1990

IT WAS JUNE 4, just 9 days before the official destruction of the Berlin Wall began, when the popular Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev, whose glasnost and perestroika policies had ushered in the fall of the USSR, came to Stanford. Security on the Farm was heavy. At the Business School, classes were canceled for the day. Facilitated by GSB professor emeritus George Shultz, Gorbachev’s historic visit and speech in Memorial Auditorium were witnessed by 7,000 lucky Stanford lottery winners. Back then, it was the end of a war—the Cold War. When the international world shook just over a decade ago, it seemed a more promising time.

STANFORD NEWS SERVICE