1,000 MILES BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN, HE STOOD FOR FREEDOMBret Baier explores the dramatic endgame of America’s long struggle with the Soviet Union and President Ronald Reagan’s battle to win the Cold War.On May 31, 1988, Reagan addressed a packed audience at Moscow State University with 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. The importance of the 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, leaving the United States the world’s sole superpower.Baier illuminates the character of one of our nation’s most venerated leaders—and reveals the unique qualities that allowed him to form an alliance for peace with the Soviet Union, when his pre-decessors had fallen short.
