War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with Alexei Arbatov, 1987
Description:
Alexei Arbatov was an adviser to Mikhail Gorbachev. In the interview he describes past, current, and future Soviet-U.S. relations. He describes the evolution of President Reagan's rhetoric on the Soviet Union, and American views on the Cold War. He describes the difficulties in Soviet-US arms negotiations, specifically negotiations between Reagan and Gorbachev at Geneva and Reykjavik, which he says left everyone disappointed. He calls for a plan that incrementally reduces both US and Soviet nuclear arms by half, and then half again, and so on. He also offers his views on the superpower relationship, commenting that the Soviet Union and US should not be in competition since they have no territorial or economic conflicts, and that their relations should be demilitarized since they affect so many other nations that are not complicit in the conflict.
