Business Journal Op-Ed

Gorbachev

During his visit to Greensboro as a guest of Guilford College earlier this month, former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev talked about global leadership, a topic he is uniquely qualified to discuss.  In recalling my life experience while listening to his remarks, I found lessons we all can benefit from.

From 1987-91, Gorbachev streamlined and decentralized the Communist system he inherited and played a crucial role in ending the Cold War.  He taught the world two new words:  perestroika, which means governmental restructuring, and glasnost, which means political openness.

Anyone of a certain age knows what it was like during the Cold War.  As an elementary school student, I remember practicing taking cover under my desk in case the United States ever suffered an atomic bomb attack … as if that would matter.  I remember my parents examining plans for a fallout shelter that we never built and thankfully never needed.

Probably our most vivid memory was the Cuban Missile Crisis. The U.S. sought to prevent the installation of offensive nuclear weapons 90 miles from Florida.  President Kennedy went on television to announce the blockade of Cuba.  I was in high school and we thought war was inevitable.  We watched and waited as the Russian trawlers approached the blockading ships of the U.S. Navy.  Would the Russian sailors resist and start World War III? 

I remember being in the school cafeteria when Father Matt came to the microphone and announced:  “The Russian ships have turned around.”   We were stunned.  We were also, for the moment, saved.  That was the world in which we lived. 

But the past few decades, the persistent terror and mistrust that we knew have ended to a great extent due to the diplomacy and commitments of President Gorbachev and other peacemakers like him.  So I think it is worthy to recall the former Soviet leader remarks about America, the media and young people as we consider how we’ll approach the future as a country and as individuals.  Here are those points, in his words:

On America’s role as a world leader:  “I believe that America today has many qualities of a leader or a potential leader in building a new world order.  But this leadership can succeed not if it tries to dominate, but only if it is a partner to other nations.  It’s very important to respect the uniqueness of nations, to respect the cultural and historical uniqueness of nations; that is the only way to succeed.  Imposing things on others, particularly if this is done by using pre-emptive strikes, is not the way to go.” 

On the role of media in a democracy:  “The quality of democracy in any country is tantamount to the quality of glasnost and the quality of the media.  We need the media that would be free but at the same time responsible.  The media needs to be critical of whatever is happening in the society, but at the same time society can be critical of the media.  That’s democratic.  The media cannot be untouchable.  That goes for the government officials, too.”

On the importance of young people:  “When I was a child I saw the tragedy of World War II and spent six months under German occupation.  The war cost our nation 27 million people – mostly young people who would have been the future of our country.  I think that the younger generation of today is facing a very difficult world, and a very complex world that is not easy to understand.  I think it is very important for young people to think about more than just entertainment and discos and things like that, to think about the real issues and the problems of the world and what (they) can do to make a difference.  I think today’s young people will do better than we did.”

Throughout his remarks, President Gorbachev drove home the idea that cooperation, openness and relationships are pivotal.  He recalled his interaction with President Reagan, saying, “This cooperation was not an easy process, but with each step that we took together, our relationship changed.  It was this that was of decisive importance.  Both of us felt responsibility to our two nations and to the world.” 

Here’s hoping the leaders of our world, and indeed all of us, heed his call.

This opinion-editorial was originally published in the Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area in October 2004.