As 41st president of the United States, George Bush directed U.S. policy at the end of the Cold War, as communist regimes were swept from power in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union collapsed. He was interviewed for COLD WAR in September and October of 1997.

On the end of the Cold War:

I think [the end of the Cold War] was inevitable because I just think that the immorality of international communism was so clear by then that it couldn't, couldn't prevail. ...

The world is a far safer place now that the Cold War is over. There is no kid in England that is being taught: "Well, what you gotta do if there is a nuclear exchange is to hide under your desk to avoid fallout." No kids in Kansas, Texas -- my state -- are being taught that, as they were back in the '50s. ... It's not happening. No one, no leader of a small country, is worrying and saying to his cabinet, "One of these two crazy superpowers is going to get us caught up in a nuclear war." That is not going to happen.

Nobody is going to put the Soviet Union back together again. Russia is not seeking hegemony and they are certainly not seeking hegemony over the United Kingdom or the United States. And so are we better off at the end of the Cold War and my 14 grandchildren are more apt to live in a peaceful new millennium.

On the future:

The problem is not in terms of world peace, the problem is now how we're going to get along with Russia, [not] what's going to happen if the Soviet Union gets back together again. The problem is in Asia, the growing China. How are we in the United States going to cope with China if we mishandle that? That could be a hell of a problem for your kids and my grandkids. But I don't think that's going to happen. But that's the one that has the magnitude that the worries about Russia once had. [But] I happen to be optimistic about China. ...

Are we better off? ... Of course we are. The whole world is. Because we don't have this fear of war breaking out. Tanks aren't going to roll through the streets of Hungary. And I heard some [Hungarian] girl, on maybe a BBC program when I was abroad -- beautiful hairdo, beautiful dress -- she was saying: "We don't have a chance now; all my classmates are discouraged." And I'm saying to myself: "Look you little pip-squeak, where were you, haven't you read any history? Can't you look over your shoulder? Don't you remember when your uncle was crushed by the steel treads of a Russian tank rolling through your capital city? Where is your sense of history? Of course you're better off! God darn it, wake up and realize it and try to make something out of yourself instead of whining on television about how bad things are." And sure there are problems; there are plenty of problems; the world has got a lot of problems. But in the magnitude that existed during the Cold War days, the days of the Berlin airlift, the days of the putting down of Solidarity in Poland or democracy in Czech Republic, or in Czechoslovakia then, or Hungary now -- nowhere near the magnitude. So we ought to get on with trying to make the world a better place [instead of] whining about where we are.

There is a new world order now. Some crackpots in the United States criticized me, saying "new world order" meant one-world government. That's absurd. That's not what I meant. What I meant was a world with more freedom and more democracy, and we have such a world. Is it perfect? No. Are there human rights violations that make a mockery of Helsinki? Yes. But there is a new world order because the old order of two superpowers kind of dominating things is gone. And so there is a new world order with an awful lot of promise. But the United States has got to stay engaged. The United States can't listen to the siren call of isolation and protection and say to Europe: "Hey, we've done our part. Now you guys pay the bills and you figure it all out." We've gotta stay in there, stay involved in NATO. We've got to continue to exercise our obligation to lead in certain situations. But there is a new world order and it came about when the Cold War ended without a shot being fired.