[Music]
you know I first came to Durham in 1946
as a freshman at Duke University and the
war was just over World War two
I grew up in Greensboro and the year
just before I graduated from high school
the war ended with two atomic bombs
being dropped on Japan this was one of
the most traumatic experiences for my
own generation because it seemed to us
that if we didn’t bring the situation
under control that is the control of
these nuclear weapons that humanity
couldn’t survive humanity probably
couldn’t survive a nuclear war now at
first United States was the only country
with you clear weapons but we understood
very well the sooner or later other
countries are going to get them and the
destructive power is such that if they
keep making them mankind for the first
time in its history it’s going to have
the ability to destroy itself and we
developed that ability over those next
few years at the height of the Cold War
the United States and the Soviet Union
each had nearly 60,000 nuclear warheads
and most of them were many times more
powerful than those bombs that destroyed
Hiroshima and Nagasaki what are we gonna
do about it
how can we live with that well my wife
who came to Duke from Tennessee the same
year I did and I were charter members of
an organization called unite world
Federalist we thought if we didn’t
create a world government to control
these things well we weren’t going to
survive as we learned more about the
world and increasingly I became
interested particularly not only in
foreign languages but particularly in
Russian it was the other great
superpower developing it was the country
that had probably been done more than
any other to defeat Hitler and world war
two had taken tremendous losses yes they
were communists which was a terrible
system that’s something else I
understood but it did seem to me that
look if we’re going to survive we’re
going to have to deal with other
countries in a way that prevents the
future use of these nuclear weapons and
it’s not going to be a world government
probably given how different cultures
are in the world that’s not a good idea
because governments almost in any
culture can if certain steps it made get
too much powerful it’s gonna have to be
done through diplomacy now when my wife
and I were students we’re both Duke
class of 1950 now before well before
most of you were born there was another
big problem facing us here at home and
that was racial segregation every school
we went to had only white and maybe a
few Asian students and same is true of
the colleges one of the first
student legislators we went to was
all-white first thing we did was vote
have all of the students come in those
from what we then call the colored
colleges and the next year when they
came we desegregated education in North
Carolina so our generation as students
did that well before the Supreme Court
decision which eventually did well my
own career moving ahead was one that
took me out of the country I went into
the Foreign Service because I was
convinced that if we had to control
these nuclear weapons we had to make
sure that humanity didn’t stumble in to
a situation where it would destroy
itself as a foreign service officer I
began to serve time and time again in
the Soviet Union also I had several very
interesting tours in Africa West Africa
East Africa some in Europe but by the
time of the Reagan administration I was
probably the most experienced what we
would call Russian specialists in the
Foreign Service and in 1983 during sort
of the second year of Reagan’s first
term when he decided it was time to
negotiate with the Soviet Union I was
called on to come to the White House and
to work out a negotiating plan now what
was clear to me at that time was that
the Soviet system was not working well
they were overcommitted
and also it was a system which was a
totalitarian system that deprived people
then and a very talented people of their
basic human rights but
they had enough nuclear weapons not only
to destroy us but the whole world
we had enough nuclear weapons not only
to destroy them but the whole world in
fact some people said you know if all
these weapons are used you won’t destroy
civilization or humanity just once
you’ll do it seven times and somebody
else calculated no no 20 times I said
look after you’ve destroyed everything
once why do you want to do it again
I mean this it was almost alternate and
you see and you say how could anybody
think that way well we weren’t building
these weapons to use them we were
building them we because we thought if
we don’t have at least as many as the
other side they may use him on us so and
then they would see us building more if
we don’t be old enough to keep them from
using her on us we will lose now one of
the first things when Mikhail Gorbachev
became the leader of the Soviet Union
and we decided that he and Reagan would
meet one of the first things we proposed
to Gorbachev was a statement a nuclear
war cannot be won must never be fought
and therefore there can be no war
between us they signed up to that and we
took it seriously our Secretary of State
then went to them with charts saying
look at all this we’re putting into arms
we’re robbing our people actually it was
hurting them more than us we had a
bigger economy we had a more productive
economy and you know in their memoirs
they say this was the most powerful
argument that allowed us actually to end
the Cold War and to end it by
negotiation by beginning radical
reduction of these nuclear weapons
actually both Reagan and Gorbachev
wanted to eliminate them altogether and
they came very close to agreeing to that
but it was story I would take much too
long here it’s in my books as to how
they came near to agreeing but then
didn’t quite nevertheless we started on
a course that in effect ended the Cold
War and ended at that race but it didn’t
eliminate these weapons
how did we do that we did it by
negotiation not by threatening them yes
we wanted them to improve human rights
but we talked to them privately about
that again President Reagan understood
you can’t put another leader under
public pressure and expect that leader
simply to back down makes him look weak
you need to convince them that what you
want them to do is actually in their
interest and it was because they were
hurting even more than we were from this
arms race
so through quiet diplomacy through
appealing actually to what was their own
real interests within just a few years
we ended the confrontation the Cold War
ended we thought this whole nuclear
genie had been under control
well what happened came in a new
administration and suddenly we start
talking about we won the Cold War as if
Russia was defeated well she wasn’t
defeated in the Cold War the Soviet
Union broke up because of internal
pressures after the pressures of the
Cold War were released everything
gorbachev did the end the Cold War was
in their interest
and then we began to act as if our power
also made us better than anybody else
that our system was one that well
everybody should have and if they don’t
want it we should impose it upon them
and so what do we have today enough
nuclear weapons in both Russia and the
United States that again will destroy
humanity if they’re ever used and we had
an agreement goes way back into the
nineteen seven is about
non-proliferation the countries with
nuclear weapons said okay we will
gradually reduce ours and if other
countries agree not to have them then we
will eventually eliminate ours well we
did reduce but you know after the end of
the Cold War we stopped reducing both
Russia and the United States Russia and
the United States still have over ninety
percent of the world’s nuclear weapons
and instead of negotiating instead of
trying to find a common interest we
today are talking as if we in Russia are
enemies again that’s a dangerous
situation and it makes those of us who
try to deal with this issue and the
other thing wonder have we learned
anything are we capable really of
learning from our experience or do we
look at our power as somehow the result
of our virtue rather than a number of
accidents of history and one which also
if we are going to continue to deal with
our problems that we need to concentrate
first of all at home the other issue I
mentioned that we had as the students
we’ve made great progress
we have a society for a fairer then it
was as I grew up but we got a waste to
go and you know when we were talking to
the Soviet Union about human rights they
had real problems Secretary of State
George Shultz presented a list of cases
that we thought human rights violation
to Eduard Shevardnadze
the the new foreign minister of the
Soviet Union at that time he took that
list and he said alright I’ll take this
list back but tell me I think you need
some advice about your the status of
women and blacks in the United States
can we talk about that she said of
course I think we’re making progress
we’ve got a ways to go we can use all
the help we can get
that was our spirit in our negotiations
then and within 18 months and another
private meeting when we brought up these
human rights issues Shevardnadze took
the list by that time he and Shultz are
on a first-name basis and they were
sitting at a meeting in New York there
were just a few of us in the room and
Shevardnadze took that list and he said
okay George I’ll take this back to
Moscow and of what you say is true I’m
gonna do my best to do it to take care
of it and then he paused and he said I
want you know one thing I’m not doing
this because you asked me to I’m doing
it because it’s what my country needs to
do short stood up Sharon Ozzie stood up
they shook hands across the table and
the American Secretary of State said
Edward I will never ask you to do
something that I do not think is in your
country’s interest the Cold War was over
well compare that today as to how we
react publicly with the Russian
president I’m not defending him but
anymore constantly criticizing
constantly constantly demanding things
for them to do while at home don’t we
have enough power problems to take care
of ourselves that’s where our
concentration needs to be and we must
not forget that we have not yet solved
this problem of nuclear weapons that’s
one for your generation and I hope
you’ll be able to deal with it at least
as well as my generation did
[Music]
[Applause]
you
you know I first came to Durham in 1946
as a freshman at Duke University and the
war was just over World War two
I grew up in Greensboro and the year
just before I graduated from high school
the war ended with two atomic bombs
being dropped on Japan this was one of
the most traumatic experiences for my
own generation because it seemed to us
that if we didn’t bring the situation
under control that is the control of
these nuclear weapons that humanity
couldn’t survive humanity probably
couldn’t survive a nuclear war now at
first United States was the only country
with you clear weapons but we understood
very well the sooner or later other
countries are going to get them and the
destructive power is such that if they
keep making them mankind for the first
time in its history it’s going to have
the ability to destroy itself and we
developed that ability over those next
few years at the height of the Cold War
the United States and the Soviet Union
each had nearly 60,000 nuclear warheads
and most of them were many times more
powerful than those bombs that destroyed
Hiroshima and Nagasaki what are we gonna
do about it
how can we live with that well my wife
who came to Duke from Tennessee the same
year I did and I were charter members of
an organization called unite world
Federalist we thought if we didn’t
create a world government to control
these things well we weren’t going to
survive as we learned more about the
world and increasingly I became
interested particularly not only in
foreign languages but particularly in
Russian it was the other great
superpower developing it was the country
that had probably been done more than
any other to defeat Hitler and world war
two had taken tremendous losses yes they
were communists which was a terrible
system that’s something else I
understood but it did seem to me that
look if we’re going to survive we’re
going to have to deal with other
countries in a way that prevents the
future use of these nuclear weapons and
it’s not going to be a world government
probably given how different cultures
are in the world that’s not a good idea
because governments almost in any
culture can if certain steps it made get
too much powerful it’s gonna have to be
done through diplomacy now when my wife
and I were students we’re both Duke
class of 1950 now before well before
most of you were born there was another
big problem facing us here at home and
that was racial segregation every school
we went to had only white and maybe a
few Asian students and same is true of
the colleges one of the first
student legislators we went to was
all-white first thing we did was vote
have all of the students come in those
from what we then call the colored
colleges and the next year when they
came we desegregated education in North
Carolina so our generation as students
did that well before the Supreme Court
decision which eventually did well my
own career moving ahead was one that
took me out of the country I went into
the Foreign Service because I was
convinced that if we had to control
these nuclear weapons we had to make
sure that humanity didn’t stumble in to
a situation where it would destroy
itself as a foreign service officer I
began to serve time and time again in
the Soviet Union also I had several very
interesting tours in Africa West Africa
East Africa some in Europe but by the
time of the Reagan administration I was
probably the most experienced what we
would call Russian specialists in the
Foreign Service and in 1983 during sort
of the second year of Reagan’s first
term when he decided it was time to
negotiate with the Soviet Union I was
called on to come to the White House and
to work out a negotiating plan now what
was clear to me at that time was that
the Soviet system was not working well
they were overcommitted
and also it was a system which was a
totalitarian system that deprived people
then and a very talented people of their
basic human rights but
they had enough nuclear weapons not only
to destroy us but the whole world
we had enough nuclear weapons not only
to destroy them but the whole world in
fact some people said you know if all
these weapons are used you won’t destroy
civilization or humanity just once
you’ll do it seven times and somebody
else calculated no no 20 times I said
look after you’ve destroyed everything
once why do you want to do it again
I mean this it was almost alternate and
you see and you say how could anybody
think that way well we weren’t building
these weapons to use them we were
building them we because we thought if
we don’t have at least as many as the
other side they may use him on us so and
then they would see us building more if
we don’t be old enough to keep them from
using her on us we will lose now one of
the first things when Mikhail Gorbachev
became the leader of the Soviet Union
and we decided that he and Reagan would
meet one of the first things we proposed
to Gorbachev was a statement a nuclear
war cannot be won must never be fought
and therefore there can be no war
between us they signed up to that and we
took it seriously our Secretary of State
then went to them with charts saying
look at all this we’re putting into arms
we’re robbing our people actually it was
hurting them more than us we had a
bigger economy we had a more productive
economy and you know in their memoirs
they say this was the most powerful
argument that allowed us actually to end
the Cold War and to end it by
negotiation by beginning radical
reduction of these nuclear weapons
actually both Reagan and Gorbachev
wanted to eliminate them altogether and
they came very close to agreeing to that
but it was story I would take much too
long here it’s in my books as to how
they came near to agreeing but then
didn’t quite nevertheless we started on
a course that in effect ended the Cold
War and ended at that race but it didn’t
eliminate these weapons
how did we do that we did it by
negotiation not by threatening them yes
we wanted them to improve human rights
but we talked to them privately about
that again President Reagan understood
you can’t put another leader under
public pressure and expect that leader
simply to back down makes him look weak
you need to convince them that what you
want them to do is actually in their
interest and it was because they were
hurting even more than we were from this
arms race
so through quiet diplomacy through
appealing actually to what was their own
real interests within just a few years
we ended the confrontation the Cold War
ended we thought this whole nuclear
genie had been under control
well what happened came in a new
administration and suddenly we start
talking about we won the Cold War as if
Russia was defeated well she wasn’t
defeated in the Cold War the Soviet
Union broke up because of internal
pressures after the pressures of the
Cold War were released everything
gorbachev did the end the Cold War was
in their interest
and then we began to act as if our power
also made us better than anybody else
that our system was one that well
everybody should have and if they don’t
want it we should impose it upon them
and so what do we have today enough
nuclear weapons in both Russia and the
United States that again will destroy
humanity if they’re ever used and we had
an agreement goes way back into the
nineteen seven is about
non-proliferation the countries with
nuclear weapons said okay we will
gradually reduce ours and if other
countries agree not to have them then we
will eventually eliminate ours well we
did reduce but you know after the end of
the Cold War we stopped reducing both
Russia and the United States Russia and
the United States still have over ninety
percent of the world’s nuclear weapons
and instead of negotiating instead of
trying to find a common interest we
today are talking as if we in Russia are
enemies again that’s a dangerous
situation and it makes those of us who
try to deal with this issue and the
other thing wonder have we learned
anything are we capable really of
learning from our experience or do we
look at our power as somehow the result
of our virtue rather than a number of
accidents of history and one which also
if we are going to continue to deal with
our problems that we need to concentrate
first of all at home the other issue I
mentioned that we had as the students
we’ve made great progress
we have a society for a fairer then it
was as I grew up but we got a waste to
go and you know when we were talking to
the Soviet Union about human rights they
had real problems Secretary of State
George Shultz presented a list of cases
that we thought human rights violation
to Eduard Shevardnadze
the the new foreign minister of the
Soviet Union at that time he took that
list and he said alright I’ll take this
list back but tell me I think you need
some advice about your the status of
women and blacks in the United States
can we talk about that she said of
course I think we’re making progress
we’ve got a ways to go we can use all
the help we can get
that was our spirit in our negotiations
then and within 18 months and another
private meeting when we brought up these
human rights issues Shevardnadze took
the list by that time he and Shultz are
on a first-name basis and they were
sitting at a meeting in New York there
were just a few of us in the room and
Shevardnadze took that list and he said
okay George I’ll take this back to
Moscow and of what you say is true I’m
gonna do my best to do it to take care
of it and then he paused and he said I
want you know one thing I’m not doing
this because you asked me to I’m doing
it because it’s what my country needs to
do short stood up Sharon Ozzie stood up
they shook hands across the table and
the American Secretary of State said
Edward I will never ask you to do
something that I do not think is in your
country’s interest the Cold War was over
well compare that today as to how we
react publicly with the Russian
president I’m not defending him but
anymore constantly criticizing
constantly constantly demanding things
for them to do while at home don’t we
have enough power problems to take care
of ourselves that’s where our
concentration needs to be and we must
not forget that we have not yet solved
this problem of nuclear weapons that’s
one for your generation and I hope
you’ll be able to deal with it at least
as well as my generation did
[Music]
[Applause]
you
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