More than 17 years since the Cold War officially came to an end in Marsaxlokk Bay, historians are still awaiting the release of the so-called Malta Transcripts by the United States government.
While the Russian transcripts of the summit between US President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev held on board the Soviet cruiser, the Maxim Gorky, were made public back in 1993, the release of the US transcripts is still pending, much to the chagrin of scholars around the world.
The summit, held just a month after the Berlin Wall was famously dismantled brick by brick by a jubilant mob, marked the end of post World War II hostilities between the world’s superpowers. As a Soviet official had remarked at the time, the summit had “buried the Cold War at the bottom of the Mediterranean” – where it rests to this day presumably on the seabed somewhere between Marsaxlokk and Birzebbuga.
The leaders discussed the multiple changes taking place across Eastern Europe, Gorbachev’s perestroika plans and the lifting of the Iron Curtain, which had bitterly separated eastern and Western Europe for the four decades following World War II.
US records of what was actually discussed on board the Maxim Gorky as it was rocked by violent weather in the course of the two-day summit, are still being kept under lock and key thanks to a directive issued by the Bush administration in 2001 which has slowed and prevented the release of many past presidential papers.
Under the directive, any President in office is able to indefinitely postpone the release of such papers, while control of such documents by former presidents, vice-presidents and their families has also been extended.
And although numerous Freedom of Information Act requests have been filed for the release of the Malta Transcripts, American academics still have no idea when they might be able to get their hands on the papers chronicling the important milestone ion global politics.
Most Maltese will remember the historic occasion, which had placed Malta at the centre of the world map between 2 and 3 December 1989, when hoards of international media companies descended upon Malta. The occasion also provided this journalist with his first media work experience, with the American ABC News network.
At the close of talks, Gorbachev had remarked during a memorable press conference at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, “The world is leaving one epoch and entering another. We are at the beginning of a long road to a lasting, peaceful era. The threat of force, mistrust, psychological and ideological struggle should all be things of the past.”
“I assured the President of the United States that I will never start a hot war against the USA.”
Replying, President Bush had remarked from his podium placed along side that of Gorbachev, “We can realise a lasting peace and transform the East-West relationship to one of enduring co-operation. That is the future that Chairman Gorbachev and I began right here in Malta.”
In addition to George H.W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev, also taking part in discussions was current US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, then relatively unknown and serving as the National Security Council’s senior director for Soviet and East European Affairs. Also on hand was James Baker – Ronald Reagan’s White House chief of staff, secretary of the treasury, and Bush senior’s secretary of state. Most recently Mr Baker served as the co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group.