When Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze addressed the Congress of People's Deputies last December, not even Mikhail Gorbachev was prepared for his old friend's shocking announcement. Warning that "reactionaries" were trying to gain control of the government and that "dictatorship is coming," Shevardnadze angrily resigned his post. Though Shevardnadze never directly criticized Gorbachev, his words were interpreted as an admonition to Gorbachev that he risked becoming a captive of the military as he struggled to control the country's chaos.
When Shevardnadze tours the U.S. this month, he will have a new title: president of the Soviet Foreign Policy Association, an independent...