The Soviet 'new thinking' reforms constitute the implementation of a plan from the mid-1960s when the Soviets recognized a serious problem with their socio-economic and political systems. A marked change from Soviet practices of the Stalin era, this plan required a new type of leader whose personality could sell the 'new thinking' changes to the West. Mikhail S. Gorbachev, their carefully trained and groomed salesman, became the 'front man' for this radical program, glasnost'. The expected results are a stronger Soviet Union from which the Soviets can consolidate their world position and propagate international, Marxist-Leninist socialism, and a one-world society in which there is no opposition to their system.