“He’s a man I can do business with,” Margaret Thatcher said of Mikhail Gorbachev. On the other hand, it was not love at first sight between him and Ronald Reagan when they first met at the Geneva summit in 1985.
The US president called him a “diehard communist”, while Gorbachev countered that Reagan was “not a hawk, but a dinosaur”. Yet Reagan quickly realized that Gorbachev was not like former Soviet leaders. Both understood that a nuclear war could not be won.
Today, despite the shadows of war in Ukraine, tributes to Mikhail Gorbachev have poured in from the free world. Unlike Ronald Reagan, he did not have an official funeral in his country. How can this be, when he is a historical figure? Gorbachev is the modernizer behind glasnost and perestroika. He did more for freedom and peace than any leader of his time. His reforms resulted in the greatest nonviolent revolution of all time, freeing 260 million people and making the world a safer place. When asked how his reforms were viewed in his homeland, he said that the judgment of history can sometimes be capricious, but eventually Russia will measure up to the man.
In Switzerland, Gorbachev was hailed by Swiss President Ignazio Cassis as “a world leader who represented freedom and hope – values the world needs today”. Here, the 1985 summit inspired many peace, security and cooperation initiatives. Swiss President Adolf Ogi understood how Switzerland could contribute to peace in Europe by becoming a center of expertise in disarmament and security for the region and this is how the Geneva Center for Security Policy was created.
Gorbachev gave an important role to multilateralism, the United Nations and international organizations after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Disarmament or environmental issues require international cooperation. At the invitation of former Geneva Mayor Pierre Muller, he established the global headquarters of Green Cross International, his security, development and sustainability initiative, in the town of Calvin. Pierre Muller joined Green Cross as Vice President until his retirement in 2017. It is a sad coincidence that both left us within days of each other, but their contribution to the city of peace, solidarity and international cooperation survive them.
Gorbachev said the future is not predetermined. It depends on both events and our actions. Change takes leadership. It is now up to us to build on that legacy.
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– A communist and a dinosaur in Geneva in 1985
Adam Koniuszewski – Former Executive Director of Green Cross International
Published: 09.19.2022, 23:11