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“We are reaping the consequences of a strategy that is not conducive to cooperation and partnership, to living in a new global situation,” said Mikhail Gorbachev, former President of the Soviet Union, to a crowd of 3,600 on Oct. 19 in the Allan P. Kirby Field House and many others via a live streaming broadcast in 13 locations from coast to coast, including northern Mexico. “People are asking ‘why do our leaders want to decide everything at the expense of the people?”
Gorbachev was referring to the series of uprisings around the world including the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations here in the United States. “The world needs goals that will bring people together,” he said. “Some people in the United States were pushing the idea of creating a global American empire, and that was a mistake from the start. Other people in America are now giving thought to the future of their country. The big banks, the big corporations, are still paying the same big bonuses to their bosses. Was there ever a crisis for them? … I believe America needs its own perestroika.”
Lafayette President Daniel H. Weiss introduced Gorbachev, noting that his visit was a celebration of the new Oechsle Center for Global Education made possible by the support of Walter Oechsle ’57 and his wife, Christa. “I cannot think of a more fitting way in which to mark the creation of this vibrant new academic hub on our campus than with an address by the distinguished global leader who will present the center’s inaugural lecture, ‘Perspectives on Global Change.’”
Gorbachev was welcomed with a standing ovation.
“We have invited such a renowned international figure to address us tonight because what he has to say is enormously important,” continued Weiss, “…he exemplifies the type of visionary, transformative leadership which we hope the Oechsle Center will inspire – and prepare – our students to emulate as they engage with the world throughout their own lives and careers.”
In the opening of his lecture, the 80-year-old Gorbachev, who ended Communist rule in Eastern Europe and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990, reflected on the years of preparation and negotiation that led finally to the end of the Cold War. “When my people asked what I thought of Reagan, I said he is a dinosaur, and when Reagan’s people asked him what he thought of me, he called me a diehard Bolshevik.”
Nevertheless, progress was made over that first three-day meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1985 and others that followed, with the final result that both countries agreed that a nuclear war cannot be won “and must never be fought,” and that “our two nations will not seek military superiority.”
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