War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with Fyoder Burlatsky, 1987
Description:
Fedor Burlatskii (Fyodor Burlatsky) was a speechwriter for Nikita Khrushchev and an adviser to Mikhail Gorbachev. In the interview he discusses a range of issues across Soviet-American relations. He describes the reasoning behind several stages of the Cuban Missile Crisis, including putting missiles in Cuba, shooting down the U-2 plane, and the letters between Khrushchev and Kennedy. He describes the attitudes of Soviet leaders, from Stalin through Gorbachev, toward nuclear weapons and strategy. He explains the effect of installing the SS-20 missiles in Western Europe, and the eventual decision not to bulk up nuclear strength in the European theater for fear of destabilization. He describes Soviet-American relations under the current leadership of Gorbachev and Reagan. He specifically mentions the Reykjavik Summit of 1986 and explains that while everyone else saw it as a failure, he views it as a stage in the process towards disarmament. He also discusses the reasons he believes the Cold War escalated as it did after World War II.
