A prophecy fulfilled
By Joseph Shattan
In June 8, 1982, in his address to the British Parliament,
President Reagan offered a then-startling prediction:
Either the Soviet ruling class would change its political structure
by allowing its people greater freedom or it would face certain
defeat.
"It has happened in the past," Mr. Reagan said. "A small
ruling elite either mistakenly attempts to ease domestic unrest
through greater repression and foreign adventure or it chooses
a wiser course." If the Soviet elite chose the wiser course of
domestic reform, "prospects for arms control and a world at
peace" would improve significantly. But if it tried to defend the
status quo, "the march of freedom and democracy . . . will
leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history as it has left
other tyrannies which stifle the freedom and muzzle the
self-expression of the people."
At the time, many observers dismissed the president's
remarks as empty rhetoric. Yet his words were not merely
prophecy; they were also policy. The key foreign policy
document of the Reagan era, National Security Decision
Directive 75, echoed the speech. Policy toward the Soviet
Union, it declared, was "to promote . . . the process of change
in the Soviet Union toward a more pluralistic political and
economic system in which the power of the privileged ruling
elite is gradually reduced."
Though NSDD 75 was not formally issued until six months
after the London speech, Mr. Reagan had effectively leaked his
top-secret Soviet strategy -- designed to force Soviet leaders
to choose between ruin and reform -- to the entire world. Not
surprisingly, perhaps, hardly anyone was paying attention. After
all, he was only an old B-movie actor, and a hopeless
right-winger to boot. How could anyone take such a person
seriously?
But while liberals frequently disparaged Mr. Reagan's
intellect, the fact was that he subscribed wholeheartedly to one
major truth that many of his intellectually sophisticated critics
either never knew or had forgotten: Societies that encourage
freedom and creativity tend to flourish, while societies that
suppress liberty tend to stagnate. This was the central truth
around which Ronald Reagan fashioned his political career.
This was the crucial insight that he articulated with passion and
eloquence and pursued with iron resolve. And this was the
basis of his Soviet strategy.
Underlying Mr. Reagan's approach to the Soviet Union was
his profound (his critics would say "childlike" or "simplistic")
faith in freedom. Mr. Reagan simply knew that there was no
way a closed society like the Soviet Union could prevail against
an open society like the United States once the open society
made up its mind to win. And Mr. Reagan, years before he
became president, decided that the United States would win
the Cold War. It was because of this implacable desire to win,
no matter what, that Mr. Reagan's presidency merits the
adjective "Churchillian."
Also Churchillian was Mr. Reagan's determination to seize
the offensive. The military buildup, the support of
anti-communist movements worldwide (better known as the
"Reagan Doctrine"), the Strategic Defense Initiative, the covert
assistance to the Polish trade union Solidarity, the economic
sanctions against Moscow -- all were meant to force an
already shaky Soviet system to embark on a course of radical
reform. These reforms (perestroika, glasnost) soon acquired a
momentum of their own, and eventually brought down the
Soviet Union.
Mr. Reagan's approach to foreign policy was
unprecedented. The traditional U.S. strategy was to seek to
contain Soviet power and hope that, at some unspecified point
in the future, containment would convince the communist ruling
class to abandon its expansionist course. By contrast, Mr.
Reagan sought not merely to contain the Soviets but to
overwhelm them with demonstrations of U.S. power and
resolve that left them with no alternative but to accept the
choice he offered them: Change or face defeat.
His success proved that great leadership does not depend
on intellectual or historical sophistication. What is needed,
above all, is the right set of convictions and the courage to
stand by them. Mr. Reagan's beliefs about freedom and
tyranny were uniquely rooted in the American experience, and
his courage reflected the quiet self-confidence of the American
heartland. His was truly a U.S. presidency that changed the
world.
This essay by Joseph Shattan, a former White House
speech writer and Heritage Foundation Bradley fellow, is
adapted from his book "Architects of Victory: Six
Heroes of the Cold War" (Heritage Foundation, 1999). |
