Political Quotes

“Well, I think it would mean uncertainty inside the Soviet Union. And there's a lot of question as to something--if Mr. Gorbachev stepped down, which way the Soviet Union would go. I like to feel that the changes manifested by the lightening up in Eastern Europe and by much more openness, glasnost, inside is irreversible. I like to believe that. But that is an internal matter of the Soviet Union. I have elected to stay in close touch with Mr. Gorbachev. He is the man there right now. We meet with opposition leaders from time to time at various levels, including mine with the Baltic leaders. We have differences with them in terms of, well, treatment of the Republics, for example, right now. But what happened last week I think in a sense was quite reassuring because there were some widespread speculation that Mr. Gorbachev was in trouble, even with the party. And I think that showed that that was not the case. But, again, there's a lot of turmoil there. And there's a lot of economic difficulty in the Soviet Union today. And we don't take joy in that at all. We don't take joy in their problems. They've moved considerably since--on a lot of things. And, again, going back to the war, the answer I gave you on China is very valid in terms of the Soviet Union. They approved every resolution. They stayed with us, even when Gorbachev--you remember just before the ground war started--was talking about, well, please hold off. But I didn't take that as a disapproval of what we were trying to do. Indeed, when we said, okay, it's Saturday, Mr. Saddam Hussein, or you've got problems--the Soviets, having tried their approach, were supportive. And so again, we want to keep good relations, but they have enormous--just enormous--problems, and we take no joy in that at all. I'd like to find ways to be helpful. But when it comes to these credits, we cannot--we are bound by our laws. And I think that protects the American taxpayers--that there has to be a certain creditworthiness. So, it's a tough one right now for them, but let's hope that this democratic process will keep going and keep evolving until we have just pluperfectly good relations with them. I mean, we've got good relations, but they've got such enormous problems that their full potential is unrealized. You talk about energy--somebody asked me the energy question--the potential is enormous. But they've got to move forward with more than rhetoric. They've got to go with these market reforms. Free and Fair Trade”