Word: gorbachev
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...wanting to read a bunch of old newspapers, I sought advice from former TIME editor Henry Muller, who picked Mikhail Gorbachev as the 1980s Person of the Decade. "The process is pretty simple. Pretend to consult a lot of people, and then make the decision yourself," he told me. I did him one better. I pretended to pretend to consult a lot of people and made the decision myself. (See TIME's 2009 Person of the Year: Ben Bernanke...
...Wall Came Down" [Nov. 9]. What a swizz, claiming Reagan did it! Surely it was the epochal election of a Polish Pope, the most charismatic in centuries, and his triumphant return to Poland, that widened earlier cracks in the wall. Margaret Thatcher was the first Western leader to recognise Gorbachev as "someone we can do business with" while Washington policymakers stalled. Paddy McGarvey, CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND...
...regimes in Syria and Iran, we need to rethink our goals. Many on the American right believe the lesson of the Reagan years is that the U.S. can bludgeon our enemies into submission if only we don't lose our will. But Ronald Reagan didn't bludgeon Mikhail Gorbachev into submission; he seduced him with intensive diplomatic engagement and arms-control agreements that thawed the Cold War. It was only after that thaw that Gorby let Eastern Europe go free. Eventually, it will probably take a similar thawing to get regimes like Iran and Syria out of the terrorism business...
...Ratnesar is generous in crediting Reagan, who urged Gorbachev to "tear down this wall," as a champion of diplomacy. Other one-liners were not quite so diplomatic. In 1984, Reagan said, "We begin bombing in five minutes," over a microphone he thought had been turned off. For some, this supposed joke is an example of his hawkishness not only toward the former Soviet Union but also toward Grenada, Cuba and others. If this is what counts for "diplomacy," no wonder we are in such trouble. Dean Wolfe, Surprise, Ariz...
Ratnesar is generous in crediting reagan, who urged Gorbachev to "tear down this wall," as a champion of diplomacy. Other one-liners were not quite so diplomatic. In 1984, Reagan said, "We begin bombing in five minutes," over a microphone he thought had been turned off. For some, this supposed joke is an example of his hawkishness not only toward the former Soviet Union but also toward Grenada, Cuba and others. If this is what counts for "diplomacy," no wonder we are in such trouble...