Word: beschloss
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Dates: during 1991-1991
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...with TIME to reject speculation that he is on the verge of resigning. On two hours' notice last Friday afternoon, the Soviet leader called Moscow bureau chief John Kohan and editor-at-large Strobe Talbott to his Kremlin office for an 80-minute interview. Also present were historian Michael Beschloss, who is co-writing a book with Talbott on the Bush-Gorbachev relationship, and TIME's Felix Rosenthal. "He exuded a sense of complete control," says Kohan, "in what is clearly the most difficult crisis of his political career...
...when he was an intern in the Moscow bureau, Strobe has made nearly 30 trips to the Soviet Union. His story on Gorbachev and the hard-liners in this week's special section draws on reporting from a visit there early this summer. Talbott is collaborating with historian Michael Beschloss on a book about the Bush-Gorbachev relationship, to be published next year. Aikman, who has a Ph.D. in Russian and Chinese history, has followed Boris Yeltsin since 1989 and has twice interviewed the Russian leader. When he visited New York City in 1989, Aikman recalls, "I once...
Disastrous economic conditions in East Germany were propelling thousands of refugees a day into West Berlin, so Khrushchev decided to let East German Communist Party chief Walter Ulbricht build the Wall. Beschloss provides convincing new evidence that Kennedy recognized that erecting a wall through the city was the only way to prevent a collapse of East Germany and never seriously considered armed intervention over that issue. Nonetheless, in Beschloss's judgment, the U.S. was never closer to war with the U.S.S.R. than throughout the Berlin crisis...
...following year, convinced that Kennedy would launch yet another invasion of Cuba, Khrushchev opted to deploy on Cuban soil medium- and intermediate- range Soviet missiles capable of reaching American targets. Although approving the way the White House dealt with the confrontation, Beschloss blames Kennedy for failing to make U.S. goals clear. If he had better articulated his country's interests, Beschloss insists, "it is doubtful that Khrushchev would have felt compelled to take his giant risk on Cuba." Kennedy had second thoughts as well. "Last month I should have said . . . that we don't care" about the missile deployment...
...Beschloss's account, drawing heavily on previously unavailable secret messages between the two leaders, includes fascinating tidbits about the major actors: J.F.K. once boasted that he was "the first man to have sex with someone other than his spouse inside the Lincoln Bedroom"; Khrushchev, after having made life miserable for Kennedy, broke down and wept openly upon hearing of the President's assassination...