Bush-Gorbachev Summit Meeting

Karl Marx said, “History repeats itself, the first time as tragedy and the second time as farce.”

It is no longer fashionable or safe to quote Marx. Indeed in the Soviet Union it is heresy, but Marx was absolutely right; the two-day Moscow summit was farce worthy of Moliere: a nation in disarray and dissolution importuning a nation teetering on the cusp of bankruptcy--both nations brought to their dolorous states by a 46-year paranoiac arms race.

In Moscow President Bush postured as the leader of a still rich and powerful nation, ignoring a lingering recession, debt mounting on debt, hordes of homeless, increasing unemployment, the largest prison population in the Western World and the imminent collapse of the banking system. Unable to aid his own country, devoid of an agenda or program, Bush has come to help Gorbachev, who, in his desperation, is either deluding himself or honestly believes that the U.S. can bail him out by floating the sort of loans from other nations that have kept America afloat. Or else Gorbachev is relying on Bush’s fear that a fragmented Soviet Union led by a dozen other leaders is a greater peril than the father of perestroika .

Indeed, the tragedy of the Cold War has led to the farce of the Moscow summit, circa 1991.

EDMUND MORRIS

Santa Monica