Your favourite flawed end-of-cold-war hero?

[Ed Anger]

I like the polack with the dark glasses. The one who should have shot Lech.

His future was so bright that he had to wear shades?

I can't spell those names they got. LOL Dawid.

[derspiess]

I like the polack with the dark glasses. The one who should have shot Lech.

His future was so bright that he had to wear shades?

I can't spell those names they got. LOL Dawid.

I'm sure it ended with -ski.

[fhdz]

Hot pants.

Jesus Christ.

[fhdz]

I didn't vote for JPII because I can't really see how he is "flawed" so I didn't see him as an appropriate choice for the poll.

I voted for Gorby, because a) he is cool, and b) he's flawed what with that giant birthmark on his head.

For Marti, "flawed" means "was not a champion of gay rights".

No, it means "feted serial child molesters and protected them from criminal prosecution". Also, "gagged theologians" and "spearheaded a mis-information campaign on condom use in Africa, which indirectly led to death of millions."

...none of which you'd care about in the least if he had been a huge supporter of gay rights.

[derspiess]

Hot pants.

Jesus Christ.

[DGuller]

Gorby is overrated.

He's definitely a rather unpleasant fellow, and much more of an unrepentant authoritarian communist than you would think.

[Sheilbh]

...none of which you'd care about in the least if he had been a huge supporter of gay rights.

I mean for a start, what's the point of a Magisterium if they can't gag theologians?

I would point out Benny had a much better record on all of that as Pope and as Ratzinger (with the exception of gagging theologians, but that was his job ). But I don't think it made Marty like him more.

[Ed Anger]

Plus he has that splotch on his head.

[Sheilbh]

I admire Gorby, but he seems to me a bit like a Khruschev they didn't overthrow quick enough. It's far less admirable than most of the others on the poll.

[Razgovory]

Gorby is overrated.

He's definitely a rather unpleasant fellow, and much more of an unrepentant authoritarian communist than you would think.

Well, he is a Russian.  I see him as an inept reformer, like a guy who tries to replace all the supporting beams of his house at once.

[Admiral Yi]

The only one on the list I see as truly flawed is Cwptyn Solidarnosc.  Of unflawed Cold War heroes I throw another vote at Havel.

[DGuller]

Gorby is overrated.

He's definitely a rather unpleasant fellow, and much more of an unrepentant authoritarian communist than you would think.

Well, he is a Russian.  I see him as an inept reformer, like a guy who tries to replace all the supporting beams of his house at once.

He's a failed communist, not a successful democrat.

[CountDeMoney]

I see him as an inept reformer, like a guy who tries to replace all the supporting beams of his house at once.

Out of all the ones listed in the poll, he was the one that was swimming upstream the most.  Worked with what he had, within the environment he was given.

[fhdz]

Gorby is overrated.

He's definitely a rather unpleasant fellow, and much more of an unrepentant authoritarian communist than you would think.

Well, he is a Russian.  I see him as an inept reformer, like a guy who tries to replace all the supporting beams of his house at once.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T_XXh1WaG0

[derspiess]

He's a failed communist, not a successful democrat.

That was always my impression.  Which is why it bothered me when people here got all mushy on him in the 80s.

The Naked Gun movie intro confirmed my fears