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MIKHAEL GORBACHEV: The Greatest Peacemaker Ever?

96-year old Queen Elizabeth II is dead, long live 73-year old King Charles III.  She reigned for 70 years. An accession council of over 700 citizens, including Prime Minister Lizz Truss, voted to proclaim him king.  Did you see Charles shaking hands and getting kissed by some lady?  No one was wearing a mask.  The actual coronation will not take place for months.  Queen Elizabeth II was so honored 16 months after King George VI went.  

Longest reigning monarch today is now Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei.  He is 76-years old and is soon to reach 55 years in his leadership.  How many of you have been to Brunei?  

It is located on the north coast of Borneo in Southeast Asia.  Has a population of just under half a million.  Gained independence from Britain in 1984.  Has vast oil and gas fields, and is next to Singapore in the Human Development Index.  Government has zero public debt.


Whether at the national or international level, I long wondered who was the greatest diplomat to engender world-wide peace?  There are lists:

  • The World Atlas gets closer to what I seek:
    • #5  Dalai Lama
    • #4  Martin Luther King Jr.
    • #3  Mahatma Gandhi
    • #2  Jain Tirthankara Rishabhanatha, who was involved with Jainism in India.
    • #1  Gautama Budhha, who founded Buddhism.
  • Here is one list of eminent leaders:

  1. Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
  2. Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)
  3. Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
  4. Martin Luther King Jr (1929-1968)
  5. Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
  1. Mother Teresa (1910-1997)
  2. Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)
  3. Dalai Lama (1935-present)
  1. George Washington (1732- 1799)
  2. Julias Caesar (100B.C.-44B.C.)
  3. Franklin D Roosevelt (1882 – 1945)
  4. Asoka (304 BC – 232 BC)
  5. Alexander, The Great (356 BC – 323 BC)
  6. Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1780 – 1839)
  7. Bill Gates (1955 – Present)
  8. List of Most Popular Leaders in the World 2022
But if you look closely at the above individuals, they were mostly influential within their own country.  
  • Winston Churchill was the World War II hero, and he was crucial in preventing Hitler from dominating the world.  He deserves some notice, but the end of Mankind was never at stake.
  • Mother Theresa was a humanitarian and advocate for the poor and helpless, and won a Nobel Prize.  But she did nothing monumental for world peace.
  • The Dalai Lama also won a Nobel Prize, but he has mostly been a thorn in the side of China.
  • Like some of the religious leaders above, you can certainly add Jesus Christ, for he did inspire the formation of largest religion, Christianity.
  • Here are 1,493 notable peacemakers throughout history to provide some background.
I would like to make a case for Mikhail Gorbachev, who just passed away at the age of 91.  Vladimir Putin offered his deepest condolences, but did not go to the funeral.  Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev did pay his respects.  On the one hand, Gorbachev today is mostly considered to be a failure in his own country.  On the other for the world, he is a savior.  
  • Gorbachev rose to power in the Soviet Union only in 1985.
  • Won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize.
  • Played the key role in ending the Cold War.  Watch this video.
Why was that so monumental?
  • The Cold War began on 12March1947 and ended on 26December1991.
  • This was a war that could not happen, for the result would have been nuclear holocaust and perhaps the end of human life.  
  • Here are 30 films that touched on this subject.
  • The Day After (this is the full movie) was a 1983 TV film starring Jason Robards about a bad case scenario, that was in four years later shown in the Soviet Union.  Rotten Tomatoes reviewers gave it an 83 rating.
  • Early on, all those Atomic Bomb and Hydrogen Bomb tests provided glaring warnings.  Here is a once secret video of the 1961 Tsar Bomba Hydrogen Bomb, 3300 times more powerful than than the Atomic Bomb over Hiroshima.  They scared the bejesus out of everyone, with the termination of society only a step away...just a push of a button, maybe even accidentally.
  • How close did we get?  
    • The most serious was the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
    • But an India-Pakistan war could escalate into a nuclear holocaust.
    • President Richard Nixon's depression was a worry to some.
  • Surely you've heard of the 1983 Petrov incident?  Three weeks after the Soviet military shot down Korean Air Lines 007, the Oko nuclear early-warning system reported that a missile had been launched from the U.S., then five more.  Lt. Col. Stanislaw Petrov, in command at Oko, judged the reports to be a false alarm.  He disobeyed orders, against Soviet military protocol, and refused to retaliate.  Turns out that the Soviet satellite warning system had malfunctioned.  He was subsequently reprimanded, shifted assignments, took early retirement and suffered a nervous breakdown.  He saved the world.  
  • Again I found a full film.  Watch a 1hr45min documentary on The Man Who Saved the World.  This is a Danish production released in 2013.  Premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival in 2014 and won an award.  Finally shown in Russia four years later.
  • Someone had to recognize all that and orchestrate a solution.
  • Remember glasnost and perestroika?
  • Mikhail Gorbachev was the right person at the right time with the right position.
  • Ronald Reagan was important, for all this happened on his watch.
  • But the greatest peacemaker ever has to be Gorbachev.
When you get old.
In the Atlantic, Hurricane Earl is at 90 MPH, but moving away from North America.  Kay in the East Pacific has become a tropical storm, went west away from Baha, then is now moving south.  However, Typhoon Muifa in the Orient is now up to 100 MPH, will miss Taiwan, affect a few Okinawa islands and head in the general direction of Shanghai.
While the top graphic shows Muifa weakening because Typhoon Hinnamnor last week caused some upwelling and cooling of the surface ocean waters, there remains a chance that this storm could increase to a Category 3.  Instead of moving between South Korea and Japan, the current projected path is west of South Korea.

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