The Case of Eduoard Shevardnadze

In a totally non-ironic way, I don’t think it’s especially fair to see hypocrisy in calling former Georgian President Eduoard Shevardnadze “one the great men in the history of the world” in 1999 and years later slamming him as the leader of a “corrupt government” in Georgia. Before Shevardnadze became president of Georgia, he was Foreign Minister of the U.S.S.R. under Mikhail Gorbachev. In that role, he played an important part in the peaceful winding down of the Cold War. Because the peaceful winding-down of the Cold War happened we tend to forget what an extraordinary achievement that was. But leaders on both sides acted in a very wise and farsighted way to permit the withdrawal of Soviet forces from central Europe, the re-unification of Germany, and all the rest without a fight.

Shevardnadze really did play a great historical role before going on to lead a government in Georgia that really was corrupt. I keep meaning to write a post on Ulysses Grant, but suffice it to say that I don’t think it’s crazy to see Grant as one of the great men of American history even though his administration also had a corruption problem.