Word: sovietism
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...renouncing Marxism, like millions of demonstrators in Eastern Europe, but to rejuvenating it. He is a proud Russian nationalist. He likes power, knows how to use it and wants to keep it. His political reforms, glasnost, are totally inadequate compared with a free society. But compared with what the Soviet people had before, the changes are breathtaking. His economic reforms, perestroika, have been an abject failure. For example, in the ten years of Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms, the per capita income of the Chinese people has doubled. In the five years of Gorbachev's rule, the per capita income...
...found he was presiding over a military superpower and a Third World economic power. His clients in Cuba, Viet Nam, Ethiopia, Angola and Nicaragua required huge subsidies. Afghanistan was costing lives as well as money. In Eastern Europe the explosive forces of dissent were building dangerously. The stagnant Soviet economy was falling further and further behind the West. Gorbachev's only option was to reform at home and retrench abroad...
...would with any other master politician, we should look at Gorbachev's deeds as well as his words. One example is Soviet military power. He still spends 20% of his gross national product on defense, compared with 6% in the U.S. He has modernized all three legs of the Soviet strategic nuclear triad. Soviet superiority in tanks, chemical weapons and combat aircraft has been maintained and in some cases increased. The Soviet Union's military might is greater now than when Gorbachev came to power. Even if he has been sounding to some hopeful ears like a dove, his bristling...
Many observers say he inspired the changes under way in Eastern Europe. Some even say he encouraged them. Most ignore that it was Western ideals, combined with the failure of Communist ideals he still defends and opposition to Soviet domination he represents, which brought millions into the streets. It is true that he could have repressed the demonstrations, but it might not have worked and would have inevitably derailed his brilliant diplomatic blitzkrieg aimed at psychologically disarming the West. Instead, he is now getting credit for developments he could not contain...
...leading foreign policy analyst concluded bluntly, "We should help those in the Soviet Union who are doing the right thing." But is Gorbachev really a convert to those ideals we consider the "right things" -- political pluralism, individual rights and a free-market economy? Whoever believes that will believe Santa Claus is bringing my grandchildren the $150 Nintendo sets I am buying them for Christmas...