FAILED COUP ATTEMPT MAKES ALL DIFFERENCE WITH BORIS YELTSIN

What a difference a failed coup makes. Two years ago Boris Yeltsin made his first visit to the United States. Yeltsin had been Communist Party Chief in Moscow, but lost his job when he became too frank in his criticism of the painstakingly slow pace of economic and political reform under the Gorbachev regime.

In early 1989, a few months before his visit to the United States, he had won a landslide election victory as Moscow's representative in the Congress of People's Deputies. As such, he suddenly became a democratic/populist symbol and a huge political annoyance to Mikhail Gorbachev.

In New York, his first stop, he was described by the Times as a "handsome Broderick Crawford." Reporters fired their questions and he gave his crisp, direct answers. "Changes in Soviet politics have only just begun... There will be greater separation between the Communist Party and the Government... There will be greater political decentralization... If Gorbachev's efforts to restructure society collapse, it would be a tragedy, and not only for our country... Gorbachev has only six months to a year to lead his country to progress or face a revolution from below... Gorbachev's economic program is doomed... I'm afraid Gorbachev has missed several chances to get rid of the hard-liners."

When he arrived in Washington the image began to change. No one in the Bush Administration really wanted to see him. He was Gorby's enemy and was not to be encouraged. White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater emphasized "the Administration did not intend to provide Mr. Yeltsin with a platform for dissent... We don't want to do anything to foster internal conflict." Fitzwater added that if Yeltsin were to meet with anyone at the White House, no pictures would be taken. At the last second, quicker than the camera bulb could flash, he was whisked in.

It was then that the Washington Post decided to convert Yeltsin into a buffoon. Yeltsin was sentenced to the entertainment section in a withering portrayal of the type used to deflate the likes of Zsa Zsa Gabor. Headline: "Yeltsin's Smashing Day -- Boris's Boozy Bear Hug for the Capitalists." Then came a lengthy "analysis." "That he could stand up ... seemed a little miraculous ... Jack Daniel's black label in the land of the free? Yes, a quart and a half of it too ... He came swaying and mugging and humping and doom-warning ... He was right out of a W.C. Fields two-reeler ... It was like watching a circus bear negotiate a skateboard. The bear never once fell off, though there were moments when it seemed perilous ... he (Yeltsin) has an elastic face that would have been perfect on a '40s burlesque stage ... at 4:30 a.m. -- when even muggers are in bed -- he was out walking."

Again, as recently as July 30 of this year at the Bush-Gorbachev summit in Moscow, American television journalists went to great pains to compare bumpkin Yeltsin to debonair Gorbachev. Yeltsin, they said was "laughable ... boorish .. a fool ... a camera bug ... had bad manners." They opined that like Gorbachev, Bush couldn't stand Yeltsin. They said, "Brent Scowcroft, the National Security Adviser, always has had doubts about Yeltsin ... Yeltsin's behavior tonight will certainly go into the CIA dossier on Boris Yeltsin."

Wouldn't we all like to see that dossier about the hero who stood on a tank and turned back the thugs? What a difference a failed coup makes.