1 00:00:01,673 --> 00:00:04,760 "Once upon a time there lived two neighbors. 2 00:00:04,761 --> 00:00:06,561 One of them bought a shotgun. 3 00:00:06,667 --> 00:00:08,167 Ah ha!' thought the other. 4 00:00:08,196 --> 00:00:10,896 'All right. I'll buy myself a bigger gun! 5 00:00:12,157 --> 00:00:15,179 'What could this mean?' thought the first neighbor. 6 00:00:16,673 --> 00:00:18,973 'I'll buy myself something bigger!'" 7 00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:25,069 By the end of the 1960s, the Soviet Union 8 00:00:25,189 --> 00:00:28,850 seemed likely to match America's nuclear arsenal. 9 00:00:31,315 --> 00:00:34,003 The two superpowers faced a choice 10 00:00:34,123 --> 00:00:38,345 slow down their competition - the process that would be called détente - 11 00:00:39,108 --> 00:00:43,748 or continue an arms race that could end in all-out war. 12 00:01:33,460 --> 00:01:37,466 1969. A new American president came to power. 13 00:01:40,354 --> 00:01:45,649 Richard Nixon had new ideas about how to make the Cold War less dangerous. 14 00:01:46,463 --> 00:01:51,376 He was ready to accept the Soviet Union as America's nuclear equal. 15 00:01:53,132 --> 00:01:55,585 "When President Nixon came into office, 16 00:01:55,705 --> 00:01:57,516 the conventional wisdom 17 00:01:57,636 --> 00:01:59,039 of all... 18 00:01:59,397 --> 00:02:00,980 the... 19 00:02:01,772 --> 00:02:02,578 media 20 00:02:02,803 --> 00:02:05,692 and the people who thought of themselves as intellectuals was 21 00:02:05,812 --> 00:02:07,642 that he was a warmonger 22 00:02:07,762 --> 00:02:09,993 and that they had to moderate him. 23 00:02:10,113 --> 00:02:13,914 And we were under enormous pressure to start negotiations on trade, 24 00:02:14,034 --> 00:02:18,305 on SALT, on a whole complex of things." 25 00:02:18,425 --> 00:02:21,729 "This was not a foreign policy politician, 26 00:02:21,849 --> 00:02:23,698 particularly in his early years. 27 00:02:23,818 --> 00:02:26,162 He had gained notoriety and power, as you know, 28 00:02:26,282 --> 00:02:28,379 on the wave of the great Red scare, 29 00:02:28,499 --> 00:02:32,333 the great McCarthy period in American politics. 30 00:02:32,453 --> 00:02:35,907 He also knew - and this was very important - the bureaucracy 31 00:02:36,158 --> 00:02:39,636 He knew that often the most difficult belligerent powers 32 00:02:39,756 --> 00:02:41,681 with which he had to deal were not 33 00:02:41,801 --> 00:02:44,789 the Soviet Union or China but the Department of State, 34 00:02:44,909 --> 00:02:48,890 the Central Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon, the Department of Defense 35 00:02:49,010 --> 00:02:52,245 those belligerents arrayed along the Potomac." 36 00:03:01,145 --> 00:03:04,965 Although Nixon wanted to revise America's Cold War strategy, 37 00:03:05,085 --> 00:03:10,131 his first priority was to get American troops out of the war in Vietnam. 38 00:03:16,289 --> 00:03:20,928 By 1969, this war had cost the lives of 30,000 GIs 39 00:03:21,858 --> 00:03:23,912 and there was still no end. 40 00:03:27,752 --> 00:03:29,737 "When I became secretary of defense, 41 00:03:29,857 --> 00:03:33,065 there were 550,000 men on the ground in Vietnam, 42 00:03:33,185 --> 00:03:37,605 another 1,200,000 in Asia, in the Navy and the Air Force supporting 43 00:03:37,725 --> 00:03:40,622 ...this operation. It was a big war." 44 00:03:42,782 --> 00:03:46,052 America's ally, President Thieu of South Vietnam, 45 00:03:46,172 --> 00:03:48,391 met Nixon on Midway Island. 46 00:03:51,392 --> 00:03:55,073 Nixon told Thieu he planned to pull out American troops 47 00:03:55,193 --> 00:03:59,174 and hand over the ground war to the South Vietnamese. 48 00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:04,556 'Vietnamization' was the term that I coined in order to... 49 00:04:04,676 --> 00:04:08,075 get people thinking about the responsibilities 50 00:04:08,195 --> 00:04:10,146 that the Vietnamese had there." 51 00:04:10,516 --> 00:04:15,018 "So we came in and said, 'That's fine, as long as, you know, you leave behind 52 00:04:15,138 --> 00:04:18,125 a well-trained South Vietnamese army 53 00:04:18,245 --> 00:04:21,498 and equip us so that we could take care of our own destiny." 54 00:04:23,615 --> 00:04:28,357 In July 1969, the first American troops were pulled out. 55 00:04:28,477 --> 00:04:30,778 "... the 3rd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne ..." 56 00:04:37,620 --> 00:04:41,181 "Both Nixon and Kissinger knew what it was doing to our society, 57 00:04:41,460 --> 00:04:44,254 the controversy, the distractions, 58 00:04:44,374 --> 00:04:47,092 the financial cost, the cost - the terrible human toll 59 00:04:47,212 --> 00:04:49,784 in terms of lives lost and wounded, not only of Americans 60 00:04:49,904 --> 00:04:51,462 but Vietnamese and others. 61 00:04:51,733 --> 00:04:55,379 And also the distractions from other foreign policy initiatives. 62 00:04:55,499 --> 00:04:59,315 It´s one reason that Nixon and Kissinger wanted to open up with China 63 00:04:59,435 --> 00:05:01,313 and to improve relations with Russia: 64 00:05:01,433 --> 00:05:03,708 partly to try to bring pressure on the Vietnamese 65 00:05:03,828 --> 00:05:05,338 to negotiate a settlement, 66 00:05:05,458 --> 00:05:07,102 partly to show a dramatic 67 00:05:07,222 --> 00:05:10,336 forward movement in our foreign policy, that we were not crippled 68 00:05:10,456 --> 00:05:12,371 and paralyzed by the Vietnam War." 69 00:05:14,802 --> 00:05:18,654 But Hanoi put on its own pressure with a new offensive in the South. 70 00:05:19,494 --> 00:05:21,438 American generals proposed bombing 71 00:05:21,558 --> 00:05:24,755 North Vietnam's bases in neutral Cambodia. 72 00:05:29,569 --> 00:05:31,499 Nixon agreed to the bombing 73 00:05:31,619 --> 00:05:35,043 but insisted the raids in Cambodia be kept secret. 74 00:05:36,400 --> 00:05:38,397 "Bomb doors open at 30 PG! 75 00:05:38,517 --> 00:05:40,404 Coming up at 30 PG!" 76 00:05:40,405 --> 00:05:42,358 "I see it coming up." "Roger!" 77 00:05:42,478 --> 00:05:45,537 "Stand by to release - ready, ready, now!" 78 00:05:45,657 --> 00:05:47,100 "Bombs away!" 79 00:05:50,027 --> 00:05:53,493 "Impact time - ready, ready, now!" 80 00:06:01,563 --> 00:06:06,270 "I was all for bombing the sanctuaries in Cambodia 81 00:06:06,579 --> 00:06:07,966 but I could not... 82 00:06:08,086 --> 00:06:11,081 tell the president of the United States, the secretary of state 83 00:06:11,201 --> 00:06:14,084 or the national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, 84 00:06:14,204 --> 00:06:15,933 that I could keep it secret. 85 00:06:16,053 --> 00:06:22,077 And I thought it would be a very bad thing if that came out at a later time. 86 00:06:22,197 --> 00:06:23,256 And I knew it would 87 00:06:23,376 --> 00:06:27,294 because we had 12,000 people that had all that information 88 00:06:27,414 --> 00:06:29,422 and you just can't keep secrets." 89 00:06:30,944 --> 00:06:36,022 Laird was right. Anti-war demonstrators protested. 90 00:06:36,142 --> 00:06:38,688 "U.S. out of Vietnam! U.S. out of Vietnam!" 91 00:06:38,808 --> 00:06:41,213 "James Hutton, Illinois!" 92 00:06:41,597 --> 00:06:43,805 "Dennis Hyland, Colorado!" 93 00:06:43,925 --> 00:06:47,434 They called out the names of soldiers killed in Vietnam. 94 00:06:47,554 --> 00:06:51,405 "Richard Nixon could look out the window of the White House and see 95 00:06:51,525 --> 00:06:54,362 a mob of people marching in the street 96 00:06:54,482 --> 00:06:57,136 protesting the war in Vietnam, for instance. 97 00:06:57,444 --> 00:06:59,326 He could take a 3-by-5 card 98 00:06:59,446 --> 00:07:01,431 out of his pocket and take a look. 99 00:07:01,551 --> 00:07:03,125 And the polls showed him 100 00:07:03,245 --> 00:07:07,671 with the confidence of 70-75 percent of the American people 101 00:07:08,083 --> 00:07:11,370 And he'd say, 'I'm not going to let those people in the street 102 00:07:11,490 --> 00:07:13,869 make foreign policy for this country." 103 00:07:13,989 --> 00:07:17,192 "And so tonight - to you, 104 00:07:17,312 --> 00:07:21,385 the great silent majority of my fellow Americans - 105 00:07:21,753 --> 00:07:23,704 I ask for your support. 106 00:07:24,033 --> 00:07:26,769 I pledged in my campaign for the presidency 107 00:07:26,889 --> 00:07:31,431 to end the war in a way that we could win the peace. 108 00:07:32,217 --> 00:07:36,839 I have initiated a plan of action which will enable me to keep that pledge. 109 00:07:37,216 --> 00:07:39,431 The more support I can have 110 00:07:39,551 --> 00:07:43,077 from the American people, the sooner that pledge can be redeemed. 111 00:07:43,357 --> 00:07:46,216 For the more divided we are at home 112 00:07:46,336 --> 00:07:49,605 the less likely the enemy is to negotiate." 113 00:07:49,725 --> 00:07:52,199 "Nixon believed, I think correctly, 114 00:07:52,319 --> 00:07:54,190 that the opposition to the war 115 00:07:54,310 --> 00:07:56,911 was mostly about the draft and the casualties 116 00:07:57,031 --> 00:07:59,096 and not about the American presence there. 117 00:07:59,216 --> 00:08:02,049 Americans didn't care if we were bombing Hanoi 118 00:08:02,169 --> 00:08:04,995 they didn't care if there were American airplanes around. 119 00:08:05,115 --> 00:08:08,351 What they didn't like was the fact that young American men 120 00:08:08,471 --> 00:08:11,467 were being drafted, sent to Vietnam and being killed." 121 00:08:13,631 --> 00:08:18,544 The bombing of the communist bases in Cambodia was no miracle cure. 122 00:08:25,025 --> 00:08:28,068 one zero zero meters away from it now! I'll get you from there!" 123 00:08:28,188 --> 00:08:32,235 American GIs still came under attack in South Vietnam. 124 00:08:32,355 --> 00:08:35,825 "Right, who's wounded? All right, give me some cover! 125 00:08:45,593 --> 00:08:47,185 OK, can you move him? 126 00:08:47,945 --> 00:08:51,899 OK, try and bring him back here! Remember to stop the bleeding! 127 00:08:53,012 --> 00:08:54,313 You gotta stop?!" 128 00:09:01,455 --> 00:09:05,501 Nixon now ordered a ground assault into Cambodia. 129 00:09:05,621 --> 00:09:07,344 "Anybody out here?" 130 00:09:08,317 --> 00:09:11,227 "Do you feel the people are united behind you, Mr. President?" 131 00:09:12,444 --> 00:09:16,617 "Er, as far as the people are concerned, I have no judgment on that. 132 00:09:17,830 --> 00:09:21,836 Er, all that I can say is that I know that I did what I believe was right 133 00:09:22,595 --> 00:09:24,444 and what really matters is... 134 00:09:24,564 --> 00:09:27,060 as far as the people are concerned is whether it comes out right. 135 00:09:27,180 --> 00:09:29,505 If it comes out right, that's what really matters." 136 00:09:29,625 --> 00:09:36,000 "Leave this area immediately! Leave this area immediately!" 137 00:09:38,644 --> 00:09:44,144 Nixon's invasion of Cambodia produced violent protests on American campuses. 138 00:09:53,286 --> 00:09:58,786 At Kent State University, National Guardsmen shot four students dead. 139 00:10:19,433 --> 00:10:22,446 "Every year in the early spring and in the late autumn, 140 00:10:22,566 --> 00:10:25,406 the Soviet army gets its new recruits. 141 00:10:25,670 --> 00:10:28,645 The forces are inconceivable without strong, 142 00:10:28,765 --> 00:10:32,168 agile men possessing stamina. 143 00:10:38,733 --> 00:10:40,704 These are fighting men." 144 00:10:45,261 --> 00:10:48,741 Fighting men alone could not guarantee security. 145 00:10:51,165 --> 00:10:53,276 Soviet leaders wanted arms agreements 146 00:10:53,396 --> 00:10:56,831 that recognized their nuclear parity with America. 147 00:10:57,083 --> 00:11:01,624 They also wanted American understanding in their quarrel with China. 148 00:11:02,570 --> 00:11:05,492 The Communist Party chief Leonid Brezhnev 149 00:11:05,612 --> 00:11:09,030 championed relaxation of Cold War tension with America 150 00:11:09,150 --> 00:11:12,212 the policy that would be called détente. 151 00:11:15,549 --> 00:11:19,449 He was on his way to the very top of Soviet power. 152 00:11:21,015 --> 00:11:24,321 "Brezhnev was a sincere person in many ways. 153 00:11:24,441 --> 00:11:28,428 He had been through the great Patriotic War from beginning to end. 154 00:11:31,186 --> 00:11:34,068 He returned with the very strong conviction 155 00:11:34,188 --> 00:11:37,465 that he had to do his best to prevent war. 156 00:11:39,746 --> 00:11:44,186 This was illustrated every time he went to a collective farm, or factory. 157 00:11:44,473 --> 00:11:47,250 He would ask people 'How are things?' 158 00:11:47,370 --> 00:11:49,860 they would complain but then they would say, 159 00:11:49,980 --> 00:11:54,091 'Well, we can put up with it as long as there is no war." 160 00:11:59,091 --> 00:12:02,085 "Every leader in any country has the need to express his character 161 00:12:02,205 --> 00:12:04,089 and to leave his mark in history. 162 00:12:09,817 --> 00:12:12,873 He wanted to become the leader of the Soviet government. 163 00:12:12,993 --> 00:12:15,781 One of the ways he had of strengthening his position 164 00:12:15,901 --> 00:12:18,999 was making foreign policy his priority." 165 00:12:21,229 --> 00:12:25,121 "American-Soviet relations were always at the center of our diplomacy. 166 00:12:26,176 --> 00:12:29,598 I would say that, basically, whether the West believed it or not, 167 00:12:29,718 --> 00:12:31,993 our attitude was to have a more constructive 168 00:12:32,113 --> 00:12:34,673 relationship with the United States." 169 00:12:40,041 --> 00:12:43,176 In Europe, the Cold War showed itself most painfully 170 00:12:43,296 --> 00:12:47,090 in the Iron Curtain that divided the two Germanys. 171 00:12:57,074 --> 00:13:00,820 West Germany's new Chancellor, the Social Democrat Willy Brandt, 172 00:13:00,940 --> 00:13:04,831 had his own ideas for improving relations with the Soviet bloc. 173 00:13:06,627 --> 00:13:09,184 The Germans called it Ostpolitik. 174 00:13:24,207 --> 00:13:27,425 "The main thing that got the ball rolling 175 00:13:28,148 --> 00:13:32,963 was the decision of the chancellor to call East Germany a state. 176 00:13:38,334 --> 00:13:41,543 This was a fundamental change in our position, 177 00:13:42,226 --> 00:13:45,869 which led to fierce criticism from the opposition. 178 00:13:47,497 --> 00:13:50,404 In Moscow, people were all ears." 179 00:13:53,783 --> 00:13:57,750 "In our opinion, there were more sober voices among the Social Democrats, 180 00:13:57,870 --> 00:14:01,019 those who would seek common points of interests with us 181 00:14:03,779 --> 00:14:07,770 not similarities in our outlook but similarities in our interests. 182 00:14:08,020 --> 00:14:10,582 I would like to stress the difference. 183 00:14:13,165 --> 00:14:17,981 If we found points in common which would preserve a balance of interests, 184 00:14:19,155 --> 00:14:22,109 this could lead relations between the Soviet Union 185 00:14:22,229 --> 00:14:24,532 and West Germany out of a dead end." 186 00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:35,880 Willy Brandt became the first West German chancellor to visit East Germany. 187 00:14:48,889 --> 00:14:50,972 Brandt's visit was a triumph. 188 00:14:53,844 --> 00:14:58,073 To ordinary East Germans, he seemed to bring hope of change. 189 00:14:59,785 --> 00:15:02,309 But the Americans were worried. 190 00:15:03,870 --> 00:15:05,766 "My first reaction to Ostpolitik 191 00:15:05,886 --> 00:15:08,402 was concern that it would lead to German nationalism, 192 00:15:08,522 --> 00:15:14,325 that if Germany operated on its own vis-a-vis the East, 193 00:15:14,445 --> 00:15:17,770 it would emphasize its own national concerns, 194 00:15:17,890 --> 00:15:20,240 if not immediately then over a period of time." 195 00:15:23,187 --> 00:15:25,881 "The response we got from Nixon and Kissinger 196 00:15:26,001 --> 00:15:28,523 was one of doubt and suspicion. 197 00:15:31,786 --> 00:15:33,757 Had we thought about everything? 198 00:15:36,612 --> 00:15:39,785 I had informed Kissinger shortly before we got into office 199 00:15:39,905 --> 00:15:41,613 what we planned to do. 200 00:15:41,900 --> 00:15:44,099 He asked a lot of questions. 201 00:15:47,774 --> 00:15:52,214 We reached the point where I said, "I am not here to consult 202 00:15:52,334 --> 00:15:54,673 but to inform." 203 00:15:58,071 --> 00:16:01,264 This was a tone unheard of in Washington." 204 00:16:03,086 --> 00:16:06,005 "While the danger that we feared was real, 205 00:16:06,125 --> 00:16:09,754 the best way to avert it was not to fight it 206 00:16:09,874 --> 00:16:14,846 and then be accused of being the cause of permanent German partition, 207 00:16:14,966 --> 00:16:17,417 but rather to help guide it in a direction 208 00:16:17,537 --> 00:16:19,849 that was compatible with allied policy. 209 00:16:20,703 --> 00:16:25,877 And so we established another back-channel to 210 00:16:25,997 --> 00:16:29,074 Brandt through his associate Egon Bahr 211 00:16:29,436 --> 00:16:33,927 and to the Soviets via Dobrynin and Falin. 212 00:16:34,539 --> 00:16:38,556 And we insisted that before anything 213 00:16:38,793 --> 00:16:41,325 could be concluded with respect to Germany, 214 00:16:41,445 --> 00:16:45,753 absolute assurances had to exist with respect to our position in Berlin." 215 00:16:48,633 --> 00:16:51,203 Brandt's next destination was Moscow. 216 00:16:55,404 --> 00:16:59,600 He hoped to remove Russia's fear of its old German enemy. 217 00:17:01,713 --> 00:17:05,113 Brandt was willing to recognize Europe's postwar borders 218 00:17:05,233 --> 00:17:08,194 and the division between East and West. 219 00:17:10,677 --> 00:17:16,256 "The Moscow accords were the key to our bilateral treaty system with the East. 220 00:17:18,296 --> 00:17:20,591 The Federal Republic ceased to be an excuse 221 00:17:20,711 --> 00:17:23,647 for the Soviet Union to keep the Eastern bloc in line. 222 00:17:24,223 --> 00:17:29,543 The treaty was a signal from Moscow that there was a readiness for change." 223 00:17:32,948 --> 00:17:36,254 Willy Brandt flew to another old German enemy. 224 00:17:53,068 --> 00:17:56,340 Brandt had come to recognize Poland's western border 225 00:17:56,460 --> 00:18:01,175 carved out of territory seized from Nazi Germany in 1945. 226 00:18:03,850 --> 00:18:08,116 The German chancellor visited the site of the Warsaw Ghetto. 227 00:18:11,902 --> 00:18:13,463 Words failed him; 228 00:18:13,700 --> 00:18:17,791 he knelt at the memorial to Jewish fighters who resisted the Nazis. 229 00:18:26,911 --> 00:18:29,983 "Brandt was a stroke of luck for German history. 230 00:18:30,241 --> 00:18:33,638 For the Americans he symbolized reliability 231 00:18:33,758 --> 00:18:36,443 he had proved himself the defender of Berlin 232 00:18:36,563 --> 00:18:38,973 against the menace of the East. 233 00:18:40,170 --> 00:18:42,939 And for the East, he was a resistance fighter 234 00:18:43,059 --> 00:18:45,843 against the Nazis - without any doubt." 235 00:18:52,583 --> 00:18:54,382 In a divided Germany, 236 00:18:54,502 --> 00:18:58,892 these steps towards détente brought welcome cracks in the Berlin Wall. 237 00:18:59,966 --> 00:19:05,318 Families and friends separated by the Wall could see each other once again. 238 00:19:11,426 --> 00:19:14,332 "OK, fine, fine, we'll call you later!" 239 00:19:15,046 --> 00:19:19,662 The architects of America's new approach to the Cold War were Richard Nixon 240 00:19:19,782 --> 00:19:23,417 and his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger. 241 00:19:24,157 --> 00:19:30,818 "Henry was very temperamental, very bright, very territorial, very insecure. 242 00:19:32,004 --> 00:19:34,724 You could say the same thing about Richard Nixon. 243 00:19:35,061 --> 00:19:38,408 And they complemented one another a lot of the time. 244 00:19:38,528 --> 00:19:41,260 At the same time they were rivals. 245 00:19:41,676 --> 00:19:43,932 They fought with one another. 246 00:19:45,574 --> 00:19:51,340 They fought... not with one another but behind one another's backs 247 00:19:51,460 --> 00:19:53,061 they were devious." 248 00:19:55,215 --> 00:19:57,984 The two men preferred to work in secret. 249 00:19:58,271 --> 00:19:59,893 Through secret back channels, 250 00:20:00,013 --> 00:20:02,637 they set up summit meetings in Beijing and Moscow. 251 00:20:02,757 --> 00:20:04,922 "We have a variety of independent sources." 252 00:20:05,042 --> 00:20:07,279 "I know, I know! None of them reliable." 253 00:20:07,682 --> 00:20:09,703 "None of them totally reliable." 254 00:20:09,823 --> 00:20:11,298 "That's right!" 255 00:20:11,418 --> 00:20:15,315 Nixon and Kissinger wanted the summits in China and the Soviet Union 256 00:20:15,435 --> 00:20:18,147 to help America get out of Vietnam. 257 00:20:18,409 --> 00:20:22,488 They also hoped to bring China into their diplomatic game. 258 00:20:23,388 --> 00:20:28,240 "The principal reason for seeking a rapprochement with China was to... 259 00:20:28,577 --> 00:20:32,369 restore fluidity to the overall international situation. 260 00:20:32,489 --> 00:20:36,423 If there are five players and you can't deal with one of them, 261 00:20:36,910 --> 00:20:40,353 this produces rigidity. Secondly, 262 00:20:40,677 --> 00:20:43,921 we wanted to demonstrate to the American public 263 00:20:44,041 --> 00:20:45,917 that Vietnam was an aberration, 264 00:20:46,037 --> 00:20:51,055 that we had ideas for the construction of peace on a global scale." 265 00:20:52,752 --> 00:20:55,607 Soviet leaders were alarmed after Kissinger 266 00:20:55,727 --> 00:20:58,965 and then Nixon returned jubilant from China. 267 00:20:59,085 --> 00:21:03,088 "Not only have we completed a week of intensive talks at the highest levels, 268 00:21:03,350 --> 00:21:05,311 we have set up a procedure 269 00:21:05,431 --> 00:21:10,226 whereby we can continue to have discussions in the future. 270 00:21:11,153 --> 00:21:16,529 We have demonstrated that nations with very deep and fundamental differences 271 00:21:16,649 --> 00:21:22,192 can learn to discuss those differences calmly, rationally and frankly 272 00:21:22,312 --> 00:21:25,223 without compromising their principles." 273 00:21:26,972 --> 00:21:29,304 "It was a great scare for our leaders 274 00:21:29,424 --> 00:21:32,672 who decided that an anti-Soviet coalition was being formed, 275 00:21:32,792 --> 00:21:36,826 which included not only America and NATO but also China. 276 00:21:36,946 --> 00:21:39,742 We felt we were being surrounded." 277 00:21:42,117 --> 00:21:44,599 "The Moscow reaction was 278 00:21:44,719 --> 00:21:48,725 that a summit which we had tried to achieve before the trip to China, 279 00:21:49,149 --> 00:21:52,866 and in which they had been stone-walling us and trying to use it to 280 00:21:53,091 --> 00:21:56,064 well, to put it kindly - blackmail us into 281 00:21:56,184 --> 00:21:59,607 untoward concessions, or concessions we thought were untoward, 282 00:22:00,203 --> 00:22:03,708 suddenly they agreed to the summit 283 00:22:04,063 --> 00:22:06,334 and it unfroze our relationship." 284 00:22:09,221 --> 00:22:13,924 In March 1972, North Vietnam launched a new offensive in the South. 285 00:22:14,398 --> 00:22:17,379 Nixon responded with more air attacks. 286 00:22:25,309 --> 00:22:27,667 Would the Soviets receive Nixon in Moscow 287 00:22:27,787 --> 00:22:31,248 while his planes were bombing their North Vietnamese ally? 288 00:22:32,988 --> 00:22:34,814 "The general debate that took place 289 00:22:34,934 --> 00:22:38,221 in the White House situation room - and I was in many of these - was: 290 00:22:38,545 --> 00:22:42,163 which is more important - the Vietnam front or the Moscow front? 291 00:22:42,283 --> 00:22:45,128 And Nixon was the only important person that I can recall 292 00:22:45,248 --> 00:22:47,473 who said, 'We can have both. 293 00:22:47,593 --> 00:22:50,062 I'm willing to lose the Moscow summit but I predict 294 00:22:50,182 --> 00:22:53,667 the Russians will go ahead even if we bomb Hanoi and mine Haiphong.'" 295 00:22:53,787 --> 00:22:57,147 "Nixon and Henry Kissinger played sort of good cop/bad cop 296 00:22:57,267 --> 00:22:59,494 with the Russians particularly. 297 00:22:59,614 --> 00:23:03,049 Kissinger would see Anatoly Dobrynin, the Russian ambassador, 298 00:23:03,169 --> 00:23:06,230 frequently and I mean like almost daily. 299 00:23:06,350 --> 00:23:09,815 And his line was - 'Look, I work for this crazy man. 300 00:23:10,152 --> 00:23:12,347 There's no telling what he might do. 301 00:23:12,467 --> 00:23:15,877 So, Anatoly, you and I as reasonable men 302 00:23:16,738 --> 00:23:22,876 must work together to an accommodation between our countries." 303 00:23:23,784 --> 00:23:28,292 Kissinger was uncertain whether Moscow would allow the summit to go ahead. 304 00:23:31,369 --> 00:23:33,178 "I went to see Kissinger. 305 00:23:33,298 --> 00:23:35,311 He was nervous but tried to hide it. 306 00:23:35,431 --> 00:23:38,866 He said jokingly, 'OK, let's have a bet!' 307 00:23:38,986 --> 00:23:43,467 because he knew I had a piece of paper with the official Soviet reply. 308 00:23:44,616 --> 00:23:48,334 He said, 'Let's bet whether I can guess the answer!' 309 00:23:48,568 --> 00:23:51,724 So we bet a crate of champagne. 310 00:23:54,433 --> 00:23:58,324 I asked him, 'So what do you think the Soviet answer is?' 311 00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:02,631 He was convinced that the summit had been postponed to a later date. 312 00:24:04,218 --> 00:24:10,987 In fact, the official Soviet reply was: the summit is going ahead as planned." 313 00:24:15,857 --> 00:24:18,538 May 22, 1972 314 00:24:19,748 --> 00:24:23,242 Richard Nixon became the first serving American president 315 00:24:23,362 --> 00:24:25,524 to be received in the Kremlin. 316 00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:32,966 The summit reached agreements to limit offensive and defensive nuclear weapons, 317 00:24:33,086 --> 00:24:36,026 and it laid the foundation of détente. 318 00:24:39,352 --> 00:24:41,100 For Brezhnev and Nixon, 319 00:24:41,220 --> 00:24:43,225 this was the most dramatic proof yet 320 00:24:43,345 --> 00:24:46,307 of the new relationship between their two countries. 321 00:24:48,506 --> 00:24:52,589 But first the Soviets had to make their point on Vietnam. 322 00:24:54,856 --> 00:24:59,271 "President Nixon, Dr. Kissinger, myself and one other officer, 323 00:24:59,391 --> 00:25:03,089 four of us, went out to Brezhnev's country dacha. 324 00:25:03,600 --> 00:25:08,438 And there we saw Brezhnev, Kosygin, Podgorny 325 00:25:08,558 --> 00:25:11,951 and the national security adviser on their side - four on four. 326 00:25:12,424 --> 00:25:15,533 We sat for three hours in the dacha, 327 00:25:15,653 --> 00:25:18,502 in which each of the Russian leaders took an hour 328 00:25:18,622 --> 00:25:21,770 to blast the United States for its Vietnam policy, 329 00:25:22,406 --> 00:25:25,649 absolutely attacking Nixon and the United States. 330 00:25:25,769 --> 00:25:28,212 Nixon knew what they were doing, 331 00:25:28,332 --> 00:25:31,346 namely, they were writing a transcript to send to Hanoi. 332 00:25:31,466 --> 00:25:34,668 So he listened patiently, didn't get overly argumentative, 333 00:25:34,788 --> 00:25:36,344 basically just took it. 334 00:25:37,068 --> 00:25:40,473 After three and a half hours of Soviet diatribe, 335 00:25:40,593 --> 00:25:43,393 sort of a tag-team match among the Soviet leaders, 336 00:25:43,766 --> 00:25:46,089 we then went upstairs for dinner 337 00:25:46,209 --> 00:25:48,197 and the entire mood changed. 338 00:25:48,317 --> 00:25:50,380 Brezhnev broke out the vodka. 339 00:25:50,636 --> 00:25:53,683 There was singing and jokes and toasts. 340 00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:57,230 "And then later that evening, Kissinger went back 341 00:25:57,350 --> 00:25:58,868 - I believe with Gromyko - 342 00:25:58,988 --> 00:26:01,351 and did some more negotiating on arms control." 343 00:26:03,097 --> 00:26:06,615 "The atmosphere was very good, even friendly. 344 00:26:08,636 --> 00:26:12,327 We were quite aggressive in view of Nixon's actions on Vietnam, 345 00:26:12,652 --> 00:26:15,384 but we made sure it didn't overshadow the summit, 346 00:26:15,504 --> 00:26:17,892 because the issues that Nixon was going to raise 347 00:26:18,012 --> 00:26:21,865 had already been agreed through the confidential channel. 348 00:26:24,034 --> 00:26:27,252 These were very important nuclear issues. 349 00:26:28,887 --> 00:26:30,863 All the members of the Politburo knew 350 00:26:30,983 --> 00:26:34,640 that the text of the treaty had already been agreed. 351 00:26:34,760 --> 00:26:37,845 Nixon knew that too from Kissinger. 352 00:26:38,581 --> 00:26:41,480 So if we gave in to our emotions 353 00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:46,300 we would ruin everything that had already been achieved." 354 00:26:46,648 --> 00:26:49,729 "The President of the United States!" 355 00:26:52,685 --> 00:26:56,571 The American Congress gave Nixon a hero's welcome. 356 00:27:13,372 --> 00:27:17,757 "Last Friday in Moscow we witnessed the beginning 357 00:27:17,877 --> 00:27:21,768 of the end of that era which began in 1945. 358 00:27:22,485 --> 00:27:25,062 We took the first step toward a new era 359 00:27:25,182 --> 00:27:28,115 of mutually agreed restraint and arms limitation 360 00:27:28,235 --> 00:27:30,589 between the two principal nuclear powers. 361 00:27:31,094 --> 00:27:36,707 With this step, we have enhanced the security of both nations. 362 00:27:36,989 --> 00:27:40,786 We have begun to check the wasteful and dangerous spiral of nuclear arms 363 00:27:40,799 --> 00:27:45,213 which has dominated relations between our two countries for a generation. 364 00:27:45,747 --> 00:27:49,739 We have begun to reduce the level of fear 365 00:27:49,859 --> 00:27:52,444 by reducing the causes of fear, 366 00:27:53,084 --> 00:27:56,509 for our two peoples and for all peoples in the world." 367 00:27:59,319 --> 00:28:02,250 Two weeks after Nixon's return from Moscow, 368 00:28:02,370 --> 00:28:05,893 five men working for his re-election campaign were arrested 369 00:28:06,013 --> 00:28:09,579 for breaking into the Washington headquarters of the Democratic Party. 370 00:28:09,699 --> 00:28:13,471 It was the start of a major scandal - Watergate. 371 00:28:20,482 --> 00:28:23,289 As election day approached, Kissinger returned 372 00:28:23,409 --> 00:28:27,555 from one of his many negotiating rounds with the North Vietnamese. 373 00:28:28,601 --> 00:28:32,256 He told Nixon he at last had a deal on Vietnam. 374 00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:36,722 "The North Vietnamese negotiator Le Duc Tho 375 00:28:37,008 --> 00:28:40,277 presented to Dr. Kissinger 376 00:28:42,024 --> 00:28:47,837 a draft agreement on restoring peace and ending the war in Vietnam. 377 00:28:48,236 --> 00:28:52,888 And the first thing he said when he presented that document to Dr. Kissinger 378 00:28:53,008 --> 00:28:55,818 was, "You are in a hurry, are you not?" 379 00:28:55,938 --> 00:29:00,577 And I recall Dr. Kissinger nodding affirmatively when... 380 00:29:00,697 --> 00:29:02,409 Le Duc Tho made that statement." 381 00:29:02,529 --> 00:29:04,792 "We knew that Kissinger had met with 382 00:29:04,912 --> 00:29:07,586 the North Vietnamese side in Paris on October 9. 383 00:29:07,885 --> 00:29:12,588 So when he came on October 19 and gave us the text 384 00:29:12,708 --> 00:29:14,159 - in English, mind you - 385 00:29:14,279 --> 00:29:16,845 and he asked us, well, we've got four days to sign 386 00:29:16,965 --> 00:29:20,247 and of course we politely said, 'Well, you know, this is the first time 387 00:29:20,367 --> 00:29:24,505 we have been given this text, so we would like to have time to study it. 388 00:29:24,625 --> 00:29:27,664 By the way, you know, where is the Vietnamese text?" 389 00:29:27,958 --> 00:29:30,714 "When I see the widows, the orphans, 390 00:29:30,834 --> 00:29:34,376 when I see so many tombs, so many sacrifices 391 00:29:34,496 --> 00:29:36,955 for the freedom and liberty of Vietnam, 392 00:29:37,075 --> 00:29:43,066 I reaffirm again that the whole people of South Vietnam will resist again 393 00:29:43,186 --> 00:29:46,987 any peace which demand the rendition of South Vietnam 394 00:29:47,107 --> 00:29:50,267 and which will give South Vietnam to the communist aggressors!" 395 00:29:50,517 --> 00:29:53,399 "I have great sympathy for Thieu 396 00:29:53,673 --> 00:29:56,767 and, at the same time, I have great sympathy for our problem. 397 00:29:56,887 --> 00:30:01,001 We faced 65 congressional resolutions 398 00:30:01,121 --> 00:30:03,222 in the year 1972 alone 399 00:30:03,721 --> 00:30:07,379 that were urging unilateral withdrawal from Vietnam." 400 00:30:07,646 --> 00:30:12,847 "And Mr. Kissinger said, 'Well, if you sign this, we're going to bring peace 401 00:30:12,967 --> 00:30:14,606 and we'll be 402 00:30:14,830 --> 00:30:18,789 - South Vietnam will be developed, people will be happy.' At which... 403 00:30:18,909 --> 00:30:20,716 President Thieu said, 'Listen, 404 00:30:20,836 --> 00:30:23,721 you know, we have the interests and the future of our country. 405 00:30:23,841 --> 00:30:25,914 We are not looking for Nobel Prize." 406 00:30:27,492 --> 00:30:30,312 South Vietnam refused to sign. 407 00:30:30,823 --> 00:30:32,981 With his deal facing collapse, 408 00:30:33,101 --> 00:30:37,783 Kissinger hastily reassured Hanoi America still wanted an agreement. 409 00:30:38,469 --> 00:30:39,904 "We believe... 410 00:30:40,353 --> 00:30:42,810 that peace is at hand. 411 00:30:44,295 --> 00:30:50,544 We believe that an agreement is within sight 412 00:30:52,764 --> 00:30:56,906 It is inevitable that... 413 00:30:57,604 --> 00:31:01,308 in a war of such complexity 414 00:31:02,119 --> 00:31:07,083 that there should be occasional difficulties 415 00:31:07,203 --> 00:31:09,503 in reaching a final solution." 416 00:31:13,521 --> 00:31:18,222 This latest setback in the Vietnam peace talks did not damage Nixon. 417 00:31:19,688 --> 00:31:22,982 He was easily re-elected for a second term. 418 00:31:25,729 --> 00:31:27,113 Back in Paris, 419 00:31:27,233 --> 00:31:30,636 Kissinger had to put Thieu's objections to the North Vietnamese. 420 00:31:30,756 --> 00:31:32,824 "How's it going, Dr. Kissinger?" 421 00:31:32,944 --> 00:31:34,598 "How do I get outta here?" 422 00:31:34,718 --> 00:31:37,361 "We thought you weren't having a meeting today, sir." 423 00:31:37,481 --> 00:31:40,515 "Well, we do something surprising!" 424 00:31:41,466 --> 00:31:44,681 "It's getting to be difficult to have a secret rendezvous in Paris." 425 00:31:44,801 --> 00:31:46,189 "It certainly is!" 426 00:31:46,951 --> 00:31:49,346 "Will you be meeting again tomorrow, sir?" 427 00:31:50,506 --> 00:31:52,327 "Er, we expect to, yes." 428 00:31:54,179 --> 00:31:58,892 "One day we were on the verge of finalizing the text. 429 00:31:59,012 --> 00:32:01,602 The next day, there were suddenly 10 or 12 430 00:32:01,722 --> 00:32:04,311 different issues that popped up 431 00:32:04,803 --> 00:32:06,948 and were unresolved. 432 00:32:07,185 --> 00:32:12,799 And then Le Duc Tho said that he had to go back to Hanoi for consultations." 433 00:32:15,961 --> 00:32:19,546 Le Duc Tho left Paris and the talks broke down. 434 00:32:23,508 --> 00:32:26,210 Nixon ordered air raids on North Vietnam, 435 00:32:26,330 --> 00:32:28,640 hoping to bludgeon Hanoi into agreement 436 00:32:28,760 --> 00:32:31,841 and at the same time bolster the South. 437 00:32:42,531 --> 00:32:45,288 Over 12 days, Hanoi and Haiphong 438 00:32:45,408 --> 00:32:48,581 came under the most sustained bombing campaign of the war. 439 00:32:51,501 --> 00:32:53,480 The bombing served its purpose. 440 00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:55,244 North and South Vietnam 441 00:32:55,364 --> 00:32:59,496 were ready to agree to the deal that Kissinger put together. 442 00:33:03,193 --> 00:33:05,097 Under the peace accords, 443 00:33:05,217 --> 00:33:07,609 American troops would leave Vietnam; 444 00:33:07,729 --> 00:33:10,203 the Saigon government would remain in power 445 00:33:10,323 --> 00:33:13,827 but North Vietnam's troops would stay in the South. 446 00:33:17,918 --> 00:33:20,718 Nixon called it "peace with honor". 447 00:33:21,958 --> 00:33:27,496 "It so happened that with Mr. Kissinger, who had wanted to play the triangular, 448 00:33:27,616 --> 00:33:32,099 to do the détente, Vietnam had to go in order for détente to happen. 449 00:33:32,219 --> 00:33:36,426 This is my own analysis and then that, unfortunately, you know, 450 00:33:36,546 --> 00:33:39,495 was not very good for the South Vietnamese people." 451 00:33:39,836 --> 00:33:43,249 "Good evening. The biggest White House scandal in a century, 452 00:33:43,369 --> 00:33:46,342 the Watergate scandal, broke wide open today. 453 00:33:46,462 --> 00:33:49,386 The attorney general, Richard Kleindienst, has resigned 454 00:33:49,506 --> 00:33:52,250 because - in his own words - he had close personal 455 00:33:52,370 --> 00:33:54,266 and professional associations 456 00:33:54,386 --> 00:33:56,811 with people who may have broken the law. 457 00:33:56,931 --> 00:33:58,900 The two closest men to the president, 458 00:33:59,020 --> 00:34:02,179 H.R. Haldeman, his chief of staff, and John Ehrlichman, 459 00:34:02,299 --> 00:34:05,024 his chief domestic adviser, have resigned. 460 00:34:05,144 --> 00:34:08,801 Last week both men were fighting hard to keep their jobs." 461 00:34:08,921 --> 00:34:14,265 "We had a great staff system in the White House for dealing with crises. 462 00:34:15,329 --> 00:34:18,610 We didn't apply that system to Watergate. 463 00:34:18,917 --> 00:34:22,435 I think part of the reason was we didn't consider it a crisis. 464 00:34:22,555 --> 00:34:26,076 It was a very small potatoes episode." 465 00:34:26,196 --> 00:34:30,779 "I had no prior knowledge of the Watergate break-in. 466 00:34:30,899 --> 00:34:34,793 I neither took part in nor knew about any of the subsequent... 467 00:34:34,913 --> 00:34:36,639 cover-up activities. 468 00:34:37,005 --> 00:34:42,226 I neither authorized nor encouraged subordinates to engage in illegal 469 00:34:42,346 --> 00:34:44,604 improper campaign tactics. 470 00:34:45,091 --> 00:34:49,183 That was and that is the simple truth." 471 00:34:50,692 --> 00:34:55,120 Regardless of Watergate, the process of détente continued. 472 00:34:58,189 --> 00:35:01,651 Brezhnev came to America for a second summit with Nixon. 473 00:35:04,482 --> 00:35:09,372 In California, the Soviet leader partied with Hollywood film stars. 474 00:35:15,325 --> 00:35:18,743 The Russians were still keen to deal with the American President. 475 00:35:31,794 --> 00:35:33,042 "Goodbye!" 476 00:35:36,169 --> 00:35:37,667 "Dosvidan'ya!" 477 00:35:39,015 --> 00:35:42,295 In spite of Nixon's denial of guilt over Watergate, 478 00:35:42,415 --> 00:35:44,690 he was accused of obstructing justice 479 00:35:44,810 --> 00:35:47,506 and faced impeachment by Congress. 480 00:35:49,293 --> 00:35:51,384 In August 1974, 481 00:35:51,504 --> 00:35:54,824 Richard Nixon, the man who took America into détente, 482 00:35:54,944 --> 00:35:57,443 gave up the fight and resigned. 483 00:36:08,865 --> 00:36:11,522 His successor was Gerald Ford. 484 00:36:23,379 --> 00:36:27,687 The Soviet leadership was astonished by Nixon's downfall. 485 00:36:30,570 --> 00:36:34,325 "They thought, 'How could the most powerful person in the United States, 486 00:36:34,445 --> 00:36:37,559 the most important person in the world, be legally forced 487 00:36:37,679 --> 00:36:41,525 to step down for stealing some silly documents?' 488 00:36:42,186 --> 00:36:45,334 It was so contrary to the mentality of the Soviet leaders 489 00:36:45,454 --> 00:36:49,936 that a person in such a senior position could be removed by legal means. 490 00:36:50,056 --> 00:36:53,292 They simply couldn't understand it." 491 00:36:56,752 --> 00:36:58,748 "There were various suspicions. 492 00:36:59,559 --> 00:37:01,330 One of those suspicions 493 00:37:01,450 --> 00:37:04,930 was that it was done deliberately by the enemies of rapprochement 494 00:37:05,050 --> 00:37:08,031 between America and the Soviet Union." 495 00:37:14,995 --> 00:37:20,389 In Vietnam, the 1973 peace accords had not stopped the fighting. 496 00:37:21,444 --> 00:37:25,573 By April 1975, South Vietnamese troops were struggling 497 00:37:25,693 --> 00:37:29,615 to defend Saigon against Hanoi's final offensive. 498 00:37:30,126 --> 00:37:33,710 They could expect little help from the Americans. 499 00:37:34,689 --> 00:37:37,559 "The Congress of the United States 500 00:37:37,870 --> 00:37:39,717 refused 501 00:37:40,764 --> 00:37:46,016 to supply the kind of military assistance 502 00:37:46,136 --> 00:37:52,715 that was necessary to keep the South Vietnamese military forces strong." 503 00:37:57,328 --> 00:37:59,277 South Vietnamese who had fought 504 00:37:59,397 --> 00:38:02,529 and worked alongside the Americans against the communists 505 00:38:02,649 --> 00:38:04,964 besieged the U.S. Embassy. 506 00:38:15,071 --> 00:38:17,500 The Americans were getting away 507 00:38:17,620 --> 00:38:19,051 but they had lost the war 508 00:38:19,171 --> 00:38:21,093 and now they could not even save 509 00:38:21,213 --> 00:38:23,724 thousands of their South Vietnamese friends. 510 00:38:25,021 --> 00:38:27,506 "The American experience in Vietnam 511 00:38:27,626 --> 00:38:31,066 - and particularly my own - had been like a B-52 strike 512 00:38:31,186 --> 00:38:34,908 from 60,000 feet up. Oh, we had done a lot of damage 513 00:38:35,370 --> 00:38:39,868 but very seldom did you have to gaze upon the consequences of that... 514 00:38:40,192 --> 00:38:41,939 ...damage. 515 00:38:43,036 --> 00:38:48,661 That last day was like being in a B-52 strike right on the deck. 516 00:38:48,886 --> 00:38:53,688 You saw what our actions had wrought 517 00:38:54,266 --> 00:38:57,229 and the horror and the shame... 518 00:38:57,603 --> 00:39:00,335 was almost more than you could bear." 519 00:39:30,673 --> 00:39:33,567 The Soviet Union proclaimed itself confident. 520 00:39:33,687 --> 00:39:36,715 It believed it was a superpower equal to America 521 00:39:36,835 --> 00:39:40,472 and boasted history was on its side. 522 00:39:41,667 --> 00:39:44,824 This rosy view ignored one problem. 523 00:39:45,804 --> 00:39:49,968 The treatment of Soviet dissidents like the writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn 524 00:39:50,088 --> 00:39:52,556 threatened to derail détente. 525 00:40:00,782 --> 00:40:02,125 "Mr. Cantor..." 526 00:40:02,621 --> 00:40:09,355 "Russian pig, go home! ... Never again, never again!" 527 00:40:10,216 --> 00:40:12,885 American passions flared over restrictions 528 00:40:13,005 --> 00:40:15,406 on the emigration of Soviet Jews. 529 00:40:19,366 --> 00:40:22,475 "The questions of Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union 530 00:40:22,595 --> 00:40:26,031 and of human rights were a very strong irritant. 531 00:40:27,826 --> 00:40:31,174 These issues were raised regularly by the U.S. Congress 532 00:40:31,294 --> 00:40:34,828 and by demonstrations organized by pro-Israeli activists 533 00:40:34,948 --> 00:40:37,619 and sometimes by hooligans." 534 00:40:39,352 --> 00:40:43,356 "There was at the outset of course a genuine backlash 535 00:40:43,476 --> 00:40:47,021 in the Congress of the United States against the policy of détente 536 00:40:47,141 --> 00:40:50,347 not in the first instance from where one might expect it, 537 00:40:50,467 --> 00:40:53,385 from the right-wing pews of the Republican Party. 538 00:40:53,505 --> 00:40:58,408 It came instead from the traditionally right-wing Democrats, 539 00:40:58,528 --> 00:41:02,723 the hard-line, sort of Cold Warrior Democrats like 'Scoop' Jackson." 540 00:41:02,843 --> 00:41:05,906 "When we have something we feel strongly about 541 00:41:06,026 --> 00:41:09,577 and in this case it is civil liberties and freedom and... 542 00:41:09,697 --> 00:41:12,166 what this nation was founded upon, that... 543 00:41:12,576 --> 00:41:16,028 we should do something to implement international law 544 00:41:16,148 --> 00:41:17,831 and it is international law now 545 00:41:17,951 --> 00:41:20,825 the right to leave a country freely and return freely 546 00:41:20,945 --> 00:41:25,071 that we should put that issue of principle on the table 547 00:41:25,191 --> 00:41:26,843 knowing that the Russians... 548 00:41:27,206 --> 00:41:29,335 are not going to agree to it." 549 00:41:29,661 --> 00:41:35,116 "The debate about détente took a very curious form, 550 00:41:35,551 --> 00:41:38,532 because some liberals seemed to take the view... 551 00:41:38,652 --> 00:41:41,311 that maybe tension wasn't all that bad. 552 00:41:41,577 --> 00:41:44,581 And they suddenly developed theories of... 553 00:41:44,701 --> 00:41:47,667 the need to intervene in human rights procedures 554 00:41:47,787 --> 00:41:49,536 that we'd never heard before 555 00:41:49,656 --> 00:41:52,233 and that were strenuously rejected before." 556 00:41:55,216 --> 00:41:56,837 In the Soviet Union, 557 00:41:56,957 --> 00:42:00,786 where memorials kept alive the remembrance of a terrible war, 558 00:42:00,906 --> 00:42:03,040 détente had few enemies. 559 00:42:08,323 --> 00:42:12,604 Soviet leaders hoped to guarantee their country's status and security 560 00:42:12,724 --> 00:42:14,960 with a treaty to be signed in Helsinki 561 00:42:15,080 --> 00:42:18,318 which would recognize the postwar division of Europe. 562 00:42:20,699 --> 00:42:24,600 But this treaty had a stumbling block - human rights. 563 00:42:25,939 --> 00:42:29,047 "The members of the Politburo read the full text. 564 00:42:29,167 --> 00:42:32,737 They had no objections when they read the first and second articles. 565 00:42:32,857 --> 00:42:35,773 When they got to the third 'humanitarian' article, 566 00:42:35,893 --> 00:42:38,236 their hair stood on end. 567 00:42:39,881 --> 00:42:44,187 Suslov said it was a complete betrayal of communist ideology. 568 00:42:47,484 --> 00:42:50,520 Gromyko then came up with the following argument: 569 00:42:50,640 --> 00:42:54,995 The main thing about the Helsinki treaty is the recognition of the borders. 570 00:42:55,115 --> 00:42:58,854 That's what we shed our blood for in the Great Patriotic War. 571 00:42:58,974 --> 00:43:04,667 All 35 signatory states are now saying these are the borders of Europe. 572 00:43:05,187 --> 00:43:08,079 As for human rights, Gromyko said, 573 00:43:08,199 --> 00:43:10,881 'Well, who's the master of this house? 574 00:43:11,001 --> 00:43:12,880 We are the masters of this house 575 00:43:13,000 --> 00:43:16,727 and each time it will be up to us to decide how to act. 576 00:43:16,847 --> 00:43:18,648 Who can force us?" 577 00:43:26,976 --> 00:43:29,598 After overcoming the doubts of his colleagues, 578 00:43:29,718 --> 00:43:31,796 Brezhnev arrived in Helsinki, 579 00:43:31,916 --> 00:43:35,249 keen to cut a figure among leaders from East and West. 580 00:43:59,710 --> 00:44:03,350 Both sides believed they had the agreement they wanted. 581 00:44:04,140 --> 00:44:09,611 "The Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact nations did not recognize 582 00:44:09,731 --> 00:44:13,473 that the human rights provision was a time bomb. 583 00:44:16,111 --> 00:44:21,155 We the United States believed that if we could get... 584 00:44:21,495 --> 00:44:28,124 the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact nations to respect human rights, 585 00:44:28,699 --> 00:44:35,477 that was worth whatever else was agreed to in the Helsinki Accords." 586 00:44:35,597 --> 00:44:39,634 "Three, two, one, engine sequence start, one, zero, 587 00:44:39,754 --> 00:44:41,896 launch commence! We have a liftoff!" 588 00:44:44,550 --> 00:44:49,001 Thanks to détente, rockets could now point the way to coexistence, 589 00:44:49,121 --> 00:44:50,880 rather than war. 590 00:44:51,000 --> 00:44:53,020 "Houston flight to Moskva...." 591 00:44:55,119 --> 00:44:57,876 "Apollo Houston, I got two messages for you. 592 00:44:58,167 --> 00:45:01,278 Moscow is go for docking! Houston is go for docking! 593 00:45:01,398 --> 00:45:03,119 It's up to you guys! Have fun!" 594 00:45:03,239 --> 00:45:04,887 "Less than five meters distance!" 595 00:45:05,007 --> 00:45:08,247 Soviet and American spacecraft made history, 596 00:45:08,367 --> 00:45:11,842 docking together 140 miles above the Earth. 597 00:45:13,882 --> 00:45:17,082 "Contact! All right, aha!?" 598 00:45:18,723 --> 00:45:25,616 In space, cooperation was replacing years of Cold War confrontation. 599 00:45:27,807 --> 00:45:30,482 "When we went to the United States for training, 600 00:45:30,602 --> 00:45:32,239 we met the Americans. 601 00:45:32,982 --> 00:45:35,282 I remember one of them saying to me, 602 00:45:35,402 --> 00:45:39,811 'Since this international project I have begun to sleep better at night. 603 00:45:39,931 --> 00:45:42,169 I am no longer afraid of nuclear war, 604 00:45:42,447 --> 00:45:45,354 because we are working together." 605 00:45:48,718 --> 00:45:51,272 Subtitles by Juan Claudio Epsteyn 606 00:45:52,404 --> 00:45:55,112 E-mail: epsteyn@hotmail.com