P.S. to The

IN 1946, OUT OF OFFICE BUT STILL CASTING A LONG shadow, Winston Churchill came to Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., and declared that “an iron curtain” had descended across Europe. Last week another idle leader sketched a different vision: Mikhail Gorbachev came to Fulton and called for a world that is “democratic for the whole of humanity.” The collapse of totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe has released “exaggerated nationalism,” old territorial claims and bloodshed, he said. “It would be a supreme tragedy if the world, having overcome the 1946 model, were to find itself once again in a 1914 model.”

As for the cold war, Gorbachev said, both Soviet and Western leaders made mistakes. Moscow wrongly expected communist ideology to triumph after World War II, and the West erred by exaggerating the Soviet threat and “unleashing a monstrous arms race.”

Five years after his speech, Churchill became Prime Minister again; Gorbachev too may dream of political resurrection. He was in the midst of a 13-day speaking tour of the U.S., trying to raise $3 million for his new think tank in Moscow. At an earlier stop last week, Ronald Reagan was host at a luncheon near Los Angeles in Gorbachev’s honor. Ticket price: $5,000.