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The American Response to Gorbachev
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16305 |
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Section : |
EDITORIAL
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| Issue
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3 / 1989 |
1,352 Words |
| Author
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Morton A. Kaplan
Editor and Publisher |
"What Is Gorbachev Really Up To?" is the topic of this month's Special Report in Current Issues. It is an appropriate subject to discuss, although I think Mr. Gorbachev and his motives are becoming reasonably clear--or as clear as such things can be in a world in which a change in circumstances can also produce a change in objectives. The more interesting question in my mind is how we should react to Gorbachev.
At least since Khrushchev's ouster, Soviet leaders have ceased to believe that Marxism is a science or that Soviet society is a success. Until Gorbachev came into office, however, the system had not yet entered a crisis severe enough to produce a climate for reform. Andropov, who was a sophisticated man and the sponsor of Gorbachev, did attempt minor reforms. But he did not live long enough, nor was the crisis yet sufficiently desperate, for him to have the support necessary for major reform of the system.
By the time of Gorbachev the crisis had become sufficiently severe for the entire Politburo to favor economic reform, at least in principle. Otherwise, the Soviet Union would become a Third World economy. There was not agreement on the extent of reform, however. Because the bureaucracy saw perestroika as an invasion of its prerogatives and privileges, the reform program hardly got off the ground. That is also why Yeltsin raised a storm and why Gorbachev, in self-defense, had to support his demotion.
The failure of perestroika, however, left Gorbachev with no choice except political reform, the very moves that led his former supporters, Ligachev and Chebrikov, into opposition, for political reform also threatened many vested
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