At the July 1991 meeting of the so-called G7, President George H. W. Bush of the United States and leaders of the other industrial nations were joined by Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, of what was then still the Soviet Union, for his last hurrah. He was seeking direct foreign aid to shore up his rapidly failing economy and ease the transition to a market economy. He asked for billions; he got only some millions. Here, in this essay by award-winning author Charles L. Mee Jr., is the dramatic story of Gorbachev's disappointed - and some would argue tragic - confrontation with the West.