The Withering Away Of The Totalitarian State . . . And Other Surprises
Reviewed by Lucy Despard
For those who wish to read or reread Ambassador Kirkpatrick's columns written between 1985 and the present, here is an easy way to do it. Grouped under headings such as the perestroika revolution, the breakup of the last colonial empire, security and arms control, and U.S. relations with its allies, they are accompanied by brief comments by the author placing them in context, and followed by a concluding chapter of reflections. For this conservative thinker, the changes brought about by Gorbachev are not just cosmetic and tactical but a real revolution, the end of the Leninist-Stalinist system.
