August 16, 1992 PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH: WINNING THE COLD WAR LIKE HARRY TRUMAN BEFORE HIM, PRESIDENT BUSH INHERITED SOME FAVORABLE CONDITIONS FOR THE EXERTION OF AMERICAN INFLUENCE IN THE WORLD. AS IN THE 1940S, HOWEVER, SUCCESS REQUIRED A VISION FOR THE NEW ERA TO COME, CAREFUL JUDGMENTS ON TACTICS AND STRATEGY, AND A SURE GRASP OF US DIPLOMATIC AND SECURITY INSTRUMENTS. Restoring a Europe Whole and Free o Europe Whole and Free: President Bush entered office determined to seek, not peaceful coexistence with communism, but a final end to the Cold War. He was the first Western leader to announce, in May 1989, a plan of action to produce "a Europe whole and free" and the first to declare that the free world's strategy toward the Soviet Union could move "beyond containment." o He led the way in offering economic assistance to Polish democracy in April 1989; traveled that summer to Warsaw and Budapest to speed democratic change; and initiated a new international mechanism to coordinate Western economic assistance to Eastern Europe. o German Unification: President Bush was also the first world statesman to champion (in April, May, September, and October, 1989) Germany's right to become one nation -- all before the Berlin Wall came down. He then orchestrated the extraordinary diplomacy in just one year. This historic achievement by the President was accomplished on Western terms which strengthened the Atlantic Alliance, and yet without triggering a crisis with an anxious Soviet Union. o Helmut Kohl has stressed many times that Germany would not be united today but for the leadership of the United States and President George Bush. As a leading German scholar, Karl Kaiser, wrote after unification President Bush "was unusually well prepared for international politics. He knew what he wanted with regard to German unity and the ending of the Cold War. He provided the right mix of discreet and public leadership, and he used America's resources wisely in responding to the dilemmas of his partners." [emphasis added] Effecting Change in the Soviet Union o While effecting this diplomatic revolution in Europe, President Bush never gave up on a critical legacy from Ronald Reagan: commitment to revolutionary change in the Soviet Union itself. The President adroitly pushed and encouraged Gorbachev to adopt the dramatic reforms that opened the way to internal revolution. o President Bush's shrewd sense of timing and decades of diplomatic experience led him to not undermine Gorbachev at the very time when the Soviet leader was acquiescing to the unification of Germany within NATO, directing Soviet troop withdrawal from Eastern Europe, and following at the United Nations, America's lead in the Gulf War. o When the forces of reaction struck against Russian reforms in the August 1991 coup, President Bush was the first Western leader to offer decisive backing to Yeltsin. On the first day of the coup, the President branded the plotters as "misguided and illegitimate." During the crisis, Yeltsin and Gorbachev both looked to the President to guide the free world's opposition to the coup. Yeltsin summed it up best: George Bush "was the first to understand the true meaning of the victory of the Russian people." o Again, President Bush struck just the right balance in the all of 1991 when he counseled Gorbachev to hand over power to Yeltsin peacefully and accept the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Shaping the Post Cold War World o The President continues to be at the center of post-Cold War efforts to shape the political and economic development of Eastern Europe as well as Russia, Ukraine, and the other states that have replaced the USSR. He proposed and secured Congressional passage of the FREEDOM Support Act to invest in democracy's future. o President Bush brought the 25 year process of arms negotiations to a successful culmination by agreeing with Gorbachev, then Yeltsin, that the two sides would: -- eliminate four-fifths of the nuclear weapons in the world; -- prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons from the former Soviet stockpile; -- join their allies in destroying more than 30,000 pieces of conventional military equipment in Europe; -- destroy their stockpiles of chemical weapons; and -- work together on a concept of strategic defense against limited ballistic missile attacks. o The President also fostered peaceful settlements for nations that were Cold War battlegrounds: Afghanistan, Angola, Namibia, Cambodia, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. o President Bush not only anticipated the global change that ended the Cold War; he was its principal Western architect. When courageous peoples around the world opened the way to democratic revolutions, George Bush through intense and skillful diplomacy was there to help them seize the future. # # #