Here is some wonderful dialogue from an interview that Paul Nitze did with the News Hour on October 26, 1989, two weeks before the Berlin Wall came down.
MR. LEHRER: So if there was in fact a cold war, we won it, is that what you’re saying?
MR. NITZE: That’s exactly what I’m saying. And I think we won it the 15 weeks after February 1947 by the decisions that were made at that time.
MR. LEHRER: And those decisions were?
MR. NITZE: Well, first of all, inherent in the whole proposition of what we did at that time was George Kennan’s Containment Doctrine, that if one could contain Soviet expansionism, Stalinist expansionism, for enough time, they would then begin to look inward and then they would see what was happening to their own society as a result of Stalinist expansionism. And when they looked inside, then they would begin to change their view. And the questions that George and I had at the top of our mind were two. The first one, what was necessary to contain, particularly military ventures by the Soviet side. And the second was how long would it take. On the military side, I think George and I disagreed. I thought it was going to take greater military preparation than he thought it would. And as to the length of time it would take, I think again we were somewhat different. I remember him saying 10 to 15 years and I thought it would be perhaps one or two generations. But both of us –
MR. LEHRER: Both of you were wrong.
MR. NITZE: Both of us were wrong.
MR. LEHRER: It took 40 years. Right. The Bush administration, as I’m sure you know, has been accused of being too timid in its reaction to these enormous changes that are going on in the Communist world. In fact, the President has even been accused of being nostalgic for the cold war. How do you see that?
MR. NITZE: I don’t think he is nostalgic for it. I think that’s a bad wrap that has been given the President. And I also think he’s right in being careful about what you do from here on out. I don’t think one should just dive in and just consider that Gorbachev is our hero. I really am distrustful of our choosing one person in a country and making our policy revolve entirely about that one person. I think we made a mistake in the days of Chang Kai Chek in putting all our policy on the grounds of supporting Chang Kai Chek. And I also thought we leaned far too far over toward the Shah in Iran for instance. We really put our policy in that area wholly on the Shah. And that turned very bad on us. So that I wouldn’t just say that Russia is Gorbachev. Russia is a lot of people, with a lot of cultural background and very, and a number of nationalities and that’s a great big problem that is going to be with us for a long time. It isn’t just Gorbachev.
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