a guy
who has a good track record of reform
will appoint him so the Politburo
selected Gorbachev to be the next leader
of the Soviet Union all right so there's
a lot on Gorbachev hey and and the term
you see there on top there our slang
term for Gorbachev was girl Ruby that's
what every prevents what a lot of people
in tonight States of America called him
Gorby so okay so back to Reagan Reagan
hears about this new type of leader in
the Soviet Union he's like I gotta meet
him I gotta meet him so the two met
after Gorbachev had been ruling the
Soviet Union not but a few months in the
fall of 1985 Reagan and Gorbachev met in
Geneva Switzerland and this
meeting was this monumental meeting
because when they first met each other
they were allowed to just talk with each
other in a room before they did any
official diplomatic stuff and when they
met and they talked in this room they
had a limited amount of time to sort of
get to know each other but they went
over the time allowed which was only
something like 15 minutes but they kept
talking and they kept talking they kept
talking and it with with the exception
of a translator there in the room alone
talking and the aides of both Ronald
Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev wanted to
open the door to go and say okay we're
behind schedule we have to get onto the
diplomacy now talk about how the USA and
the USSR gonna continue to interact with
each other and one of the American aides
stopped anybody from entering the room
and said don't you understand what's
going on here the leader of the United
States and the leader of the Soviet
Union are becoming friends whoever opens
this door deserves to get fired on the
spot this was an amazing thing
guys this was friendship these were two
men who loved to joke who loved to tell
stories who loved to laugh both of them
and one could argue that even though
these two men are on the complete
opposite end of the political spectrum
one is a conservative Republican
capitalist Ronald Reagan and the other
is a very liberal at Galit Aryan
communist Gorbachev on the other in a
political spectrum because both of these
guys had a common humanity because they
both like to tell jokes tell stories
that helped to bring an end to the Cold
War it was an amazing time in history so
what do I have to say about the Geneva
summit of 1985 that's it the two men met
the two men talked the two men became
friends all right so this friendship
inspires Ronald Reagan in particular now
let's go back and remember Ronald Reagan
inspired by this friendship and also
inspired by a sense that he feels like
he's been saved in 1981 by an assassin's
bullet by God who's preserved him he
feels us call
from God to do something incredible to
bring peace on earth and inspired by
that film the day after that this is
what the actual horrors of a nuclear war
going to be he had developed SDI as a
way of preventing a nuclear attack but
now with a new person in charge of the
Soviet Union a guy who seems to have
some humanity to him a man who can joke
and can tell stories with Ronald Reagan
is now going to do his next big move he
comes up with an idea this idea is both
extraordinarily radical and
extraordinarily simple round Reagan
wants to create peace on earth and get
rid of the possibility of nuclear war so
he has another meeting with Mikhail
Gorbachev almost exactly a year later in
the capital of Iceland Rui Kovac so they
meet in Iceland where Ronald Reagan
proposes his most radical idea and it's
also his most simple idea this idea is
called zero options zero stands for the
number of nuclear weapons that the
United States and the Soviet Union
should have round Regan's very radical
and very simple idea is this
hey Gorby let's just destroy all of our
nuclear weapons let's just get rid of
all of the nuclear weapons in the world
let's just get rid of all of them you
destroy yours we'll destroy ours and
there'll be no more nuclear weapons
we'll make sure that other countries
because we're the two most powerful
countries other countries destroy their
nuclear weapons there's only handful of
countries in the world that have a
nuclear weapon Britain France Israel
India you know we'll make sure that they
don't have nuclear weapons either we can
put the pressure on them let's go for
this zero option Gorby what do you
let's get rid of all nuclear weapons all
right I think that makes sense
think of that President of the United
States saying to the Soviet leader let's
just get rid of all of our nuclear
weapons how did this pan out here's what
happened at the Rye Kovach summit Reagan
says to Gorby let's get rid of all of
our nuclear weapons zero option Gorby
says till Ronald Reagan I like that idea
I'm willing to go through with it let's
do zero option well Reagan well that's
great Gorbachev Gorbachev said but if we
go through with zero option that means
you can also stop your just Strategic
Defense Initiative get rid of SDI so
we'll get rid of all of our nuclear
weapons but you the United States of
America must stop SDI Ronald Reagan but
I can't stop SDI
SDI is not an offensive program it's a
defensive program it's it's in it it's
it's in the name Strategic Defense
Initiative and I have promised the
American people that I will defend them
I cannot stop let go of SDI Gorbachev
okay well if you refuse to get rid of
SDI then we don't go through with the
zero option well Reagan okay if how
about this how about if we continue SDI
but we also give us di as well so that
we both of SDI and we can both protect
both of our countries
Gorbachev's response to this wait a
minute weapons placed an outer space
given to us from the United States
America I cannot trust this first of all
I can't trust that you're actually going
to give us anything and then if you do
give us something
you're giving us weapons to place in
outer space
above our country that were made in your
country
these still could be used against US
President Reagan please just get rid of
rid of having weapons in outer space
Reagan says I can't do that and while
the two men were talking Reagan wrote on
a piece of paper to an aide am i right
question mark slid it over to them and
the aide looked down at the piece of
paper and wrote back yes and slid it
back to Reagan and Reagan held his
ground he's not going to get rid of zero
option I'm sorry he's not gonna get rid
of SDI and so because of this exchange 0
option never went through ok now for
what it's worth
SDI is only at this point of time in
1986 still in the preliminary stages
it's still only it's it's being it
hasn't made even out of the lab yet
they're still trying to develop the
technology to begin the process of
building anything to put in outer space
for defensive purposes and so in other
words SDI is really nothing at this
point of time in history but this was
this summit is considered to be a
failure when both Reagan and Gorbachev
left this meeting the Press reported on
how angry both of them looked these were
not the friendly you know Reagan and
Gorbachev oh these guys were mad and
angry with each other and it was
considered to be a failure and I think
still is considered to be a failure this
was a monumental moment in history where
we could have gotten rid of all nuclear
weapons around the around earth we could
have done it in the United States of
America and the Soviet Union would have
been a forefront and bringing an end to
the possibility of a nuclear war it was
an amazing moment now why didn't it go
through well you can blame either Reagan
or Gorby or bore it both of them you
know you could have blamed Gorby for you
know saying hey get rid of SDI when SDI
was absolutely nothing at this point of
time in history um and so you know why
bring that up why even deal with it or
you could blame Reagan you know okay
because SDI is nothing at this point in
time in history
agree like okay we'll stop STI you know
it could have it was it was this hang up
over Star Wars
it was this hang up over SDI but it was
one of the most frustrating negotiations
in the history of of american-soviet
negotiations and very sad and it brought
a lot of frustration to both Reagan and
Gorbachev but as a whole even with the
failure of zero option in the right
Kovach summit in Iceland in 1986 you
know the Cold War is still relaxing
because you know you've got it's you've
got you've got a glass no stin
perestroika which are getting ready to
go into effect in the late 1980s there's
more freedom in the Soviet Union and
throughout Eastern Europe and Ronald
Reagan decided to do something to put
pressure on Mikhail Gorbachev the Berlin
Wall had been a symbol of the division
between the Soviet world and the
American world between communism and
democracy between dictatorship and
freedom and wild rage and thought you
know if Gorbachev believes so much in
this freedom that he advocates for in
glass notes in perestroika why doesn't
he really free the people of Europe
why doesn't he free why doesn't he just
take down the Berlin Wall so and
probably his most grand moment Ronald
Reagan flies to West Berlin stands in
front of the Berlin Wall and demands for
Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down that
symbol which was the ultimate symbol of
the Cold War and to free people to move
between Eastern Europe and Western
Europe between East Berlin and West
Berlin it's probably
Ronald Reagan's most famous speech of
many eloquent speeches that he gave
let's listen to it behind me stands a
wall that is circles
three sectors of this city part of a
vast system of barriers that divides the
entire continent of Europe general
secretary Gorbachev if you seek peace if
you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union
and Eastern Europe if you seek
liberalization come here to this gate
mr. Gorbachev open this gate
mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall
now mr. Gorbachev did not go and open up
that gate and he did not tear down that
wall however even though zero option did
not go through the following year in
1987 would Mikhail Gorbachev came to the
United States of America where he met
with Ronald Reagan on his home turf and
the two signed major sweeping treaties
to significantly reduce the number of
nuclear weapons held in both the United
States of America and the USSR both of
these men had a strong emotional sense
not just an intellectual knowledge but
an emotional sense of how devastating a
nuclear war would be they were scared of
it they were horrified at how this would
end civilization both of these men were
committed to ending the possibility of a
nuclear war now they could have gone
through entirely with zero option in 86
but that didn't happen and hopefully I
did my best to describe how it did not
happen
SDI had been the sticking point in that
conference and that summit meeting and
wreak havoc but both of these men were
still dedicated to at least reducing the
possibility of a major nuclear war and
so in December of 87 Mikhail Gorbachev
and Ronald Reagan signed several nuclear
arms limitation treaties and the world
became a slightly safer place 1989 is
considered to be one of the most pivotal
years in all of world history when asked
when did the Cold War end many
historians will at least mention 1989 as
being either the last year of the Cold
War or the year that led to
the end of the Cold War for a lot of us
here in the United States of America
1989 especially the fall of 1989
November of 89 going into the early
months of 1990 it was an extraordinarily
exciting time a lot was happening there
was a genuine sense that the world is
changing and changing for the better
more people are becoming more free
alright so what happened well the best
way to think of 1989 is that the
policies in the Soviet Union of glass
toast and perestroika were coming to
fruition people are speaking out more
freely there are in Eastern Europe in
particular new political parties that
are forming most famously the Solidarity
party and in Poland which wanted to take
over the the Communist Party that was in
Poland that had been ruling Poland since
the end of the the of the Second World
War
major protests were happening in
Czechoslovakia East Germany and Romania
and in Eastern Europe the the the
communist leaders look to the Soviet
Union Satar people rising up there doing
all these things they wanted to change
the government they want us out of power
help us help us help us and Gorbachev
was like no take care of your own take
to take care of your own country and and
maybe you should listen to your own
people you know it's ok this is this is
a this is an era of changes as an era of
reform the Soviet Union's reforming you
should reform - and this desire among
people living throughout the Communist
world to pressure their government to
reform spread to another communist
country in eastern Asia China spread to
China - in late May of 1989 thousands of
students and other young people came to
the capital city of Beijing China they
went to the largest public gathering
space in the entire world a place called
Tiananmen Square thousands of them
gathered
were they sang songs and chanted phrases
asking for more freedom of expression in
other words the same class knows
policies that have been implemented in
the Soviet Union that great communist
country young people in China were
asking for those same freedoms in China
by the time early June of 1989 rolled
around the Chinese government decided to
respond they simply asked the students
to go home to respect their government's
wishes and to go home when the students
did not go home the Chinese government
called in its military and massacred the
students numbers vary in terms of how
many of the students died the number
that I have in my mind hover somewhere
between five to six thousand recently I
heard as many as 10,000 were killed
that's not wounded but killed but feel
free to look this event up just simply
look up Tiananmen Square 1989 it
actually encouraged you to look up
Tiananmen Square 1989 because you know
what you can look this up on an internet
search in the night States of America
when you look up Tiananmen Square 1989
in China on their internet search
engines nothing comes up when we're when
there was pressure for reform in China
in 1989 the government responded by
massacring its own people and that ended
the protests and China today remains a
communist government China today remains
a single-party dictatorship with
significant control over the press and
today over the Internet if you grow up
today in China and you go to school you
are not taught about what happened in
Tiananmen Square in 1989 the government
does not want you to know about it if
you do learn about Tian
square and nights yet what happened into
Minsk where 1989 and you're growing up
in China today it's probably because an
elder likely your parents have told you
about it but they've also told you not
to talk about it talking about this
talking about how the Chinese government
slaughtered its own civilians can
potentially land you in jail in China we
don't live in China we live in the
United States of America we're allowed
to talk about our country's own
atrocities and certainly our country has
done incredibly horrible things the
incarceration of Japanese Americans
during World War two the Indian Wars
what happened to the Lakota Sioux we've
learned about all these horrible things
that our government has done in American
history but that's because we live in a
free society in China you have a
communist dictatorship and the student
and kids who grew up in China aren't
allowed to know about what I just taught
you thousands of people in China were
slaughtered because they asked their
government to give them some very basic
fundamental human rights that really if
were honest that you and I take for
granted the rest of the world didn't
know what the Chinese government did to
its own people and for the Communist
world the Soviet Union included
governments realized that they had a
choice to make and that choice was
either between engaging in democratic
and economic reform or slaughtering your
own people the other country that chose
slaughter was Romania but the president
of Romania who was actually captured by
his own people and a handful of people
who videotaped him being placed on trial
being told you slaughtered you try you
slaughtered your own people and and and
we know that you did this and this is
why we're gonna execute you and they
filmed these people executing the
president of Romania that guy that
president's name was Nicolae Ceausescu
so in the case of Romania it ended
differently than China because the
people actually even though they were
getting slaughtered some of them were
able to capture the president and kill
him and then begin the process of
democratizing but not after
a huge bloodshed but that's what the
country is and this part of the world
have to deal with and the leaders have
to make a choice what do we do do we
democratize or do we slaughter our own
people so that we the communist
government can maintain power most
famously this situation came to a head
on the night of November the 9th 1989 in
Berlin the capital city of East Germany
the East German government was trying to
decide what do we do do we reform or do
we do we have a crackdown on her own
people the East German people were
marching through the streets there was a
very famous mass protest that happened
in the city of Leipzig and eats East
Germany and now those protests have
spreaded to East Berlin the capital the
president of East Germany actually just
quit his job and moved to the Soviet
Union leaving a subordinate to try to
deal with the situation and what
happened in East Germany was this this
is a little complicated but I'll try to
make it as clear and as simple as
possible the East German government made
a decision that it was going to allow
its people to engage in freedom of
travel in other words East Germans can
now travel to West Germany East
Berliners
can now travel into West Berlin in other
words the people can go to where they're
free the government made this decision
but they didn't specify when this
freedom of travel was going to take
place and in this very bureaucratic way
the government has a press conference
where a statement a very long statement
that's I don't know like ten pages long
or whatever is given to an official
government communications director and
he must read these ten pages or however
long it was I don't I don't know how
many pages it was but it was it was a
substantial document and so he reads
this very very bore and long and
drawn-out a dry and drawn-out thing but
he clearly says in it the East German
government is going to open up travel
so that's it he's this particular
government official has done his job
he's read the report to the press and
the press is gonna report it but the
press actually has questions and their
one big question is when when is this
freedom of travel allowed to happen
his government because low ranking
government guy he has no clue and he's
like it's not in the report I mean he
didn't even practice reading report he
doesn't even know what say just read it
and and he says I don't know I and then
he says well immediately I think and so
this low-level government official says
we have freedom of travel immediately as
soon as this press conference is over
the people of East Berlin go up to the
Berlin wall there are tens of thousands
of East Germans now pressing against the
against the checkpoint gates of the
Berlin Wall
now the Berlin Wall is guarded by the
East German state security police
the Stasi as they called him and they've
got one order shoot to kill anybody who
tries to go to the other side so they're
calling the you know their officials
their superior officers like there's
tens of thousands of people so they have
they've got the right to travel to
either side what do we do and nobody's
picking up the phone on the other end
and so these so now it's down to these
border guards who have no clear orders
of what to do in tens of thousands of
people who are pressing upon the gate
and then let me just think what what
would you do if you were a guard and
your job is to shoot it you've got one
order shoot to kill anybody who goes to
the other side and yet you've got tens
of thousands of your countrymen other
east germans who are like shaking the
gates demanding to be let through that
the government has just issued an order
that they're allowed to travel and but
you've received no no no is no order
about this you know what would you do
and then this incredible moment happens
this wonderful moment happens at one of
the checkpoints one of the guards just
ah what the hell moment and lifts up the
gate you just lift up the gate and tens
of thousands of East Germans march into
West Berlin other checkpoint guards here
about this they open up the gates and
then next thing you know East Berliners
are walking into West Berlin it's it's
it's nighttime now it's it this goes
into the middle of the night and West
Berliners have have gathered there to
greet them to hug them it's complete
strangers but to welcome them to the
freedom of West Berlin and it was this
amazing moment in history American news
crews were there in particular CNN was
there to capture like the first moments
of opening up of the Berlin Wall it was
a it was a it was a historic event the
West Berliners then decide well now with
the East Berliners coming through we're
gonna take down the wall and so this
happened West Berliners went home and
got anything from sledgehammers the
little chisels and began the work of
dismantling the Berlin wall piece by
piece and here they are taking out their
anger at a wall that has separated them
some of them from their families and
loved ones for over 35 years
the ultimate symbol of the Cold War is
coming down I win this major historical
event happened and though in the world I
was a sophomore in high school
in November of 1989 and I was taking
German and this as long as all we did in
our German class was watch the the news
and watch the Berlin Wall coming down
and I remember my German teacher just
tearing up this was one of the most
incredible and joyful moments in history
and a lot of people mark this as the end
of the Cold War Germany will unify in
the year 1990 and essentially what
happened was the East German government
dissolved the West German government
took over East Germany they moved the
capital of
Germany of West Germany from the city of
Bonn which was in West Germany back to
the original capital in Berlin and
Germany's reunified but what about the
Soviet Union what about the Soviet Union
well the spirit of reform had swept
through the Soviet Union as well glass
toast and perestroika had enabled people
to gather freely and to speak openly and
critically about the government
perestroika had provided economic reform
but economic reform takes time and
essentially what happened with that
economic reform was you still had a
command economy but then you had the
rise of gangsters the economic
opportunities had not trickled down if I
can use that phrase to the average
Soviet citizen and in some cases things
just weren't getting better capitalist
reform takes time and a lot of people
who are excited by Gorby now got really
angry with Gorby it was great like 1987
we're all there was all this freedom of
expression and International Cooperation
but then after a couple years when you
get to 1989 1990 1991 there's a little
bit of frustration where when you still
have those long lines that you have to
stand in and the only people that seem
to be making money were the people who
were gangsters operating a black market
before glass nosed in perestroika and
now they're making the money and they're
rising up in terms of their power and
prestige and this isn't really creating
many job opportunities or better pay or
even that or even a more significant
access to goods in the late 1980s in
other words the economy is stagnant and
then add on to it this the Soviet Union
used to be a superpower now it's clear
the Soviet Union is losing its prestige
on the world stage in the United States
is emerging as the victor of the of the
Cold War
well that's humiliating and then you
have American corporate
like McDonald's showing up and that's
both good because you know it's a new
option for food and it's cheap food and
a lot of people like it
even though it might not be that healthy
but whatever but it's it's it's sort of
a slap in your face that the United
States won the Cold War
here's McDonald's and in Moscow so okay
how does Gorbachev Soviet Union doing
well they've got more freedom of
expression now they've got economic
opportunities but there's still sort of
economic stagnation and the Soviet Union
has been internationally humiliated
because they're losing the Cold War oh
yeah and they also lost the
soviet-afghan war in 1988 so what
happens is this there's a climactic
event that happens in August of 1991
Mikhail Gorbachev was actually on
vacation in the southern part of Russia
and a large palace and Russian called a
dacha
on the Black Sea in the southern part of
Russia and while he was there the phone
lines to his home got cut and soldier
show up to surround his home the Soviet
military was trying to take over the
Soviet Union it seemed like other
hardliners and the Politburo had
encouraged the military to do this so
that they could take action capture
potentially kill Mikhail Gorbachev take
control of the Soviet Union and
implement a China like policy towards
these reforms and uprisings
in other words kill their own people
restore order and maintain the communist
dictatorship in your country work for
China they can work for the USSR too so
this image that you're looking at here
he was on you know he's on vacation in
this home in the in the south of Russia
on the Black Sea he at this point of
time realizing that the phone lines were
cut he had no communication with the
outside world and that his home was now
being guarded he had his wife film him
so they had an old VHS camcorder and and
he had rice at his wife film him as
Mikhail Gorbachev issues what he thinks
might be his last statement to the war
and so he thinks that after he's killed
that his wife can sneak this video
cassette tape out of Russia or out of
the Soviet Union and the world can know
here's exactly what happened that
Mikhail Gorbachev didn't freely hand
over power or he wasn't you know he did
he didn't accidentally die he wanted his
side of the story to be told but all
right it's August of 1991 and go the
tanks to the Soviet into the Soviet
capital of Moscow to put down all the
protests and reforms that are happening
there and here's what's amazing things
turned out differently in the Soviet
Union than in China when the Russian
people saw the tanks coming and they ran
up to the tanks to plead with them to
not fire upon them to not try to just
disperse them to not tell them to go
home but rather to join them then one by
one the red army the soldiers in the Red
Army had to make a decision do we kill
our own people or do we join them and
guess what happened they joined them
when the hardliners of the government
send soldiers to slaughter their own
people and the soldiers refused to do it
when they're soldiers universally
refused to do it but instead decide to
join the people then those hardliners in
government stand no chance it's now
their turn to run away now Gorbachev is
gonna survive this whole I ordeal he is
not going to get killed by the people
that surrounded his palace his home his
dacha and the south of Russia but during
this event a new more radical and
democratic Russian politician steps
forward he was there when the tanks were
stopped and the tanks were turned around
and he actually climbed up upon a tank
to give a speech a speech that was very
critical of Mikhail Gorbachev who said
that Mikhail Gorbachev through his
half-measures at reform had only created
a worse situation and that there should
no longer be a Soviet Union but a new
free democratic rush
federación and this politicians name was
Boris Yeltsin Yeltsin was once on very
friendly terms with Mikhail Gorbachev
but now given this crisis that had
happened where Gorbachev's reforms
hadn't really worked at least not work
they hadn't worked economically Yeltsin
saw the opportunity for personal
advancement
he knows the Russian people are angry
during this event in August of 1991
Gorbachev was nowhere to be found
Yeltsin gives these dramatic speeches
let's have freedom
let's have democracy let's get rid of
the Soviet Union a few months later in
December of 91 Mikhail Gorbachev in
Moscow was addressing the Politburo the
governing body of the Soviet Union and
while giving his speech Boris Yeltsin
did something absolutely unprecedented
in Soviet history he stood up to the
leader of the Soviet Union he literally
walked up to him interrupted his speech
and said I have here a list of
grievances against you the people do not
like you I would like for you to read
these grievances out loud to the
Politburo Gorbachev said I will look at
these later absolutely astounded that
anybody had dared to interrupt him while
he's giving a speech to the Politburo
Boris Yeltsin now who was beginning to
walk back to his seat turns right back
around goes up to Gorby and says no you
read him now it was at this moment that
Gorbachev realized that he has no more
power so Gorbachev made the decision to
resign if you're able to look closely at
this image of the New York Times article
on Gorbachev resignation you may note
that Gorbachev resigned on Christmas Day
December the 25th 1991 how do we
evaluate the Premiership of Mikhail
Gorbachev he became the leader of a of a
communist dictatorship a communist
dictatorship with a failing economy he
tried to reform that dictatorship not by
cruel force which he easily could have
but by opening up the gates to freedom
and by opening the gates to freedom even
just a little bit it created the
collapse of communism in the Soviet
Union it created the collapse of
communism in Eastern Europe it did not
create the collapse of communism in
China because the Chinese government
chose to slaughter their own people but
he unleashed this wave of change that
brought freedom to people now Gorbachev
wanted to maintain a single party
communist state in the Soviet Union he
still believed in a command economy
partially a command economy and in the
benefits of a communist state but he
couldn't figure out and I don't know if
anybody could figure out how do you keep
that single party communist dictatorship
and allow for freedom by allowing for
the Soviet Union and really the entire
Communist world to reform itself he
paved the way for the collapse of
communism some people today really
admire Mikhail Gorbachev who as of April
of 2020 is still alive and somebody sees
him as somebody who complete and some
people see him as an individual who
completely mismanaged the situation and
actually made the situation in the
Soviet Union worse than it was in the
early 1980s now in 1991 Ronald Reagan
was no longer the president of the
United States of America his two terms
were up as of January of 1989 the
president at the time during the time of
both the Tiananmen Square massacre the
fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of
the Soviet Union was this man George
Herbert Walker Bush George Bush Senior
he was the former director of the CIA he
was a World War two hero who had been
injured in action in World War two
before that long before the time and got
into politics was in the CIA and then
became vice president of the United
States of America during the Reagan
administration and then ran for
president in his own right in 1988 one
that presidency fairly easily I might
say against the Democratic contender his
name was George Dukakis and he was the
president who got to see the
amazing sweeping changes this incredible
time in world history where we saw the
collapse of communism and the spread of
democracies throughout the world and for
him it was an amazing thing to give an
address on Christmas Day to the people
of the United States of America
informing them that the Cold War was now
over and that the Soviet Union was now
gone the Cold War which had defined
American foreign policy for forty-five
years and what it had defined our
American identity for that same period
of time that was now all over it was an
amazing time where we wondered how I
wonder what the 90s are gonna be like
the United States is the world's single
superpower our ideas of democracy are
spreading throughout the world even into
the former Soviet Union it was an
extraordinarily exciting time and George
Bush got to deliver this message on
Christmas Day of all days let's watch
this Christmas Day miss message of
President George Bush the superpowers
had confronted each other
relentlessly now under intolerable
pressure one side withdrew Gorbachev had
done as much as anyone to end the Cold
War he called Bush and told him this was
his last day in office there was a kind
of sadness the finality of it hit me
pretty hard and it was Christmastime and
a holiday time and I thought that a
friend was was hurt and I wasn't happy
about that
that night the red flag of the Soviet
Union was lowered for the last time
in Washington Bush made his Christmas
broadcasters for over 40 years the
United States led the West in the
struggle against communism and the
threat it posed to our most precious
values this struggle shaped the lives of
all Americans it forced all nations to
live under the specter of nuclear
destruction that confrontation is now
over and there it is United States
history students at the dawn of the
1990s the Soviet Union is no more the
Cold War is over democracies were
spreading it was an amazing and exciting
time the united states of america was
suffering from a recession at this time
but overall it was an amazingly positive
and optimistic moment in history so
there you go guys this was a very long
lecture on the end of the Cold War and
the story of Ronald Reagan and Mikhail
Gorbachev and hey I hope you liked it
guys I hope you learned a lot from it I
certainly love that story of Ronald
Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev I hope you
got into it a little bit too and hey I'm
done
have yourselves a great day bye-bye
