Word: gorbachevized
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...Francisco Secretary of State James Baker delivered the Administration's strongest endorsement to date of Gorbachev's efforts. "Any uncertainty about the fate of reform in the Soviet Union," said Baker, "is all the more reason, not less, for us to seize the present opportunity." President Bush likewise abandoned a timid U.S. attitude when he granted Hungary most-favored-nation trading status and declared, "We are privileged to participate in a very special moment in human history. We are witnessing an unprecedented transformation of Communist nations into pluralistic democracies with market economies...
...trip laden with symbolism, Gorbachev visited neighboring Finland, a dexterous nation that has maintained friendly relations with Moscow while retaining political and economic independence. "Finlandization" used to be derided as a form of latter-day appeasement that might infect Western Europe; now it is considered a model for the relationship that Poland or Hungary could achieve...
...When Gorbachev first spoke of "new thinking" in foreign policy, many in the West -- especially in the U.S. -- doubted his sincerity. The real test was whether Gorbachev would end the policy at the heart of the cold war: the subjugation of Eastern Europe. At the end of last year, in a speech at the United Nations, Gorbachev declared that he would. "Freedom of choice is a universal principle," he said. Yet the doubts lingered. They always seemed to come down to the question: Is Gorbachev for real...
There can be only one answer now: yes, emphatically yes. Earlier this year, after Poland's Communists lost the most open elections since World War II but tried nevertheless to thwart Solidarity's effort to form a government, Gorbachev spoke by phone to the Communist Party leader, who subsequently backed down. Gorbachev has also provided public approval to the Hungarian reformers. In summing up a Warsaw Pact meeting in Bucharest last July, he pronounced: "Each people determines the future of its own country and chooses its own form of society. There must be no interference from outside, no matter what...
...Gorbachev is clearly motivated by his nation's desperate internal situation. Perestroika, which aims to radically restructure the Soviet economy, has so far succeeded only in disrupting the clanky old centralized-state system that at least belched forth a few second-rate consumer goods for the store shelves. Now those shelves are barer than they have been for 20 years, there are rumors of looming food riots this winter, and Gorbachev is not the hero at home that he is abroad. It is no wonder, then, that the Soviets, as former U.S. arms negotiator Paul Nitze says, "have turned inward...