Bret Baier - Three Days in Moscow: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of the Soviet Empire

L ike Three Days in January , Three Days in Moscow would not have happened without the amazing hard work and dedication of my coauthor, Catherine Whitney. Catherines ability to adapt my ideas and voice in the same back-and-forth process that made Three Days in January work so well makes Three Days in Moscow really shine. She did a tremendous job culling important details from thousands of pages of library documents, biographies, oral histories, and my interviews.

The team would not have been complete without our intrepid researcher, Sydney Soderberg, digging up gems at the Reagan, Bush, and Eisenhower libraries.

Professionals at presidential libraries are the gatekeepers of the history and wisdom of our highest office. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library opened its doors to me and allowed me inside their remarkable store of knowledge and insight. In particular, I would like to thank Joanne Drake, chief administrative officer, who was enthusiastic about my book and made sure I had everything I needed; archivist Ray Wilson, who was so generous with his time and input; audio visual archivist Michael Pinckney, who helped select wonderful photos for the book; and chief marketing officer Melissa Giller, for taking me through every aspect of the library and bringing Reagans presidency to life for me. I am also grateful to John Heubusch, executive director of the Reagan Foundation for his constant support.

Thanks, too, to archivists Doug Campbell and Buffie Hollis at the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library, who helped give substance to President Bushs role in the end of the Cold War. I also returned to the Eisenhower Library for research into the relationship between our thirty-fourth and fortieth presidents, and am grateful as always to the wonderful professionals there, especially acting director Tim Rives and archivist Mary Burtzloff. Meredith Sleichter, the executive director of the Eisenhower Foundation, was also helpful.

Many people added their voices to this project, and were generous in sharing their experiences and perceptions. I am especially grateful to those who served under Reagan or reported on his presidency and gave me the benefit of their wisdom: Charles Black, Anthony Dolan, Kenneth Duberstein, Marlin Fitzwater, Josh Gilder, Charles Krauthammer, Gilbert Robinson, George Shultz, and Chris Wallace. Many others offered priceless insights for the book and the Fox documentary. I am also extremely grateful to the Miller Center/UVA for their devotion to recording the oral histories of many staffers, who paint a vivid picture of what it was like to serve under Reagan. The Miller Center does a tremendous service to our nations historical memory.

Special thanks to the team at William Morrow, led by our editor, Peter Hubbard. Peters confidence that we could deliver again gave us comfort that we actually could. Peter and his teamLiate Stehlik, Lauren Janiec, Lynn Grady, Nick Amphlett, and Tavia Kowalchukcame up with a rock-solid plan to give Three Days the boost it needed to launch.

As always, thanks to my manager, Larry Kramer, and book agent, Claudia Cross with Folio Literary Group, for their encouragement and excellent handling of day-to-day logistics, which made it easier for me to juggle work, family, and another book and book tour.

Thank you to my employer, Fox News, for allowing me the leeway to spend time on this and for doing a one-hour documentary scheduled to run at book launch.

And a very special thank-you to my familymy wife, Amy, and my two sons, Paul and Daniel. Time away and late nights made the prospect of another book daunting, but they could not have been more supportive of me.

Through it all, I have been grateful to President Ronald Reagan, who is an uplifting presence to this dayalways reminding us of the greatness of our nation and what we can still become. Reagans courage, resolve, and tireless pursuit of peace are an enduring gift to the world. His wisdom resonates still. I feel enormously privileged to tell his story.

May 31, 1988

Thank you, Rector Logunov, and I want to thank all of you very much for a very warm welcome. Its a great pleasure to be here at Moscow State University, and I want to thank you all for turning out. I know you must be very busy this week, studying and taking your final examinations. So, let me just say zhelayu vam uspekha [I wish you success]. Nancy couldnt make it today because shes visiting Leningrad, which she tells me is a very beautiful city, but she, too, says hello and wishes you all good luck.

Let me say its also a great pleasure to once again have this opportunity to speak directly to the people of the Soviet Union. Before I left Washington, I received many heartfelt letters and telegrams asking me to carry here a simple message, perhaps, but also some of the most important business of this summit: It is a message of peace and good will and hope for a growing friendship and closeness between our two peoples.

As you know, Ive come to Moscow to meet with one of your most distinguished graduates. In this, our fourth summit, General Secretary Gorbachev and I have spent many hours together, and I feel that were getting to know each other well. Our discussions, of course, have been focused primarily on many of the important issues of the day, issues I want to touch on with you in a few moments. But first I want to take a little time to talk to you much as I would to any group of university students in the United States. I want to talk not just of the realities of today but of the possibilities of tomorrow.

Standing here before a mural of your revolution, I want to talk about a very different revolution that is taking place right now, quietly sweeping the globe without bloodshed or conflict. Its effects are peaceful, but they will fundamentally alter our world, shatter old assumptions, and reshape our lives. Its easy to underestimate because its not accompanied by banners or fanfare. Its been called the technological or information revolution, and as its emblem, one might take the tiny silicon chip, no bigger than a fingerprint. One of these chips has more computing power than a roomful of old-style computers.

As part of an exchange program, we now have an exhibition touring your country that shows how information technology is transforming our livesreplacing manual labor with robots, forecasting weather for farmers, or mapping the genetic code of DNA for medical researchers. These microcomputers today aid the design of everything from houses to cars to spacecraft; they even design better and faster computers. They can translate English into Russian or enable the blind to read or help Michael Jackson produce on one synthesizer the sounds of a whole orchestra. Linked by a network of satellites and fiber-optic cables, one individual with a desktop computer and a telephone commands resources unavailable to the largest governments just a few years ago.

Like a chrysalis, were emerging from the economy of the Industrial Revolutionan economy confined to and limited by the Earths physical resourcesinto, as one economist titled his book, The Economy in Mind, in which there are no bounds on human imagination and the freedom to create is the most precious natural resource. Think of that little computer chip. Its value isnt in the sand from which it is made but in the microscopic architecture designed into it by ingenious human minds. Or take the example of the satellite relaying this broadcast around the world, which replaces thousands of tons of copper mined from the Earth and molded into wire. In the new economy, human invention increasingly makes physical resources obsolete. Were breaking through the material conditions of existence to a world where man creates his own destiny. Even as we explore the most advanced reaches of science, were returning to the age-old wisdom of our culture, a wisdom contained in the book of Genesis in the Bible: In the beginning was the spirit, and it was from this spirit that the material abundance of creation issued forth.