Bătrânul şi marea schimbare
Revista The Nation a decis să marcheze aniversarea căderii Zidului Berlinului prin publicarea unui interviu cu Mihai Gorbaciov, liderul U.R.S.S. care a decis în 1986 că "enough is enough" şi că Uniunea nu are cum să supravieţuiască fără o serie de reforme. Bătrânul politician (78 de ani) are o mulţime lucruri interesante de spus despre evenimentele şi personajele de la sfârşitul anilor '80, începutul anilor '90.
Despre Germania de Est şi căderea Zidului.
I think if the East German leader Erich Honecker had not been so stubborn--we all suffer from this illness, including the person you are interviewing--he would have introduced democratic changes. But the East German leaders did not initiate their own perestroika. Thus a struggle broke out in their country. [...]
On October 7, 1989, I was reviewing a parade in East Germany with Honecker and other representatives of the Warsaw Pact countries. Groups from twenty-eight different regions of East Germany were marching by with torches, slogans on banners, shouts and songs. The former prime minister of Poland, Mieczyslaw Rakowski, asked me if I understood German. "Enough to read what's written on the banners. They're talking about perestroika. They're talking about democracy and change. They're saying, 'Gorbachev, stay in our country!'" Then Rakowski remarked, "If it's true that these are representatives of people from twenty-eight regions of the country, it means the end." I said, "I think you're right."