Bush Hails Gorbachev as a ‘Courageous Force for Peace’

World leaders warmly congratulated Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Monday for winning the Nobel Peace Prize, with President Bush calling him “a courageous force for peace in the world.”

Gorbachev has brought “historically significant” political and economic reforms to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and has helped improve international stability, Bush said in a statement from the White House.

In London, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher expressed delight about the Nobel Committee’s choice. “This is terrific,” Thatcher said. “It is a richly deserved award.”

Thatcher’s praise was generally echoed across Europe and elsewhere, even by some of Gorbachev’s former foes.

“Your personal contribution to the improvement of relations between East and West, to overcoming the division of our Continent, to breakthroughs in disarmament and arms controls and solutions of regional conflicts, is worthy of highly deserved praise,” German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said in a telegram to the Soviet leader.

Polish Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, who won the Peace Prize in 1983, said he wishes Gorbachev “further persistence and successes on the road to democracy that you have outlined.”

Former President Ronald Reagan, in a statement in Los Angeles, called the award a tribute to Gorbachev’s bold leadership, adding: “Since our first meeting in Geneva nearly five years ago, I have found Mikhail Gorbachev to be sincere in his efforts to make the world safer.”

Gorbachev “has altered the history of the world with his glasnost and perestroika policies,” said African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela, who was also a candidate for the peace prize this year.

In Israel, Labor Party leader Shimon Peres told the Israeli Parliament that he had congratulated Gorbachev because of his relaxation of Soviet policy to allow the emigration of more Soviet Jews.

At the United Nations, Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar said Gorbachev has contributed “in a remarkable manner” to detente and has increased the role of the United Nations “as a peacemaking and peacekeeping center.”

In a rare display of agreement with Bush and Thatcher, Gus Hall, leader of the Communist Party U.S.A., also praised the choice.

“Gorbachev literally took the world from the brink of nuclear disaster,” Hall said. Alluding to charges that the Nobel Committee favors pro-Western, anti-Communist candidates, Hall said that “this evens the scales a bit. It is a good omen.”

Dimitri Simes, a senior associate at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for Peace who specializes in Soviet foreign policy, said it is “gratifying to see the prize go to a man who did so much to win the award.”

Simes called it ironic that Andrei D. Sakharov, the human rights champion, was the only Soviet winner before Gorbachev. Ten years ago, Gorbachev was a harsh critic of the dissident physicist.

Simes also said that although Gorbachev’s international popularity may rise as a result of the award, his leadership is increasingly being questioned by the Soviet people.