Three Days in Moscow: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of the Soviet Empire
Three Days in Moscow: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of the Soviet Empire
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Overview
"An instant classic, if not the finest book to date on Ronald Reagan.” — Jay Winik
Moscow, 1988: 1,000 miles behind the Iron Curtain, Ronald Reagan stood for freedom and confronted the Soviet empire.
In his acclaimed bestseller Three Days in January, Bret Baier illuminated the extraordinary leadership of President Dwight Eisenhower at the dawn of the Cold War. Now in his highly anticipated new history, Three Days in Moscow, Baier explores the dramatic endgame of America’s long struggle with the Soviet Union and President Ronald Reagan’s central role in shaping the world we live in today.
On May 31, 1988, Reagan stood on Russian soil and addressed a packed audience at Moscow State University, delivering a remarkable—yet now largely forgotten—speech that capped his first visit to the Soviet capital. This fourth in a series of summits between Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, was a dramatic coda to their tireless efforts to reduce the nuclear threat. More than that, Reagan viewed it as “a grand historical moment”: an opportunity to light a path for the Soviet people—toward freedom, human rights, and a future he told them they could embrace if they chose. It was the first time an American president had given an address about human rights on Russian soil. Reagan had once called the Soviet Union an “evil empire.” Now, saying that depiction was from “another time,” he beckoned the Soviets to join him in a new vision of the future. The importance of Reagan’s Moscow speech was largely overlooked at the time, but the new world he spoke of was fast approaching; the following year, in November 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union began to disintegrate, leaving the United States the sole superpower on the world stage.
Today, the end of the Cold War is perhaps the defining historical moment of the past half century, and must be understood if we are to make sense of America’s current place in the world, amid the re-emergence of US-Russian tensions during Vladimir Putin’s tenure. Using Reagan’s three days in Moscow to tell the larger story of the president’s critical and often misunderstood role in orchestrating a successful, peaceful ending to the Cold War, Baier illuminates the character of one of our nation’s most venerated leaders—and reveals the unique qualities that allowed him to succeed in forming an alliance for peace with the Soviet Union, when his predecessors had fallen short.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780062955654 |
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Publisher: | HarperCollins |
Publication date: | 05/14/2019 |
Series: | Three Days Series |
Edition description: | Unabridged |
Product dimensions: | 0.00(w) x 0.00(h) x (d) |
About the Author
Catherine Whitney has written or collaborated on more than twenty-five books, including Framing a Life: A Family Memoir with Geraldine Ferraro and Guilty: The Collapse of Criminal Justice with the late Judge Harold J. Rothwax.
Bret Baier is the chief political anchor for Fox News Channel and the anchor and executive editor of Special Report with Bret Baier. He previously served as Chief White House Correspondent for Fox News Channel and as the network’s National Security Correspondent based at the Pentagon, reporting on military and national security affairs. A recipient of the National Press Foundation’s Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism, Baier is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Three Days at the Brink: FDR’s Daring Gamble to Win WWII; Three Days in Moscow: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of the Soviet Empire; Three Days in January: Dwight Eisenhower’s Final Mission; and Special Heart: A Journey of Faith, Hope, Courage and Love. He lives with his family in Washington, DC.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Finding Reagan ix
Prologue: The Walk 1
Part 1 Reagan's Destiny
1 Dream Maker 15
2 A Political Evolution 33
3 The Greatest Stage 53
4 A Revolution of Ideas 87
Part 2 Speaking Truth
5 The Trumpet Call 115
6 Ron and Mikhail 141
7 Iceland Freeze 172
8 "Tear Down This Wall!" 193
Part 3 Three Days in Moscow
9 The True Mission 227
10 Cry Freedom 239
11 The Speech 253
12 Morning in Moscow 266
Part 4 Dreams for the Future
13 The Fall 285
14 Without Firing a Shot 318
The Last Word: 2018 327
Acknowledgments 337
Appendix: Ronald Reagan's Speech at Moscow State University 341
Notes 355
Index 383