350 THE END OF THE COLD WAR
appreciation of recent changes in the international situation; he under-
stood that world politics were changing irreversibly and worked in a
cooperative fashion with Gorbachëv and Zaikov.^74
Not that Gorbachëv could feel comfortable. Mikhail Moiseev,
Akhromeev’s successor as Chief of the General Staff, was quickly
under pressure from the rest of the military leadership to oppose
further proposals for reform.^75 Morale was dropping in the high com-
mand. General staff personnel said that whereas once they had
pursued a strategy of overwhelming destruction, now they had one of
capitulation.^76 The high command thought Gorbachëv ‘incompetent
and perfunctory’ on military questions in comparison with previous
general secretaries: ‘We had one exercise in Minsk when he arrived,
gave a prepared speech, without seeing the exercise itself and left.’^77 He
declined to inspect armaments factories or talk to inventors and
engin eers as Brezhnev had done.^78 He liked to keep his distance from
military commanders. According to naval chief Vladimir Chernavin,
he lacked any feeling for their importance for the country.^79 The fight
for political supremacy was only just beginning in the USSR. Reagan
had won the struggle against his grumblers. It remained to be seen
whether Gorbachëv’s leadership was equally secure.