Editorials/Moscow and Bliss/A Question of Honor
Tyrrell, R. Emmett Jr.
EDITORIALS MOSCOW AND BLISS by R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. General Secretary Mikhail Gorba- Marxist blight on the Soviet mind it is to proceed on the question of the na- managers in the boondocks, are...
...So now is the first President since Eisenhower and peace of the Reagan years, they past...
...Corporate prof- Chief of Staff was cleared in advance its rose 24 percent in the first quarter...
...If she promises to advise duced than in any like period in his- George Bush as judiciously as she has tory...
...But he could not...
...ten his book for the historic record but in the final stages of digestion...
...Kissinger and Richard Nixon remain City in the 1960s...
...fetched me...
...in his entourage by tor was in retirement: and then he than Dr...
...When the might have practiced the restraint that pages of Time magazine, attributed the gins, it is instructive to recall that he historians contemplate the prosperity others in his position have shown in the President's success to "magic...
...the boy mayor of New York, John V. There the very policies of perestroika they are in danger of losing not only Among leaders of stature only Henry Lindsay, was of reforming New York and glasnost that Gorbachev champi- privileges but also the power to control...
...word "perestroika" on behalf of Polish bachev had led many to believe that the Afghanistan a month or two hence— Gorbachev is now beleaguered by strikers...
...Doubtless, President is that the President is a suc- for these problems has to be borne at Tier disgruntled appointees- such as many other Americans are too...
...As the poet we know the source of the magic...
...Gorba- alities all buzzing with discontent to- is increasing displeasure with the the alarm that opponents of his "new chev may appear suave and cunning to ward Moscow...
...military officers are discovering that well-being even on Ronald Reagan...
...It is time to recognize Soviet Analyst, a respected newsletter my, the better to strengthen the Soviet that the Soviet world is approaching a Adapted from RET's weekly Washing- on Soviet events, so disruptive have military...
...in history to achieve it at the age of 77...
...His poli- Donald Regan, of course, is an in-the arrangement of the planets over- House stargazing sounds, my guess is cy in Central America is in a dismal grate...
...No less a political sage through his eighth and final summer ter policy to offer...
...It had been my view that Mr...
...General Secretary Mikhail Gorba- Marxist blight on the Soviet mind it is to proceed on the question of the na- managers in the boondocks, are discov- V chev has been a stupendous eminently possible that as a reformer tionalities...
...Disturbances among the ering to their displeasure that economic euphoriant for leaders of the industrial Mr...
...Apparently Gorbachev's allies Gorbachev's political career may end sorely pressed by its hive of nation- Finally, within the Soviet elite there in the countryside had been sounding before President Reagan's...
...Features...
...Yet now problem in attempting to denigrate the Yet in both cases the responsibility he should have had the decency of ear-1 am beginning to weaken...
...These are in Washington these days a profound mies...
...In fact, Ronald Reagan has pre- least in part by others: in Central James A. Farley under FDR and Sher-recently the pundits were attributing sided over the first successful presiders- America by the congressional Demo- man Adams under Eisenhower...
...fact: Ronald Reagan was President the attributes of a dog save loyalty...
...Why to reach such a point and the only one are going to have to confront one wrote, Don Regan has demonstrated all all the surprise...
...He Ronald Reagan's successful presidency cy since the 1950s...
...foreign policy...
...Garry Wills, toiling in the in the White House and the sniping be- those who have no honor...
...The Bureau of Labor House memoir that "virtually every Statistics reports that unemployment major move and decision the Reagans has fallen to 5.4 percent—the lowest made during my time as White House rate in fourteen years...
...Given the Tatars...
...MoreWest...
...Now as he teeters crats who thwart his policy with no bet- should have waited until his benefacto "magic...
...Frankly, hitherto astrology never In the end, when the last gasp over Some of his early accomplishments during that peace and prosperity...
...His prestige is now somewhat reduced...
...His stewardship of the Soviet aware of the complexity of reforming Gorbachev's second set of problems over, party bosses, KGB officials, and Union has conferred a sense of general the Soviet Union in the 1980s as, say, hiss and smolder in Eastern Europe...
...Reagan, my guess is that America seems to be flourishing...
...Gorbachev has had to turbulence that has followed upon thought" might dominate the confer-Westerners, but in his efforts to reform face disturbances in the Baltic, in Ka- Gorbachev's reforms...
...with a woman in San Francisco who Inflation, which reached 18.2 percent drew up horoscopes to make certain in the Carter Administration, is a that the planets were in favorable align-modest 4.2 percent, and productivity ment for the enterprise...
...In the Caucasus, according to tern yearn for a more productive econo- be postponed...
...but Soviet agelasts, whether period of instability and danger for the ton Post column syndicated by King Armenian nationalists become that the they be bureaucrats in Moscow or plant West, not bliss...
...Soviet authorities "are uncertain how 8 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY 1988 EDITORIALS A QUESTION OF HONOR W ell, let's see, here we are in our Crime has fallen, longevity increases, sixty-seventh straight month of and along comes Donald Regan, the economic growth, and we endure yet President's disgruntled former chief of another dreadful squall over this Presi- staff, asserting in a 397-page White dent's leadership...
...tee would get many new faces after the saber-rattlers...
...not the kind of enemies one wants unweariness toward difficult questions of he might better have been reading the In Poland during the recent unrest Lech der the Soviet system...
...a totalitarian system seven decades old zakhstan, and among the Crimean change as well as hardened stand-pat- Andrei Sakharov even suggested that it he may be out of his depth...
...When he was off reading Marx cow relies on to preserve Soviet power...
...This cannot en- licly expressed skepticism over the drift ture is Moscow and bliss...
...likely beyond his understanding...
...He could have writ-and certainly less than an overhead bird he had higher ambitions than that...
...For the rest the fu- cracy and economics and the passions lenge Soviet influence...
...How do you suppose the dicta- Soviets' 300-member Central Commitand he could be replaced overnight by three sets of problems that are most tor Jaruzelski liked that...
...One senses of aggrieved colleagues and hostile ene- dear Gorbachev to the henchmen Mos- of events under Gorbachev...
...reform means loss of privilege...
...gin with, his polyglot empire is being be few...
...this fall all down-to-earth Americans will unite to give him a tremendous ma'Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, $19.95...
...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY 1988 9...
...Fearing the worst, the learned Dr...
...advised Mrs...
...Gorbachev is up ons for his country are being used by KGB head Viktor Chebrikov and De-vigilant about the future of Soviet- against the inflexible laws of bureau- Eastern European nationalists to chal- fense Minister Dmitri Yazov have pub-American relations...
...Gorbachev is an innocent—as un- nationalities continue to spread...
...Yet let Gorbachev suffer sociologist Max Weber and the capital- Walesa actually invoked the sacred Now comes news that, though Goran embarrassment—say, civil war in ist economists...
...Reports indicate that her name is Reagan Administration, Revolution,' Joan Quigley, and unfortunately for notes that during the Reagan years Governor Michael Dukakis she is a Re-"more wealth and services were pro- publican...
...Am I the on-rises...
...Regan's revelations of White are now beginning to tarnish...
...Regan's only effect will be a condition...
...Advocates of ence...
...To be- June party conference, the changes will There is growing evidence that Mr...
...If he felt frustrated by Nancy head would hold about as much influ- that Mr...
...jority...
...Martin Anderson of the Hoover ly American who would very much like Institution, in his refreshing new to have that woman's telephone numbook about his experiences in the ber...
...Until cess...
...He had rehabilitated the Reagan he had the honorable alterence on my fate as an overhead cloud, mild boom in the occult, and I take it prestige of the presidency, but that native of quitting...
Vol. 21 • July 1988 • No. 7
