Nick Ward - Documentary Narrative - Gorbachev and Reagan
Description
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Middle Aged (35-54)Accents
North American (General)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
Soviet Union entered the 19 eighties in crisis, its economy failing under the weight of enormous military programs and party incompetence, many Soviets had a sense that the country was in stagnation, that some change was badly needed. The elderly, Leonid Brezhnev, died in 1982 succeeded by the KGB. He's Yuri Andropov, off quite sick when he assumed power and drop up died within two years to be succeeded by the last of Brezhnev's generation, Constantine Chernenko. He was clearly an interim choice, too sick to last long. Finally, a man young enough to serve for years to come was chosen in 1985. Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev first met Ronald Reagan in Geneva in 1985 hoping to convince the president to cancel the Star Wars initiative. Unfortunately, he was not a tall, secure in his power. He needed the summit to prove his worth to the polit bureau. The next year, a directive IQ Gorbachev tried to kill off the new intermediate range missiles the United States was placing in Western Europe. Reagan extracted a ban on all such missiles on both sides for the first time in the Cold War on arms treaty, signed in 1987 actually reduced weapons on both sides. For Reagan, the lesson was clear. The only way to extract the desired cuts was to show determination in the face of Gorbachev's surprising week.