Richard Nixon Looks Back on His Final Hours in the White House

Nixon (April 15) makes a mockery of the profound transformation inside the Kremlin, and his argument that Mikhail Gorbachev is willing to pay a “geopolitical price” (loss of Eastern Europe) to get Western technology is pathetic. Gorbachev countenanced the East Bloc upheaval not because it is a gritty price he has to pay, but because he respects truth--something his predecessors smothered. This unprecedented grappling with truth has led directly to perestroika , a world vision that excludes class struggle, and yes, the crumbling of neighboring communism.

There is no grand, cryptic strategy in Moscow--only in Nixon’s hawkish imagination. The reality is that Nixon is a blind, old man determined to save the Cold War which validated his existence in American politics. Who else could say, “Its (Soviet) leaders are committed to an ideology diametrically opposed to ours” when these leaders have instituted market reforms and laid the groundwork for political pluralism? Who else could carry on as the great spokesperson for democratic ideals while sporting a garish Watergate tattoo?

JOHN GRIPENTROG

Los Angeles