COLD WAR: STAR WARS, 1981-1988 {PART 22 OF 24} (TV)

Summary

Part twenty-two of twenty-four in this documentary series examining the events of the Cold War, from 1917 to the early 1990s. This series consists of interviews and archival footage, accompanied by historical narration by Kenneth Branagh. This episode focuses on the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union, culminating with President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty. The program opens as Reagan supporters Raymond "Doc" Frazier and Florence Galing comment on the president's strength as a leader. Next, U.S. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger expresses his view that the Soviet goal was world domination through military aggression, while New York Times journalist Leslie H. Gelb argues that a top Soviet military official hinted to him of the Soviet government's fear of American military technology. The escalating arms race was taking a toll on the Russian economy: Moscow resident Maria Kovshura explains that people suffered because government funds were diverted to the military, and Roald Sagdeen of the Soviet Space Research Institute recalls that with agricultural-system reforms, money was also cut from the space program. G.A. Keyworth II, a scientific adviser to Reagan, then states that Reagan's discomfort with the concept of nuclear deterrants led the president to conceive of the SDI, or "Star Wars," to neutralize Soviet missiles from outer space. The latest developments in the arms race met with criticism from many sides: European activists protested the buildup of nuclear power; Americans disapproved of the expense of SDI, which would cut into the welfare budget; Margaret Thatcher feared a dissipation of nuclear deterrents; and the Soviet government worried about the cost of its response. In the Soviet Union, concern over recent American actions led to increased surveillance of the U.S. through espionage, and to a boost in military activity. Double agent Oleg Gordievsky describes the Soviets' monitoring of U.S. institutions, and Soviet Air Force pilot Colonel Gennadi Osipovitch, Lieutenant General Valentin Varennikov, and Sergei Tarasenko of the Soviet Foreign Ministry discuss the tense atmosphere in their armed forces that led to the mistaken destruction of a Korean commercial airplane. In the face of increasing Soviet concern about American aggression, Reagan made renewed efforts to communicate with Soviet officials. Author Suzanne Massie, U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, and Sir Charles Powell of the British Foreign Office discuss Reagan's first attempts at communication with new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev; and Leningrad lecturer Nina Andreyeva and Moscow student Lavisa Prokhorova recall the sense of hope that Gorbachev brought to the Russian people. Eduard Shevardnadze of the Soviet Foreign Ministry then outlines the pressures on Gorbachev to cut military funds and ease the lives of his people; and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Rozanne Ridgway remarks on Thatcher's role in making negotiations between Reagan and Gorbachev possible. The first 1985 summit between the U.S. and the Soviet Union did little to address critical issues but opened a line of communication between East and West. Captain Igor Kurdin of the Soviet Navy recalls that increased activity of nuclear submarines continued after the talks. The 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl brought the dangers of nuclear power to international attention, however, leading to a second summit in which Reagan and Gorbachev discussed the "zero option." U.S. Treasury Secretary Donald Regan explains why the issue of the SDI brought the second negotiations to a halt. Next, the documentary features a discussion of the drastic changes in the Soviet Union during the late 1980s due to Gorbachev's "glasnost" and "perestroika." The program concludes with an outline of the process that led to the signing of the 1988 Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty, and comments on the changing relationship between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Commercials deleted.

Cataloging of this program was made possible by The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, 1999.

This selection from the Alan Gerry Cable Collection has been made available by the Gerry Foundation, Inc.

Details

• NETWORK: CNN
• DATE: March 21, 1999 Sunday 8:00 PM
• RUNNING TIME: 0:46:32
• COLOR/B&W: Color
• CATALOG ID: T:58761
• GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
• SUBJECT HEADING: Cold War; Strategic Defense Initiative; Arms control; Glasnost; Perestroika; U S - Foreign relations - U S S R; U S S R - Foreign relations - U S; Arms race; Chernobyl Nuclear Accident, Chernobyl, Ukraine, 1986; She Made It Collection (Pat Mitchell)
• SERIES RUN: CNN - TV series, 1998-1999
• COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

• Pat Mitchell … Executive Producer
• Jeremy Isaacs … Executive Producer
• Vivian Schiller … Senior Producer
• Martin Smith … Series Producer
• James Barker … Producer
• Isobel Hinshelwood … Series Associate Producer
• Alison McAllan … Series Associate Producer
• Ted Turner … Series Concept by
• Joe Zak … Editor
• Dunja Noack … Research
• Svetlana Palmer … Research
• Ben Steele … Research
• Steve Bergson … Film Research
• John Lloyd … Writer
• Carl Davis … Music by
• Kenneth Branagh … Narrator
• Nina Andreyeva
• Raymond Frazier
• Florence Galing
• Leslie H. Gelb
• Mikhail Gorbachev
• Oleg Gordievsky
• G.A. Keyworth, II
• Maria Kovshura
• Igor Kurdin
• Suzanne Massie
• Gennadi Osipovitch
• Charles Powell
• Lavisa Prokhorova
• Ronald Reagan
• Donald Regan
• Rozanne Ridgway
• Roald Sagdeen
• Eduard Shevardnadze
• George Shultz
• Sergei Tarasenko
• Margaret Thatcher
• Valentin Varennikov
• Caspar Weinberger