let's see---- President Reagan was producing results, while mandela sat in jail.
. D'souza, in his book 'Ronald Reagan' puts it this way:
"When RR was elected, capitalism and democracy were on the retreat in much of the world, and the Soviet model appeared to be in the vanguard of history. Khrushchev's boast that the Soviets would bury the West seemed a real possibility. Most of the Third World seemed to be opting for some form of socialism or Marxism. In Latin America, the US's own backyard, guerrilla revolutions fueled by popular discontent against the old dictatorships apparently presaged a socialist future for the region. For the first time, in the 1970s, the Soviet nuclear arsenal surpassed that of the USA. The Soviets deployed hundreds of long range SS-18 missiles, each carrying multiple warheads targeted at the USA, as well as a new generation of intermediate-range missiles, the SS-20s, targeted at Western Europe. Between 1974 and 1980, while the USA wallowed in post Vietnam angst, nine countries fell into the Soviet orbit- South Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, South Yemen, Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Granada, and Nicaragua- topped off in 1979 by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
During the Reagan administration, all this changed. NO more nations fell into the clutches of the Soviet bear. Capitalism and democracy began to advance around the world. On Reagan's watch, dictatorships collapsed in Chile, Haiti, and Panama, and nine more countries moved towards democracy: Bolivia(1982), Honduras(1982), Argentina(1983), Grenada (1983), ElSavador (1984), Uruguay (1984), Brazil (1985), Guatemala (1985) and the Philipines (1986). Fewer that 1/3 of the countries in Latin America were democratic in 1981; more than 90% of the region was democratic by 1989. In Nicaragua, shortly after Reagan's second term ended, free elections were held, and the Sandanista government was ousted form power. Apartheid ended in south Africa, and a black majority government was elected.
In addition, as part of the INF Treaty of 1987, the Soviet Union agreed to dismantle and destroy it's SS-20 missiles. A year later Moscow agreed to pull it's troops from Afghanistan. The revolution soon penetrated into the Soviet bloc. Poland held free elections, and Lech Walesa became president. Suddenly all of Eastern and Central Europe was free, and the Berlin Wall came down.
In 1991, the Soviet Union abolished itself. "
IMO, that is a GREAT legacy for President Reagan.
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm |
