Who Invited This Guy, Anyway?

By Janice Castro

As the Soviet Union slips from superpower status, some folks in the Pentagon must be dying to yell "We won!" GENERAL MERRILL MCPEAK came close. Visiting Moscow recently, the Air Force Chief of Staff addressed several hundred top Soviet air force officers, who were hoping to hear his thoughts on adjusting . to the postnuclear era. Instead, McPeak spent much of his time describing the brilliant performance of the U.S. Air Force in the gulf war before musing, "In war, defeat is a better instructor than victory." O.K., so far. But then he added, "This is probably a Russian saying."

With reporting by Sidney Urquhart