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Pastimes : A CENTURY OF LIONS/THE 20TH CENTURY TOP 100 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jbe who wrote (1950)	11/21/1999 11:16:00 AM
From: Zoltan!	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3246

>>Soviet specialists tended to give it to Gorbachev Well, why not? That group was so wrong in predicting events and their resolution. Vernon Walters, the great diplomat and probably the smartest man in the US government in the last 40 years, wrote an article in the WSJ detailing his trouble with such "specialists" who refused to see what was happening up until the very moment the Berlin Wall fell! An event that Reagan had heralded and that both Thatcher and Mitterand opposed. Your "Soviet specialist" view also cannot withstand analysis because the outcome was not anything that Gorby wanted or intended - he was caught up in events. Gorby did not make history, he was undone by it. Where Gorby does stand tall is in recognizing that and for being the first Soviet leader who would not continue the mass murder of people in order to retain the totalitarian empire. For that he shares some measure of credit. Certainly much of the present false veneration of Gorby comes as a result of Western desire not to gloat over the Soviet defeat which would merely fan the flames of Russian extremism in that nation of extremes. Earlier on (previous posts) you cited Margaret Thatcher and her view about "doing business" with Gorby. From that same Amazon.com web page we see that Thatcher endorses Crozier's book and views, though Crozier has stated that Reagan showed more wisdom than Thatcher in regard to Gorby and his intentions. That Reagan would not give Gorby what he wanted though he had to know that every liberal media organ would have hailed such action. Reagan refused such small "triumphs", something lesser men surely would have grabbed. Reagan's goal was as stated, to push to the Soviets to the brink and then over the edge. (Crozier noted in his interview that Reagan read Gorbachev far better than Maggie and that Reagan irked her by purposely not advising her on Granada or SDI - two decisive events in the fall of Soviet power. You recall that Thatcher opposed SDI.)