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I had the opportunity to watch Mikhail Gorbachev speak at George Mason University back in late 2008. I don’t remember the exact topic of his lecture, but there were some grumbles about the war on terror and how the US mishandled the post-Soviet era.

I was particularly fascinated by Gorbachev’s insistence that communism was and is still a sound system. Faithful to the end, the man did not waiver on his ideology.

After watching the HBO miniseries Chernobyl about the Ukraine nuclear plant meltdown in 1986, I find it hard to believe that so many on the American left continue to view Gorbachev with such esteem. I don’t know much about the man outside of superficial articles on him and what I remember as a teen and current events at the time. I suspect that he had decent intentions and, like all political leaders had as much nasty to him as his counterparts.