Fedor Burlatskii (Fyoder Burlatsky) was a speechwriter for Nikita Khrushchev and an adviser to Mikhail Gorbachev. In the interview he discusses the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and subsequent Soviet-American relations. He describes Kennedy and Khrushchev before the missile crisis, and explains the motivations that led the Soviets to put missiles in Cuba. He describes the lessons of the Missile Crisis; especially that it is possible to avoid a nuclear war even in a tense conflict. He describes the personal relationship between Khrushchev and Kennedy (including his views of the different socio-economic backgrounds of the two leaders), as well as Khrushchevs feelings about the American people. He think that the American people, especially its leadership, do not learn lessons from their past, whereas the Soviets take into account what they learned from World War II, the Cuban Missile Crisis, etc. He also gives an account of his personal family history during World War II.
