Sharing My Story

Reagan was not just interested in fixing the
economy he was also commited to defeating
and dismantling the Soviet communist system.
Peter Schweitzer’s remarkable book “Reagan’s War”
documents how this Hollywood actor turned President
believed that the Soviet Union could not just be
contained—a policy all the former Presidents had
pursued but could actually be destroyed without World War.

Reagan’s speeches announcing how he looked forward
to the day that would “leave Marxism-Leninism on the
ash heap of history.” These were great words of
encouragement to conservatives like myself.
His speech calling the Soviet Union an “evil empire”
sent liberals in the media, academia and elsewhere
into fits of pious rage.

However, as William F. Buckley, Jr. (I believe) rightly
observed at the time a nation that has ruthlessly
conquered numerous countries, refined totalitarianism
and murdered millions of its own citizens could perfectly
be called an “evil empire.” If the the Soviet Union did
not fit that description than what nation would?

Schweitzer in his book details Reagan’s strategy to
dismantle the Soviet Union. By the time of Reagan’s
1987 speech in Berlin calling on “Mr. Gorbachev,
Tear Down This Wall” the disintegration of the
Soviet Union was rapidly progressing. This has to be
Reagan’s greatest legacy, helping to rid the world of
this colossal affront to God and the human spirit.
He provided the stimulus to lay the bloody and
horrendous legacy of Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev
and Brezhnev to rest. When so many “experts”
in this country thought Soviet communism was
an inevitable and a permanent part of the
international landscape Reagan defied
conventional wisdom.