anti-Fulton declaration
반(反)풀턴 선언
Mikhail Gorbachev's characterization of his upcoming UN General Assembly speech, formulated at a meeting with foreign policy advisers on October 31, 1988. Conscious that Winston Churchill had rhetorically inaugurated the Cold War with his 'Iron Curtain' speech at Fulton, Missouri on March 5, 1946, Gorbachev conceived his December 7, 1988 UN address as 'Fulton in reverse': a deliberate, symmetrical repudiation. The speech announced a unilateral cut of 500,000 Soviet troops, endorsed 'freedom of choice' as a universal principle, and placed the 'common interests of mankind' at the center of Soviet foreign policy, marking the decisive turn toward ending the Cold War.
In depth
Origin
On October 31, 1988, Gorbachev met with his core foreign policy advisers (Eduard Shevardnadze, Alexander Yakovlev, Anatoly Dobrynin, Valentin Falin, and Anatoly Chernyaev) to discuss the draft of his upcoming UN General Assembly speech. Gorbachev told them (Gorbachev Foundation Archive, Fond 2, Opis 1):
"In general, this speech should be anti-Fulton, a Fulton in reverse. And we can already lean on some of our experience with work we have done according to the new thinking; we can show movement in the right direction. But they will believe us only when they see that we are making clearly evident, real steps."
The phrase "anti-Fulton" directly targeted Winston Churchill's speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, on March 5, 1946, in which Churchill declared that "an iron curtain has descended across the Continent" from Stettin to Trieste. That speech is widely regarded as the rhetorical inauguration of the Cold War. Gorbachev intended, exactly 42 years later, to declare its end from the same world stage.
The UN Speech (December 7, 1988)
Gorbachev's address to the 43rd UN General Assembly realized the "anti-Fulton" conception. Its key elements:
- Announcement of a unilateral cut of 500,000 Soviet troops, including forces stationed in Eastern Europe, 10,000 tanks, and over 800 aircraft
- Endorsement of "freedom of choice" as "a universal principle to which there should be no exceptions"
- Placement of the "common interests of mankind" at the foundation of Soviet foreign policy
- Renunciation of reliance on force and the threat of force
Reception
U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan called the speech "the most astounding statement of surrender in the history of ideological struggle." Retired General Andrew Goodpaster, former NATO commander, described the unilateral troop cuts as "the most significant step since NATO was founded." The Gorbachev Foundation later enshrined the speech as the watershed moment marking the end of the Cold War, placing it at the center of the historical narrative arc from Fulton to Malta.
References
- Gorbachev Foundation Archive, Fond 2, Opis 1: Gorbachev's Conference with Advisers on Drafting the U.N. Speech, October 31, 1988 (translated by Svetlana Savranskaya)
- National Security Archive Briefing Book No. 641, "Reagan, Gorbachev and Bush at Governors Island" (December 7, 2018)
- The Gorbachev Foundation, From Fulton to Malta: How the Cold War Began and Ended (Moscow, 2008)
- American Rhetoric, Mikhail Gorbachev: Address to the 43rd UN General Assembly, December 7, 1988
Related people
Sources
- books.openedition.org Gorbachev Foundation Archive, Fond 2, Opis 1: notes of October 31, 1988 meeting where Gorbachev says 'this speech should be anti-Fulton, a Fulton in reverse' (translated by Svetlana Savranskaya)
- nsarchive.gwu.edu National Security Archive briefing: 'Gorbachev conceptualized this speech as an anti-Fulton, Fulton in reverse'
- americanrhetoric.com Full transcript of Gorbachev's December 7, 1988 UN General Assembly address
- gorby.ru The Gorbachev Foundation volume From Fulton to Malta (2008) framing the Cold War as bookended by Churchill's Fulton speech and Gorbachev's UN address
- Wikipedia (EN) Churchill's March 5, 1946 Fulton speech as the rhetorical inauguration of the Cold War