Billington

It was appropriate that when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the only significant authoritarian ruler remaining in Europe, his acceptance speech resembled a blackmail note: Give me money or you'll be sorry. Sorry, Mr. Gorbachev says, because he can't be responsible for the ugly consequences of continuing collapse.What is he responsible for? He says he deplores his government's violence in the Baltics and other nationalities' disputes. He says he deplores his government's unrelenting investment of 25 percent of GNP in militarism.