Former Sen. Alan Simpson on the Legacy of George H. W. Bush

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: And of course, his presidency coincided with the collapse of the Soviet Union. And he had to manage that along with Mikhail Gorbachev. I guess, tell me — just as sort of simply as you can, what were the elements of the relationship between a leader of the Soviet Union and a U.S. president that enabled that smooth transition.

SEN. ALAN SIMPSON: He liked him. He liked him, Christiane. He liked Mikhail Gorbachev. I met Gorbachev. I was privileged to go to Russian in ’87 and several times after. And I made a friend of Gorbachev. I told him one day, I said you have nothing to fear while I’m here in your country because all the ICBMs, they’re aimed your way. And they’re located in Wyoming, and they wouldn’t shoot those. Well, I’m here. He said that to his interpreter (inaudible) who understood all of my western slang. And Gorbachev just threw his head back and laughed. And then of course he’d show up and watch them give me a big hug, which appeared in the Casper Star Tribune. So, I think they thought I was (inaudible) for a while. But anyway, he was all about friendship. He made friends with these people. He liked them. He liked to — to sit with them and have a drink and have dinner. And Gorbachev came to the University of Wyoming at the request of many of us. This was not many years ago and — to speak. And he and I, Gorbachev did an hour debate of discussions together while they filled that out. So, we’re sitting in the green room and I said my friend, I said have you talked to Bush lately? He said no, I don’t like to bother him. I know he’s not well. I said look, let’s just call him right now. And I punched it in, and I said George, there’s some guy here, wants to talk to you. And the two of them just got the clicking along for about ten minutes. That’s the way he worked.

AMANPOUR: That’s amazing, because it was an incredibly smooth transition. Obviously the economic pain on the Soviet Union was still feeling the fallout. But nonetheless, it could’ve been so much strategically worse. So, fast forward Senator to today, the current president of the — of Russia, Vladimir Putin also sent condolences. And talked about President Bush and the arms control era. I guess there’s obviously a major problem between Russia and the United States right now, Russia and the west. How do you think President Bush would’ve managed Vladimir Putin? His aggression in to crime here, would he even have allowed it to happen? How do you think he would’ve managed this very, very prickly relationship now?

SIMPSON: Well, he might have picked up the phone and said, in his delightful new England vocabulary, “This will not stand,”