Reagan’s Victory in the Cold War
Reagan said absolutely nothing about cleansing the nation of sinners, either then or in any of his subsequent speeches over the next eight years. Like my father, Reagan believed that kind of rhetoric more appropriate to the pulpit, not the podium.
Teddy Roosevelt’s most famous syllogism still resonated with Republicans: speak softly but carry a big stick. Reagan didn’t always follow Teddy’s admonition – sometimes he forgot to speak softly – but he believed in carrying a big stick. Yet in spite of his sometimes bellicose rhetoric, only one small war was fought on Reagan’s watch – a police action against the tiny island nation of Granada in 1983 after it had been seized by psychopathic socialists who murdered their rivals in an orgy of violence. That little war was over so quickly most Americans have forgotten it.
Thomas Jefferson, founder of the Democratic Party in 1800, would have found much he agreed with in Reagan’s acceptance speech, especially his foreign policy views. The Jeffersonian view, echoed by Reagan 180 years later, was to steer clear of entangling alliances and let others find their own path to democracy if they could.
Jefferson’s most famous quote is inscribed in the rotunda of his memorial in Washington: “I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against all forms of tyranny over the minds of men.” Communism was one of the worst forms of tyranny over the minds of men in all of human history, and there can be no question that a free-thinker like Jefferson would have sided with Reagan and opposed it vociferously in 1980. In this, both Jefferson’s and Reagan’s views would have aligned perfectly with the views of an overwhelming majority of Americans, and with the foreign policy hawks in the Republican Party.
Reagan married his “prudent” Jeffersonian view of foreign policy to a staunch anti-communism. While Reagan is often regarded as an aggressive cold warrior, this view is wrong. He sought to end Soviet domination of Eastern Europe through a contest of ideas and economic results, not by armed conflict. He built up the U.S. military in order to negotiate from a position of strength with the Soviets. We still employ Reagan’s famous “peace through strength” syllogism. Reagan explicitly echoed John F. Kennedy’s famous phrase: “We must never negotiate out of fear, but we must never fear to negotiate.” Reagan had no desire to attack and destroy the Soviet Union – he knew a crazy idea when he heard one – but he never hesitated to criticize the Soviets, most famously when he called them an “evil empire.”
Yet the most effective thing Reagan ever did to destroy Soviet communism was to go to the Berlin Wall and say “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Less than two and a half years after he spoke these words, the wall was torn down – not by Gorbachev, of course, but by individual Germans acting out their own drama of national reconciliation. It was one of the most joyous moments I have witnessed in my life. So much was symbolized so succinctly.
Reagan’s great triumph in the Cold War was a triumph of ideas, not a triumph of military force. In the final stages of the conflict, Reagan’s expensive military buildup mattered little. His words won the Cold War – along with the obvious contradictions and inefficiencies of the Soviet System, and forty years of steady, bipartisan effort by seven previous American administrations.
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