The elder Bush is doing his part to ensure that “history” does indeed prove kind to Gorbachev, who will be a guest at the Bush estate in September. Bush is scheduled to award the former Soviet Communist Party leader the 2008 Liberty Medal on September 18 at the National Constitution Center in historic Philadelphia, the cradle of the U.S. Constitution. The center, located on Independence Mall, a stone’s throw from the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, bills itself as a premier interactive museum “dedicated to increasing public understanding of, and appreciation for, the Constitution, its history, and its contemporary relevance.”
Bush, undoubtedly, will have many flowery things to say about Comrade Gorbachev on that fast-approaching auspicious occasion. But, really, have we reached such a desperate state of affairs that Gorbachev is the best exemplar to be found in the whole wide world for Americans to honor as the champion of liberty and the principles enshrined in our Constitution? I am well aware that, over the past two decades, Gorbachev has been transformed into a top-tier international celebrity, hobnobbing with the power-elite of Hollywood, Wall Street, and Madison Avenue. I have attended his Gorbachev Foundation State of the World confabs and observed up close his relationships with titans of global industry, finance, politics, academe, and philanthropy: George Soros, Maurice Strong, Steven Rockefeller, Kofi Annan, Thabo Mbeki, Bill Gates, Ted Turner, James Baker, George Shultz, George H.W. Bush, et al.
Gorbachev received the Nobel Peace Prize and was Time magazine’s “Man of the Decade” in 1990. But the Liberty Medal? How far will we allow the cult of celebrity to go? Gorbachev a champion of liberty and the Constitution? Let’s consider:
Gorbachev has been a steadfast promoter, defender, and endorser of Vladimir Putin and his increasingly totalitarian policies. Despite Putin’s appointment of veteran KGB-FSB agents to 80 percent of Russia’s top political, economic, and military posts and his brutal shutdown of opposition media, arrests of political opponents, and liquidation of persistent critics, Gorbachev has continued to defend and praise Putin for bringing “stability” to Russia. He has said he is “inspired by” Putin.
Then there is the recent embarrassing revelation out of Poland showing that Gorbachev was party to one of the most notorious acts of state terror in history: the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II. Haven’t heard about that blockbuster? No surprise, since the Gorby adulators in the media have done everything possible to ignore it. In April of this year, author John Koehler published in Poland a book entitled About the Pope: Spies in the Vatican. That’s its English title, but it is only available in Polish, so far. Koehler produced a Kremlin document signed by nine top Politburo members — including Gorbachev. It was a death sentence against Pope John Paul II.
The document adds to the already overwhelming evidence that would-be assassin Mehmet Ali Agca was an agent of Bulgaria’s secret police, who were merely acting on behalf of the Soviet KGB. Should this new evidence not be fully examined before Gorbachev is awarded the prestigious Liberty Medal?
And while we’re at it, should we not also consider a few other inconvenient truths concerning Gorbachev? Such as:
• He was raised to the apex of power in the Soviet Union by his predecessor and bloody-handed mentor, Yuri Andropov, former head of the KGB.
• He presided over the Soviet occupation of, and genocide against, Afghanistan.
• He ordered the murderous assault of Soviet troops on unarmed civilians at Vilnius’ television station, Lithuania’s equivalent of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
• He hid the documents showing Soviet responsibility for the Katyn Woods massacre of 15,000 Polish military officers.
• He supported Ethiopian Communist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam’s torture, genocide, and forced famine.
Gorbachev is the head of Green Cross International and a co-chair of the Earth Charter Commission, both of which are UN-affiliated organizations pushing the United Nations’ radical environmental agenda. That agenda, which includes the Earth Charter, Agenda 21, and the UN treaties on climate change, biodiversity, sustainability, etc., amounts to shackling the planet Earth in the name of saving it.
When the true history of our times is written, Gorbachev will be accorded his proper place in the rogues’ gallery of murderers, tyrants, and villains. And those who have honored him will be rightly scorned as betrayers of liberty.
