Glasnosting Gorbachev

Ronald Reagan is basking in the afterglow of the Summit, where, with a few strokes of the pen, the President and the General Secretary went a long way, in the eyes of America’s opinion-makers, toward cleansing the stain on Reagan’s Presidency left by Iran-Contra. Reagan’s resuscitation aside, America is left to ponder its first dose of glasnost.

Any smiling Soviet is a novelty in the U.S., of course, so when Mikhail Gorbachev halted his motorcade to shake hands with a throng of Washington by-standers, he made quite a hit in the hinterlands. Indeed, he showed a trust in average Americans that no U.S. President has dared to display in years. The impression on the millions of TV viewers who saw Gorbachev’s spontaneity, real or rigged, will doubtless be lasting.

JM

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John McLaughlin

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Ronald Reagan is basking in the afterglow of the Summit, where, with a few strokes of the pen, the President and the General Secretary went a long way, in the eyes of America’s opinion-makers, toward cleansing the stain on Reagan’s Presidency left by Iran-Contra. Reagan’s resuscitation aside, America is left to ponder its first dose of glasnost.

Any smiling Soviet is a novelty in the U.S., of course, so when Mikhail Gorbachev halted his motorcade to shake hands with a throng of Washington by-standers, he made quite a hit in the hinterlands. Indeed, he showed a trust in average Americans that no U.S. President has dared to display in years. The impression on the millions of TV viewers who saw Gorbachev’s spontaneity, real or rigged, will doubtless be lasting.