The attempted Soviet August Coup is over. The official Soviet television news network says Gorbachev has returned to power and the coup has fallen apart. Gorbachev will return to Moscow soon.
“A great day in the middle of history” says President Bush. The coup leaders are either under arrest or being hunted. Boris Yeltsin now has emerged as a hero in Russia as “the man who stared the cannons down.” Civilians took Soviet armored vehicles that had been bought by the military up to the barricades in front of the Russian Parliament building and drove them away from the building.
By early evening the “Committee of Eight” coup leaders had been disbanded, Gorbachev reinstalled, the coup plotters possibly arrested, and crowds were cheering for Russian Federation President Boris Yetsin.
Boris Yeltsin must now figure into American foreign policy. Bush spoke to Gorbachev. Eduard Shevardnadze the former Soviet Foreign Minister, thinks that Gorbachev staged the coup to smoke out the real opposition to go after them. Bush says that is nonsense.
