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Mikhail Gorbachev The understanding was also growing on the other side of the Iron Curtain. So when the question comes up now about who won and lost the cold war, I dismiss this as the thinking of small-minded politicians. We were thinking in terms of a new way of seeing the world-and this got a response. Perhaps it was fated or God ordained it so, but it came from the most unusual combination of people-leaders like Ronald Reagan, who I had been told was almost as right-wing as you could get; Margaret Thatcher, who was also firm in her own convictions; and François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl, who all answered the call of the times.
Our bipolar world has given way to multiple regional centers of power. In those East European countries where the collapse of totalitarian regimes was applauded in the West, we now have "post-Warsaw Pact" parties in power formed on the basis of the old Communist parties. But our Russian party has not even gone halfway on the path of renewal. We have to see things as they really are and stand firmly for the principle that everything must be done to help democracy take root. Only this can save us.
PHOTO CREDIT: NIKOLAI IGNATIEV-MATRIX |
