Gorbachev Backs World Government

FULTON, Mo. —  Proclaiming that the nations of the world are at a historic turning point, former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev came to the site of Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech Wednesday to call for creation of a new “global government.”

He said a restructured and greatly strengthened United Nations could shape world events, ensuring a lasting peace.

“Humanity is at a major turning point,” he said. “We live in a watershed era. One epoch has ended and a second is commencing. . . . No one yet knows how concrete it will be.”

Addressing an outdoor gathering at Westminster College, where Churchill spoke 46 years ago, Gorbachev sought to present a new vision the way the British prime minister had defined the essence of the Cold War.

In a speech that both acknowledged Churchill’s greatness and gently criticized what Gorbachev called the limitations of his vision, the former Soviet leader called for a “major international effort” to make irreversible the shift toward global democratization.

And he took a swipe at communism, calling it a destructive “scheme for the development of humanity.” The end of the Cold War was not a victory for the West but “altogether a victory for common sense, reason, democracy and common human values.”

While his speech contained no arresting images on the order of Churchill’s Iron Curtain, the symbolism of his appearance and of the way he took the outdoor stage was lost on no one. Under a brilliant sun and a clear, blue sky, Gorbachev walked in a procession through a 32-foot section of the Berlin Wall that has been fashioned into a sculpture titled “Breakthrough.”

The artist, Edwina Sandys, one of Churchill’s grandchildren, sat on the podium. A statue of the British prime minister stood not far away.

Speaking in Russian in leaden abstractions, Gorbachev spelled out his vision of a new world order in which nations would work together to solve problems.

“The idea that certain states or groups of states could monopolize the international arena is no longer valid,” he said. “What is emerging is a more complex global structure of international relations. An awareness of the need for some kind of global government is gaining ground, one in which all members of the world community would take part.”

A crowd of about 15,000 people had jammed the small campus, waiting for hours to hear Gorbachev’s speech. They chanted “Gorby” when he appeared. Some of them held up signs. One read: “Cold War-- Nyet . Gorby-- Da .”

During a speech that was frequently interrupted by applause, Gorbachev warned of world ecological dangers, the need to avoid new polarization and the possibility that intensified international competition might lead to trade wars and the rebirth of protectionism.

“Events should not be allowed to develop just any which way,” he said. “There must be an adequate response to global changes and challenges. If we are to eliminate force and prevent conflicts from developing into a worldwide conflagration, we must seek means of collective action by the world community.”

Specifically, Gorbachev called for greatly expanding the role of the United Nations beyond that envisioned when it was created. He called for enlarging permanent membership in the Security Council so it would include Germany, Japan, Indonesia, Italy, Canada, Poland, Mexico and Egypt.

“Under certain circumstances,” he said, “it will be desirable to put certain national armed forces at the disposal of the Security Council, making them subordinate to the United Nations military command.”

He also called for rigid controls to stop the dissemination of nuclear and chemical weapons. He proposed a powerful consortium under the auspices of the United Nations to finance the modernization or decommission of risky nuclear power plants. The consortium would also work on the problem of nuclear fuel storage.

Gorbachev called for the end to the export of all conventional weapons by the year 2000 and a world conference next year to deal with food and economic assistance to needy countries.

“All of these problems demand an enhanced level of organization of the international community,” Gorbachev said.

He acknowledged the difficulty of that in an age in which “many countries are morbidly jealous of their sovereignty, and many peoples of their national independence and identity.”

Charles Timberlake, a professor of history at the University of Missouri, said Gorbachev presented a concrete vision of a “new world order” that far surpasses anything that has been offered by President Bush in the two years since he coined the phrase.

But Timberlake and Max J. Okenfuss, a Russian scholar and historian at Washington University in St. Louis, questioned whether Gorbachev has the influence to carry out his vision, now that he is out of power.

Gorbachev said both the West and the Soviet Union made major mistakes in the years after World War II--the Soviet Union in “equating the victory of democracy over fascism with the victory of socialism.” The West, he said, erred by overreacting to the threat from a postwar Soviet Union that was “exhausted and destroyed” and in no mood for war.

Churchill’s speech was widely credited with opening the world’s eyes to the threat of Soviet aggression. And although many called him a warmonger, his Iron Curtain characterization caught the public imagination, influencing U.S. policy and helping to forge the policy of Communist containment.