Gorbachev Not That Different From His Elders, Reagan Says
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WASHINGTON — President Reagan said today he does not think that the new Soviet leader, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, is fundamentally different from the older men who have governed the Soviet Union.
“I don’t think there is any evidence that he is less dominated by their system, their philosophy, than any of the others,” Reagan said of the 54-year-old Gorbachev, who was named Communist Party chairman Monday, one day after the death of Konstantin U. Chernenko, 73.
Reagan, after an address to the Magazine Publishers Assn., was asked whether he knew if the new Soviet leader was any less ideological or fundamentally different from the leaders of the older generation that preceded him.
“It isn’t true that I don’t trust anyone under 70,” Reagan quipped. “I look forward to dealing with him.”
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