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A Citizens' Summit Revisited

July 9, 2011

Phil Donahue is a multiple Emmy Award-winning American television pioneer. His program, The Phil Donahue Show, had a 26-year run on national television and spawned the modern talk show genre. More recently, he hosted an MSNBC program in 2002 and 2003, and he is executive producer and co-director of the documentary, Body of War. Vladimir Pozner is also an award winning television host with multiple Soviet, Russian, and American trophies recognizing his work. He is currently the host of the Russian interview program, Pozner. Previously, he served as president of the Russian Academy of Television, and is the author of the 1990 best-seller, Parting with Illusions, and Mr. Pozner joins us from Moscow.

Geneva, Switzerland, 1985: U.S. President Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev meet during a tense period of the Cold War. It's their first summit, and the first between any American and Soviet leaders in six years. While this renewed engagement at the highest levels was critical to the beginning of the end of the Cold War, another groundbreaking summit would occur just a month later. Led by two famous broadcast journalists, American and Soviet citizens would take part in people-to-people diplomacy via television. Twenty-five years later, we take a look back. This week on dialogue host John Milewski is joined by legendary broadcasters Phil Donahue and Vladimir Pozner for "A Citizens' Summit Revisited."