THE 'NEW GENERATION' THEORY - AGAIN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807410009-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 11, 2012
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: March 14, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST"T
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/11: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807410009-6
A I CLE APPEABcD
ON PAGE AA_.--
WASHINGTON POST
14 March 1985
George F. Will The `New Generation' Theory-Again
Vice presidents are virtuosos at the art of fu- 'the Cuban missile crisis he was replaced by what
nera -at een ? , and at Brezhnev's funeral Westerners-fight was to be a troika-Podgorny,
George us the tomer CIA director. had a da Brezhnev and Kosygin. Kosygin was cheerfully re-
garded as dominant, and as a worldly moderate,
minute with the successor, talked, Ply because he had an intellectual son-in-law. -
mme shead chat t s the KG" Th hev was ad ctor i. Bush ush said, - " The moderation of the new regime did not pan
spook to o
the out, as Czechs, Poles, Ethiopians, Afghans, Yeme-
: the t interesting
thou
secret- the ohead of s the nis, _Angolans Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, Nicara-
tho gp t secreIA director cc and
labor em ire are in essential) t e same craft. r .' and otasrs. can attest. But when
Anyway , there was Andropov who-be of
nyway. Bush brought back a hopeuse. Brezhnev fell
there-
Andropov, A B said, had brought back a hopeful suurtrall good cheer-had been reading the data and there-spent 15 y g fore knew that the United States meant no harm.
0 Soviet intelligence reports and "anyone who has. Today think tanks are hard at the task of Pon-
had access to all the data must objectively know 0 dering:What.It All Means-the fact that Gorba-
that if a country goes in peace, it has absolutely
nothing whatsoever to fear from the U.S.A." chev is the first leader too young to have fought
Swimming beneath the surface of that surmise` - tin the war with and then against the Nazis; the
like a school of sluggish pike in brackish water, are.IYact that he is a lawyer; the fact that he has failed
some interesting implications. The Cold War is to a. upward through agriculture. All-all!-that is
significant extent a misunderstanding to be cured known for sure is that he rocketed to the top of
by better "data." Soviet policy is defensive. and, the Soviet elite during the slightly more than a
reactive, driven by neurotic fear of U.S. motives, decade (from the invasion of Czechoslovkia to the
Therefore, U.S. foreign policy must be psychother-.- invasion of Afghanistan) when Soviet behavior
apy to get the Soviet Union thinking "objectively,", was even more brutal than before.
As Bush's boss says, we must convince the Soviets ,. L After Stalin, the last Bolshevik, came
that we mean them no "harm." Khrushchev, the last leader to have profited mightily
George Orwell said it requires not justintellec'a from Stalin's purges. Then came Brezhnev and An-
but imagination to comprehend Soviet- behavior. dropov and Chernenko, the last leaders who were
American leaders are most imaginative when con- -what?-brutalized or sensitized or something by
totting reasons for misapprehending. Soviet- mo-_. the war. Now comes Gorbachev, and from Western
0 fives. Comprehension is the enemy of cheerfulness, leaders comes the. "new generation" theory: Be of
and cheerfulness is mandatory 'for leaders of " good cheer, because the new generation is, well,
0 democracy, especially when it is irrational. younger,' and, therefore ... Besides, his wife has a
American leaders will believe uncountable things I well-turned ankle-a matched set, in fact. ? -
to avoid believing the depressing truth, which is: I am not being sexist. I respect her for her
.-
- - - - ?? mind, but ankles are geopolitical facts. They oc-
the Soviet regime is intellectually deranged, mor- casioned favorable comment during 'a tour of
ally bankrupt, politically corrupt -and economically Britain. The tour was like a Broadway show pre-
lunatic, and therefore is utterly dependent for viewing in New Haven to rave reviews. He and
whatever, legitimacy it can claim, and whatever ? she cut graceful figures, she by having one, he by
!- elan it can muster,-on its role as liberator of every- talking of contracts for British industry. He
one from everything but communism. smiled a lot, at least until a member of Parlia-
When Stalin died, Western leaders said, cheer- ment, perhaps remembering Lady Astor's ques-
fully: -Fundamental change will soon be afoot be- tion to Stalin (When are you going to stop killing
cause Stalin was the last old Bolshevik and, be- people?) asked about persecutions.
sides, his successor has given a speech praising Gorbachev's charm slipped. He said: So's your
"Peaceful ",coexistence." 'Georgi Malenkov did old man. Actually, he said: What about Ireland and
r?. that; in a speech saying war is bad. But he was unemployment? This guy is apt to be around for a
r not really the successor; He succumbed to a long time, and it is apt to seem like a long time.
Stalinist. attack from Khrushchev; who then, be-
came an anti-Stalinist regarding everything'ex-
t_ -ceptgovernment and culture.:..:- .
Khrushchev, ? said Westerners cheerfully, is an
Ir earthy. peasant;'.in touch with Soviet Everyman.
h, - Surely, therefore, he is more interested in raising
living standards than in missiles;-Two years after
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/11: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807410009-6