Summary

One in a series of evenings and special screenings presented as part of the Paley 100 series at The Paley Center for Media in New York. This evening celebrates the DVD release of "Cold War," the 24-hour 1998 historical documentary miniseries. Host Pat Mitchell (president and CEO, The Paley Center for Media and series executive producer) offers opening remarks and provides background on the series, the website for which won the first-ever Peabody Award for an Internet site, and on the panelists, including executive producer Jeremy Isaacs, creator Ted Turner, and former President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev.

A series of clips featuring roughly one minute from all twenty-four episodes is then shown, highlighting such events and topics as Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech, Joseph Stalin's "god-like" rise to power, the launch of Sputnik, the promise of "mutually-assured destruction," the Vietnam War and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

After the clips, Mitchell and the panelists, as well as Gorbachev's interpreter Pavel Palazhchenko, take the stage. The conversation touches on such topics as: Turner's interest in presenting "an honest and complete history" of the period; Isaacs' belief that no one would have the "stamina" for forty episodes, one for every year of the Cold War, as was the original idea; Turner's enjoyment of Isaacs' 1942 documentary "The World At War"; the importance of "drawing a line under" the relevant conflicts for historical posterity; Gorbachev's feelings on President Reagan's "unforgivable" decision not to meet with Soviet leaders for many years; his sense of American diplomacy as "difficult but not hopeless"; the danger of "the militarization of people's minds"; the imminent threat of a nuclear "war in space"; many Americans' positive reaction to the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991; the need for all countries to dispose of their nuclear weapons to avoid "reigniting" the Cold War; Isaacs' views on the "quality of statesmanship" that ultimately prevented a devastating conflict for the sake of humanity; President Nixon's negotiations with Communist leaders after previously denigrating the system; former Hungarian Prime Minister Miklos Nemeth's stern words for Gorbachev, stemming from his own traumatic experiences with Soviet rule; praise for Gorbachev as "the man of the twentieth century"; his reasons for joining the Community party as a teenager; the significance of Perestroika and Russia's first free election in a millennium; the overwhelming desire of most Russians not to return to a Soviet state; Gorbachev's evolving political views and current definition of himself as a "social democrat"; his sense that his country is "halfway to democracy" and the importance of the next six years in bringing about necessary change; his belief that Vladimir Putin was genuinely elected, despite the evidence of some voter fraud; and his feelings on the 2012 American Presidential race.