European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 27, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Saturday april 27, 1991 \ the stars and Stripe George f. Will Page 13 commentary Mikhail Gorbachev May be the most misunderstood european authoritarian since Gen. Franco. In the late 1930s, Franco was widely thought to be an iberian Hitler a dynamic Force for a Radical new order in fact Franco just wanted to shove modernity Back North of the pyrenees. Gorbachev like Franco is partly responsible for being misunderstood Gorba Cluj eve a rhetoric has often been As Francois was bolder than his Aims. But Gorbachev has made Clear that his aim is preservation of the a socialist choices a his phrase a the soviet Union made in 1917. His aim has been Only the revitalization of the command society now collapsing around him. Abandonment of the command system has not been tried or probably even considered. Failure at Home Breeds failure abroad As with Gorbachev strip to Tokyo. He went there As he goes Evcic where now As a mendicant. Perhaps in his Palmier Days of political health he could in of feet have sold to Japan the four Kuril islands one is actually just a pile of rocks the soviet Union took from Japan at the end of world War ii. In Exchange for the islands perhaps Japan would have provided significant investments and credits for the soviet Economy. But two things Are now different. The soviet military having seen its strategically significant european conquests undone has dug its heels into the Stony Kuril ground. Even Boris Yeltsin playing nationalism card has suggested that yielding the islands would be a another alaskan a not a Good Deal. A Gorbachev a advisers justified his request for japanese Aid in language that explains Why the request failed. The advisers said the soviet Economy today resembles Japan a Economy in 1945. That is 74 years of the a socialist choices that Gorbachev still defends have done to the soviet Economy what saturation bombing to the Point of unconditional surrender did to s. Brode vastly overrated and fading fast a Are Founer Cammuse Gorbachev a defense of the a socialist choices docs not mean he is a doctrinaire marxist but he remains a Leninist. Laying a Wreath at Lenin a Tomb recently on Lenin a birthday he was True to his obviously unshakable belief in a democratic that entails his remarkable Fidelity to the Only remaining sinew of so. Viet state Power the military. The committee on the present danger reports there was a no measurable reduction of soviet military spending in 1989 and that 1990 spending was at 1988 Levels. The advertised cuts were primarily cancellations of some planned increases. The committee says a the soviet a military Industrial Complex is the Only economic component functioning this docs not mean soviet intentions have not changed or that the general economic collapse will not eventually drag Down the military sector. They have and it will. But the relative vitality of that sector in the face of disintegration elsewhere does indicate where Gorbachev a Power base is. It is among the men who cling to the Kuril a the military. He May be the most overrated Man since Mussolini in the late 1920s. Then Mussolini seemed to some people a sort of Mediterranean Teddy Roosevelt brimming with Energy and the desire for improvement perhaps too casual about institutional niceties but still the dynamic sort of fellow his time and nation needed. Mussolini Wasny to because he did not have a Good idea. Gorbachev in to because he does no to either. C the Washington Post Udall made covering politics a special Joy the losing presidential candidates in the past generation who were most cherished by the reporters covering them were both arizonans a Barry Goldwater and Morris Udall. It had nothing to do with ideology and everything to do with character and personality. Goldwater a conservative Republican and Udall a Liberal Democrat shared traits which made them great friends despite their disagreements. They both had a deep aversion to self important phonies. And they both knew that politics like life itself requires the Leavening gift of humor. Goldwater went Home four years ago hobbled by arthritic hips. And now Udall has announced his resignation from Congress because he has been immobilized by the effects of Parkinson a disease and the injuries he suffered in a fall Down the stairs at his Home. Goldwater won his party a nomination in a year when no Republican could be elected. Udall lost the nomination in a year when the democrats could a and did a win. Both had to overcome the frustration they Felt. Both succeeded but a Dales was probably the greater Triumph. In his 1976 Campaign he went through a series of agonizingly close second place finishes to Jimmy Carter. He was the victim of the tactical amateurism of his own organization and of the cannibalism of the democratic left. Three other liberals with less Chance of winning stayed in the race and drained off crucial support. Had he gained the votes of Only one of them former sen. Fred Harris of Oklahoma he would have beaten Carter in new Hampshire Wisconsin and Michigan a and history would have been different. He also was sold out by Liberal Trade unions which used the excuse of Udall a Independence on labor issues to rationalize their Deal making with the favored Carter. All this he bore with remarkable Good humor bouncing Back time and again to rejoin the Battle. By the retd in Ohio he was dead broke All but exhausted a and adored by the reporters covering him. In retrospect it clearly was not the time for a Udall presidency. Two years after watergate America wanted an a a outsiders As president not a longtime congressman like Udall or Jerry Ford. Ana two years before proposition 13 triggered a National tax revolt it was not the time for a Man who told voters that until America is a a just society Quot governments work is not done. So Udall came Back to the House his Home since 1961 and the place where his skills As a legislator a political conciliator and a reformer were most appreciated. The legacy he left there is imposing and enduring. It ranges from strip mining and alaskan wilderness legislation to the Reform of archaic committee and floor procedures that congressional Barons had used to conceal their arbitrary Power. For a whole generation of congressmen Udall became a Mentor and a Model a and they will miss him As much As the press galleries do. Few of them unfortunately can match him As a teacher. Like his Friend former rep Barber b. Conable jr., the Rochester n.y., Republican who is retiring now from his Job As head of the world Bank Udall wrote. His own newsletters. He shared with constituents his insights into the issues in the news and the ways of government so candid and delightful were these Udall newsletters that they were published in Book form Back in 1972. The title was appropriate a a the education of a congressman a for Udall operated on the belief that representative government really is a continuing dialogue Between citizens and their leaders. Adlai Stevenson s belief that a Campaign is a time to a talk sense to the american people sustained Udall a run for the White House. His aides worried How to a pump to up and a get him made at the opposition. He would respond with one of his hundreds of Lincoln Ian stories about the ridiculousness of overweening ambition. But it was not a joking Udall who said in the midst of his own 1976 Campaign a beware of the presidential candidate who has no friends his own age and confidantes who can Tell him to go to hell who has no hobbies and outside interests. God help us from presidents who can to be a Little bit gentle and who done to have a sense of humor and who can to gather friends around and play poker and climb a Mountain. You know these intense workaholics really worry to Udall is a Westerner and a Liberal and a septic and a Man whose humor is rooted in a deep appreciation of the tragedy of human life and the futility of human striving. For All those reasons a and More a he has been special and precious to Many of us. What Archibald Cox said of him in a symbolic nominating speech at the 1976 democratic convention was True a a by the count of votes he did come in second but he succeeded in the larger aim. For he proved that a Public figure even in a Long and heated political contest can exemplify the Best of the american spirit that Honor need not yield to ambition that open mindedness and willingness to listen Are not inconsistent with Devotion to principle that civility can accompany tenacity and that humility should go hand in hand with and besides he made it such fun. Cd Washington Post writers group
