In December 1949 Stalin was to be 70 years old. Just a couple of months earlier in October ’49 Germany had been divided. NATO blocked Stalin’s power to the West. Messengers from Moscow II: East
Mao respected Stalin; he had no reason to trust him. ibid.
Mao accepted the treaty terms out of weakness. After decades of war China was exhausted and his enemies were still at large. ibid.
1950: Communist North Korean troops invaded South Korea. ibid.
It was the Chinese who saved North Korea. ibid.
Krushchev now saw Mao as a danger to peace; Mao saw Krushchev as a traitor to Communism. ibid.
The Great Leap Forward as a disaster. Food supplies collapsed … The greatest single catastrophe of the twentieth century. ibid.
‘Internationalist duty is when you help friends in other countries to stand up for their independence and liberty.’ Messengers from Moscow III: South, Soviet soldier
‘Fulfilling its international duty the Soviet Union is giving all possible aid to heroic Vietnam …’ ibid. newsreel
In the late ’50s a new world was opening up for the Soviet Union – the Third World. ibid.
At the time the Soviet media barely mentioned the [Cuban] revolution. ibid.
The mid-70s was the high point of detente. The Soviet Union was talking peace with the West. But its leaders thought they might just be winning the war against capitalism and imperialism. Messengers from Moscow IV: North
Few things in the Soviet Union were quite what it seemed. ibid.
The Soviets never had any intentions of honouring their promises about human rights. ibid.
The Soviet Union was crumbling economically and politicly. ibid.
Stalin was basically a gangster. That’s why Lenin liked him so much. Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War II: Poisoning the Soil, Giorgi Kandelaki, Georgian politican & historian
It’s what’s known as the Holodomor [death by starvation in Ukraine]. And that’s all Stalin. ibid.
Stalin didn’t just kill the leaves, the flowers, the trees, or the first layer of earth, he went really really deep down … and poured incredibly poisonous stuff, really toxic material, into the soil. ibid. Ostrovsky
In the early years of the Cold War the United States treated nuclear weapons not only as if they were something that could be used, but something that could be survived. Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War III: Institutional Insanity, Audra Wolfe
The decision to seek or not to seek international control of atomic energy, the decision to try to make or not to make the hydrogen bomb, these are rooted in complex technical issues. But they touch the very basis of our morality. It is grave danger for us that these decisions are taken on the basis of facts held secret. ibid. Robert Oppenheimer
It struck me as the most evil and insane plan that had ever existed in the history of humanity. This is institutional insanity. ibid. Daniel Ellsberg
Khrushchev: To make them think the Soviet Union was more powerful than it actually was … The American elite believed the Russians. ibid. Timothy Naftali
The Soviets were insecure about American power. They knew they were behind. Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War IV: The Wall, Timothy Naftali
You have instead differents kinds of conflict around the world … on their proxy battlefield. ibid.
Gorbachev makes his way to Moscow University. Which is a big thing for a country boy to do. Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War V: War Games, David Remnick
Nuclear weapons are expensive and for the Soviet Union it was the kind of burden that distorted the structure of the Soviet economy. ibid. Palazhchenko
This whole thing is wrong. Such weapons should not exist. ibid. Gorbachev, reported comments
It was clear to us that in this country, under these conditions, it was impossible for us to live. Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War VI: Empire is Untenable, Joachim Neumann, East German dissident
East Germany: [Erich] Honecker is a hard-liner who’s horrified by Gorbachev’s reforms. He believed in the iron fist. ibid. Mary Sarotte
We are the people! We are the people! ibid. demonstrations
What people heard were, Permission to cross the border. ibid. Sarotte
He [senior border guard] got angrier and angrier at being left in the lurch. ibid.
The gates in the wall are wide open. ibid. Friedrichs TV news
By the winter and spring of 1991 there was another factor – Boris Yeltzin. Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War VII: The End of History Condoleezza Rice
Yeltzin, in contrast to Gorbachev, figures out that nationalism is the wave of the future. ibid. Mary Sarotte
Those who want to divide the country up have prevailed. ibid. Gorbachev