PAST WEEK WAS ONE OF MOST MOMENTOUS OF 20TH CENTURY

A big, hearty Welcome back! to all the incoming students at Southeast Missouri State University, where classes start this week. Students, you have ahead of you another great learning opportunity at a fine university. Make the most of it, and there'll be a big, fascinating world out there when you graduate. Prepare yourself, and you'll be able to make an important contribution, and reap the rewards as they flow your way.

Among those happiest to see the students returning are our community's merchants and restaurant owners. They know that this annual event means cash registers ringing more often.

One major way to show your support for the University is to come out to Houck Field this Saturday for the Southeast Indians' home opener against SIU. Coach John Mumford, his hardworking staff and players deserve a big crowd to cheer them on as they begin their Division I-AA football season.

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This week's events in what used to be called the Soviet Union underscore the fact yet again: What amazing times we live in! A failed coup yields not only the arrest of the plotters (plus one suicide) within hours, but also the return of a severely diminished President Mikhail Gorbachev. Then, an amazing day Saturday saw the dissolution of the Politburo; Gorbachev's resignation from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union; his recommendation that that malign political force dissolve itself altogether, plus his statement that local parties across the vast country could "decide for themselves" whether to continue to exist; the banishment of party forces from the Red Army and the hated KGB, the dreaded secret police; and the elevation of Russian Republic President Boris Yeltsin to the preeminent power in the country.

The United States stretches across four time zones, and we rightly think of it as a large country. The country we have called "the Soviet Union" stretches across 11 time zones; it has rightly been called "the prison house of nations" and is so vast we can hardly comprehend it.

The still unfolding events of the last week are truly awe-inpiring, and mark it as one of the most momentous of the 20th century. The Wall Street Journal observed Friday that it's probably the most significant week in world history since 1945.

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Let the record show that among the three world leaders applauding the Soviet coup was Cuba's Fidel Castro, whose descent into history's dustbin should track that of the Soviet coup-plotters. (The others were the fine fellows in Baghdad, and Libya's Khadafy). Too bad JFK didn't finish that little Castro project the way the CIA had it planned back in '61, at the Bay of Pigs.

Three decades of slavery, boat people, lies, shortages and concentration camps are quite enough. Not to mention the shameful adoration of the Cuban Communist slavemaster by a liberal American news media that has always been his biggest asset.

Let's hope that former Ambassador, now columnist Jean Kirkpatrick and other seasoned observers are correct in forecasting Castro's demise before another year is out.

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When the history of Communism in the 20th Century is written, a chapter worth paying special attention to will focus on the countless American and western apologists for the bloodiest, grisliest tyranny the world has ever known.

In his column alongside here, Pat Buchanan mentions a few who occupy special places on the roll of dishonor. Lillian Hellman was perhaps the finest American woman playwright ever; she was also an unrepentant Stalinist who relentlessly defended history's most bloodthirsty tyrant and never deviated from his party line. Buchanan also mentions Walter Duranty of the New York Times, who deserves special mention in the Hall of Shame. Duranty was the Moscow correspondent for the paper of record for most of the '30s. Duranty knew of, and intentionally covered up, Stalin's planned famine in the Ukraine, which liquidated the independent farmers of that region and killed 12-14 million people in three years. Recently, media observers have called on the Times to repudiate the Pulitzer Prize Duranty won, but those cries have fallen on deaf ears at the paper famous for "All the news that's fit to print."

Then there are the salon liberals who have always admired the "Soviet experiment", or the Communist Chinese, or Castro, or the (insert your favorite, trendy leftist revolutionary here). Prominent among these are the intellectuals in our universities, who look to such as John Kenneth Galbraith for "wisdom."

The Soviets have made great material progress in recent years. The Soviet economy succeeds because they make great use of their people and resources.

Professor John Kenneth Galbraith of Harvard, for decades America's leading socialist/left/liberal economist and author, writing in 1984.

The old faith dies hard. Very hard.

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Did you hear that long-time Soviet mouthpiece Vladimir Pozner plans to team up with talk-show host Phil Donahue to produce a new TV program? Funny guy, that Pozner: He doesn't mind how far left he goes for a talk-show partner.