In a curious way, NBC's exclusive televised one-hour "conversation" with Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow last week seemed to pose more of a challenge to NBC and Tom Brokaw than it did to Gorbachev.
The world is now accustomed to the contrast between Gorbachev's style and that of his thuggy Soviet predecessors -- brutal, cunning, stony-faced -- but it still marvels at how the sterile Soviet system could produce a leader so articulate and reasonable in tone if not substance. Too adroit to be trapped into indiscretions, he made no news and obviously did not intend to. But he left the impression...
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