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- THE WEEK, Page 23WORLDP.S. to the Cold War
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- Gorbachev says what the world needs now is more democracy
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- In 1946, out of office but still casting a long shadow,
- Winston Churchill came to Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., and
- declared that "an iron curtain" had descended across Europe.
- Last week another idle leader sketched a different vision: Mi
- khail Gorbachev came to Fulton and called for a world that is
- "democratic for the whole of humanity." The collapse of
- totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe has released "exaggerated
- nationalism," old territorial claims and bloodshed, he said. "It
- would be a supreme tragedy if the world, having overcome the
- 1946 model, were to find itself once again in a 1914 model."
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- As for the cold war, Gorbachev said, both Soviet and
- Western leaders made mistakes. Moscow wrongly expected communist
- ideology to triumph after World War II, and the West erred by
- exaggerating the Soviet threat and "unleashing a monstrous arms
- race."
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- Five years after his speech, Churchill became Prime
- Minister again; Gorbachev too may dream of political
- resurrection. He was in the midst of a 13-day speaking tour of
- the U.S., trying to raise $3 million for his new think tank in
- Moscow. At an earlier stop last week, Ronald Reagan was host at
- a luncheon near Los Angeles in Gorbachev's honor. Ticket price:
- $5,000.
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