President George H.W. Bush handled the 1991 fall of the former Soviet Union “masterfully” during “a remarkable time” in world history, his former Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney, said Sunday.
In an interview on NBC News’ “Meet The Press” the day after the 41st president’s death, Cheney, who subsequently served as George W. Bush’s vice president, recalled the approach the elder Bush took to Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union.
“[T]here was great temptation to move aggressively to make sure we controlled and maintained the enormous success of the collapse of the old Soviet empire,” he said.
“The president led the charge… and insisted that we do it in such a way, that we were not unsympathetic to the political problems of Mr. Gorbachev and we could operate in a way that would make it easier for him to do what we wanted him to do, not by brute force, not by threats, not by taking advantage of dancing on the Berlin wall as it came down.
“It was masterfully handled.”
Cheney added: "I'm always asked which job I liked the best of the ones I had and I always cite that period of Secretary of Defense for George Bush."
“It was a tremendous privilege to be asked to join the team. Partly it was a great team with the president as commander in chief, Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser, Jim [Baker], the secretary of state and myself,” he said. “We all worked together in the Ford administration … putting the old team back together to some extent.
“It really was just a remarkable time in terms of what was going on in the world.”
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