Dismantling the Communist System

The communist system is being dismantled because it hasn't been working. It failed to generate strong economies that could provide workers with the fruits of their labor and, at the same time, compete successfully abroad.

The Fruits of Their Labor

Within the Soviet Union and Central Europe, the increasingly strident demand is for change that will guarantee populations with the fruits of their labor and a measure of political reform. Central Europe, where the pace of change is more rapid and where there is geographical proximity, probably will quickly gravitate westward and ultimately integrate into Western Europe's economic system. (Failure will want to unite with success!) But what does the future hold for the Soviet Union? Where will it gravitate? Does it have any place to go? What will be its system?

Wither the U.S.S.R.?

From the beginning of his introduction of Perestroika, Gorbachev must have known where he had to lead the U.S.S.R.. Invalid is the belief that he would deliberately jeopardize the U.S.S.R.'s future by dismantling the communist system without knowing his ultimate objective.

Communism with a Human Face

Current public speculation appears to define his objective as an economic-cum-political system still centralized and still under the dominance of the Communist Party—albeit revamped to incorporate some Western mechanisms such as more private production and ownership, a convertible ruble, and membership in the GATT. American foreign policy makers appear to believe Gorbachev when he lends credence to such speculation from time to time, perhaps to appease his hard-line opponents.

Human Nature

That sort of speculation defies knowledge of the past, experience, common sense, and logic. No serious student of communist theory and practice thought it would last. For within it was the seed of its own destruction: HUMAN NATURE (love of material well being and political freedom, devotion to opportunity to better one's self and to be better than one's fellow humans, along with selfishness and greed—two remarkable catalysts for economic accomplishment).

The U.S.S.R.'s Place in the Sun

A restructured communist system will not produce for Gorbachev the required domestic benefits and the basis of a competitive foreign policy—a foreign policy by means of which the U.S.S.R. can obtain and retain what current leaders believe should be her place in the world. Gorbachev must know that; and if he attaches himself to such limited change, his future as a leader will be in doubt.

A highly intelligent man with an extraordinarily comprehensive grasp of what makes the world work, Gorbachev must have realized the Soviet Union can do no less than adopt an economic-cum-political system capable of being an engine of influence inside and out side the U.S.S.R.

Japan and the Little Giants

Entirely consistent with the realization would have been his study of the West's economic systems and those of Japan and Asia's "Little Giants" and his conclusion that all had developed marvelous engines of production and influence in the world. Their economic systems, which combine government planning with private production, could be construed as the socialism viewed by Marx as the precursor to communism. Therefore, Gorbachev may be leading the U.S.S.R. toward the adoption of an adaption of the stronger elements of the economic systems used by Western Europe and Japan. His objective, then, could be defined as establishment in the U.S.S.R. of a socialist system consistent with but different from the one already in place. The remaining question is strategy for putting the system in place, step by painful step, and whether he will be successful.

Winning Another Way

Success for Gorbachev would provide a strong basis for pursuit of world hegemony by economic means, to wit: persuading developing nations to emulate the U.S.S.R.'s success with an economic system similar to those in Europe and Japan.

A possible consequence of Gorbachev's successes would be his defacto assumption of the leadership of a bloc of socialist nations that would exclude the United States but include our "friends." Thus, the foreign policy challenge for the United States would be formidable, requiring thought, judgement, and skill not often displayed by the makers of American foreign policy since the end of World War II.

Smelling the Coffee

The reaction of U.S. foreign policy makers to date to the kaleidoscope of changes in the Soviet Union and Central Europe does not auger well for America's future effort to maintain her place in the world. "The fates lead him who will; him who won't they drag," (old Roman saying, The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers, Doubleday, New York, NY, 1988).

. . . Robert Sturgill . . .

© Copyright 1989
Institute for domestic Tranquility