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DEAR EDITOR:
It was hard to imagine a more charismatic world leader than President Ronald Reagan. Then, in December 1988, former Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev ordered his limousine to stop on Broadway in Manhattan, got out and shook hands with excited New Yorkers.
Embracing American concepts like openness (Glasnost) endeared grassroots Americans to Gorbachev, though U.S. government officials remained wary.
In the fading Soviet Union, Gorbachev flourished by tapping into a pent-up demand for change not achieved by his predecessors. Sounds like candidate Donald Trump in 2016.
It's not a perfect analogy, of course. Gorbachev was a communist, Trump identifies as an American Republican; Gorbachev grew up as a farm boy; Trump was born into wealth; Gorbachev was a deft, even charming politician at times; Trump was, well, Trump.
Soviet citizens eventually demanded freedom faster than Gorbachev could deliver, and his campaign was no longer cutting edge. Trump, who was late to the "get vaccinated" party, heard boos from disaffected supporters who, like Trump, thought the virus would go away in warm weather.
History has been unkind to Mikhail Gorbachev since he resigned from office in 1991. His standing in today's Russia is, at best, mixed.
It's too early to know how America will view Donald Trump in 30 years. Both leaders rose to prominence thinking that his homeland was in disarray, and each man started something he couldn't finish.
Russia seems to miss Mikhail Gorbachev these days. America should too.
JIM NEWTON
Itasca, Ill.