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Other Gorbachev ideas, however, such as the proposals for moratoriums on nuclear and antisatellite tests, might be more tempting to Europeans. For that matter, some arms-control advocates in the U.S. think they might be worth at least exploring. Be that as it may, Gorbachev's potential for promoting disunity in the alliance clearly worries British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. When the Soviet leader visited London last year, she declared, "I like Mr. Gorbachev. We can do business together." But in a Washington speech in July, Thatcher warned of a "massive Soviet propaganda offensive" offering "the alluring prospect of large reductions in nuclear weapons, of a stable peace just around the corner, if only the United States were to give up SDI (Star Wars), if only Britain and France were to abandon their nuclear deterrents, if only we were to accept Soviet proposals which would preserve and guarantee Soviet superiority in numbers, if only, in other words, we accept the Soviet view and give up our own."
Gorbachev's true intentions may become clearer after the summit with Reagan in November and the convening of the Communist Party Congress in Moscow on Feb. 25, 1986, the 30th anniversary of Khrushchev's secret speech to the same body denouncing Stalin. In assessing Gorbachev, Western Kremlinologists find points of resemblance to Andropov in his stress on economic reform, to Stalin in his insistence on discipline, to Khrushchev in his penchant for press-the- flesh politicking. But the dissimilarities between Gorbachev and his predecessors are greater still: he is a Soviet leader born long after the Bolshevik Revolution, with no adult memories of World War II, no involvement in Stalin's bloody purges, no strong ties to the Soviet military.
Gorbachev is Gorbachev: an authoritarian with a common touch, a convinced Communist and believer in his country's social and economic system who is nonetheless outspoken in his insistence that the system can and must be made to work better--"a sort of Bolshevik Atari high-tech fan," in the pithy summary of Alexandre Adler, professor of Russian history at the University of Paris. He is a man with the intellect, political skill and force of personality that might have brought him to the top under any political system. ( Above all, he is a leader who can make plans for the year 2000 with a reasonable expectation that he will still be in power to witness their frustration or fruition. Such a leader might conclude, or be persuaded, that the fulfillment of his visions can best be guaranteed by an avoidance of confrontation and a careful management of competition between the Soviet Union and the U.S. If not, he could easily become a supremely dangerous adversary.