After the Summit: The Soviet Pretense

Summary -- 

Gorbachev is presenting a new picture of his country to both his own people and the West, and has "abandoned the rhetorical style on which he himself and all his countrymen were reared". But his prospects for re-vitalizing the Soviet economy are poor. American policy-makers and public alike remain trapped by a Cold War image of the USSR.

Robert G. Kaiser is assistant managing editor of The Washington Post and author of Russia, The People and the Power. Copyright © 1986 by Robert G. Kaiser.

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