In the waning days of the Soviet Empire, when the linkages between flagging economic power and the changing state of national security in the Soviet Un- ion were becoming obvious, one story really hit home. It was the story of a gentleman waiting in one of the interminable bread queues in Moscow. Late in the Mikhail Gorbachev era, of course, the lines were getting longer, as the economic chaos in the Soviet Union worsened. Finally the bedraggled Muscovite reached the counter, where the clerk told him, “I’m sorry, we’ve run out of bread.” The poor man exploded. The clerk said, “Now wait a minute, mister. If it weren’t for Gorbachev, you would have been shot for saying something like that.” The Mus- covite went home and lamented to his wife, “Dear, it’s much worse than I thought. They’ve run out of bullets, too.”

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