(Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
BOSTON (WBZ-AM) — Harvard Kennedy School professor and former ambassador Nicholas Burns remembered late President George H.W. Bush Saturday. Bush, 94, died Friday night.
WBZ NewsRadio1030’s Bill Marcus spoke with Burns about the late president and his involvement in ending the Cold War.
Burns said Bush never took a victory lap when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.
“Countless people in the press and Congress said President Bush should go to Berlin and declare an end to the Cold War,” Burns said. “And President Bush said famously, ‘I’m not going to dance on the wall.’”
According to Burns, Bush did not want to humiliate former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev or risk the rise of a Soviet leader with violent intentions.
“President Bush was exceedingly skillful, in essence, bringing the Cold War down to a peaceful glide path. And he did that through diplomacy and not trying to humiliate people, but trying to work with them on a basis of respect,” Burns said.
Following end of the Cold War, Bush worked behind the scenes to defuse the 1991 coup attempt by members of the USSR government.
WBZ NewsRadio1030’s Bill Marcus (@BillMarcusWBZ) reports