Posted on 03/01/2006 11:41:38 AM PST by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
Gorbachev, Who Turns 75 Thursday, Says End of Cold War Only Strengthened U.S. 'Arrogance'
MOSCOW - Mikhail Gorbachev's magnetic brown eyes shine as brightly as ever, and he speaks with the same passion about the collapse of the Soviet Union as he prepares to mark his 75th birthday on Thursday.
The man who ended the Cold War and launched democratic reforms that broke the repressive Soviet regime continues to enjoy the limelight, globe-trotting on behalf of his political foundation and environmental group and taking part in charity projects.
At a meeting with foreign reporters this week, Gorbachev blamed the United States for losing a chance to build a safer and more stable world following the Soviet demise.
"Ending the Cold War was given as a gift" to the United States, but it only strengthened its arrogance and unilateralism, he said. "The winner's complex is worse than an inferiority complex, because it's harder to cure."
While praised worldwide, Gorbachev has been reviled at home, where a majority of Russians hold him responsible for the Soviet breakup and subsequent economic chaos that impoverished millions.
He won a mere 1 percent of the vote in the 1996 presidential election; he hasn't run since.
Many still accuse him of caving in to the West. Anatoly Utkin, a senior researcher with the U.S. and Canada Institute, chastised Gorbachev for drastically cutting Soviet nuclear arsenals and agreeing to Germany's reunification without getting anything in return.
"Gorbachev didn't know the West. And the West didn't trust the nobility of his motives and coldly used him," Utkin said in a column in the weekly Argumenty i Fakty.
Gorbachev's record as a man who gave freedom to his land also was tarnished by some darker pages.
One was his handling of the 1986 reactor explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, which the Soviet leadership announced to the world only after scientists in Sweden detected a radioactive fallout.
Gorbachev insisted the Kremlin just didn't know the scope of the disaster, but many claim the Soviet leadership deliberately downplayed its gravity.
He is also blamed for a Soviet troop crackdown on demonstrators in Lithuania in 1991 that killed 14 and injured nearly 1,000.
Gorbachev said the troops were sent against the protesters in Vilnius on a secret KGB order of which he was unaware a claim his foes shrugged off as improbable.
Gorbachev still bristles when he talks about the betrayal by his communist lieutenants who launched the August 1991 coup that briefly ousted him. The coup collapsed within days, encouraging the Soviet republics to declare independence and shattering Gorbachev's hopes of keeping them together in a looser federation.
Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who celebrated his 75th birthday in February, recently accused Gorbachev of having advance knowledge of the coup and waiting it out to see who would win.
"Yeltsin is a liar," Gorbachev snapped, rejecting the allegation as "sheer nonsense."
Looking back at the turmoil that preceded his resignation, Gorbachev says he has never regretted his refusal to turn to military force to prevent the Soviet collapse. He said that sometimes his "hands were itching" to use force, but he realized that could have led to a civil war and even a global nuclear conflict.
Gorbachev said this week that while he could have ended Yeltsin's political career easily by dispatching him as ambassador to a distant country, he didn't do so because such a move would compromise his principles.
Yeltsin humiliated Gorbachev by giving him just a few hours to clear out of the presidential office after he signed the Soviet Union out of existence on Dec. 25, 1991. He never invited him to the Kremlin afterward.
Gorbachev's relations with the Kremlin have seen a marked improvement under Vladimir Putin, whom he has praised repeatedly for ending the political chaos and economic decline of Yeltsin's era.
Despite his age, Gorbachev seems as lively and energetic as before, giving the impression of genuinely enjoying life. "I like good dishes from all over the world. I have tasted them all and I still can't name a favorite," he said.
He rarely touches a fiction book, but reads a lot of history, philosophy and political science.
"I also watch a lot of movies, mostly on TV. I have gotten sick of (American) blockbusters and love Russian movies," he said.
The man who ended the Cold War and launched democratic reforms that broke the repressive Soviet regime ...still can't get it correct, can they?
President Reagan won the Cold War, and through his great leadership dismantled the Soviet Empire and the communist Eastern Bloc, freeing 500 million people from totalitarian rule.
Mikhail Gorbachev is a phony, a fraud and STILL, a communist.
Yeah, but at least the @sswipe loser admits that he's a Communist.
Yeah, like Karl Doenitz ended World War II in Europe. (For those who don't know, Adolf Hitler selected Doenitz to become head of state after his suicide on 30th April, 1945. After forming a new government he negotiated Germany's surrender on 8th May). Inkstain's role wasn't very much different.
Gorbachev propagated evil, knowing it was evil.
ABC news is just as bad as CBS and NYT - progating a puff-piece that hides the true Gorby we all knew.
""Ending the Cold War was given as a gift" to the United States, but it only strengthened its arrogance and unilateralism, he said. "The winner's complex is worse than an inferiority complex, because it's harder to cure.""
Gorby destroyed the USSR, thank you, but we are not going to take advance on how to build a nation from a loser.
Gorby has a gorbasim. Prolly rues for the day when he was in charge. Kind of like Algore!
advance=advice
My fingers are faster then my mind.
Soros, Kennedy, Durbin, Reid, Schumer, Pelosi, Streisand, Clooney, Meathead...
Another Gorbasm. I wouldn't call the person who surrenders the one who ended things. Give credit to the one who caused the surrender.
Long live Ronald Wilson Reagan!
While he's off on the arrogance part, he is right about us spoiling the chance we were given. The people of the Soviet Union appeared to actually be happy with us...but we then elected a President who - while paying a lot of lip service - had a foreign policy that consisted mostly of screwing around (And I don't mean Monica). He offered them a whole lot of bad advice as well, since he didn't understand the economics he was peddling (even if he did present a rather more capitalist view to them than he peddled here).
Quite correctly, I think. :)
And Carter had everything turning in the right direction that all Reagan had to do was go along for the ride Carter created of a wonderful economy and world peace.
Hey, if the writer of this knee-pad bit of journalism is going to shovel it, he might as well shovel it with a BIG shovel.
And Carter had everything turning in the right direction that all Reagan had to do was go along for the ride Carter created of a wonderful economy and world peace.
Hey, if the writer of this knee-pad bit of journalism is going to shovel it, he might as well shovel it with a BIG shovel.
Al Gore, Sean Penn, George Clooney, Bill Maher and several others will be on the same roller coaster to the hottest cauldrons in hell.
The average academic, leftist lunatic probably thinks Gorbachev is a hero. Go to Harvard, Yale, Columbia, or Univ.of Anywhere and the faculty will say Bush and Reagan are evil, but communist butchers are somehow "pure".
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