Reagan: A real legacy of peace and prosperity
Paul Crespo (archive)
November 28, 2003
Viacom finally will air the controversial and politicized Ronald Reagan mini-series on cable TV on Sunday. It reportedly portrays President Reagan as a bumbling simpleton. But while Hollywood may not get it, he may be America's most successful and popular president since FDR. While Bill Clinton claimed he produced "peace and prosperity, much of that was built on the incredible legacy inherited from Reagan.
Though the left still derides Reagan as a adle-brained former actor, mainstream America sees him as a visionary leader who inspired the country and transformed the world. When Reagan left office in 1988, he had an unprecedented 70 percent approval rating, and his popularity continues.
Years of attacks on Reagan have more recently been rebuffed by a slew of positive press. Articles and books such as Reagan: A Life in Letters and In Reagan's Hand show a complex man and visionary thinker.
In Ronald Reagan: How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader, Dinesh DSouza argues that Reagan should be remembered ''as the man who won the Cold War, revived the American spirit, and made the world safe for capitalism and democracy.'' Other scholars agree. In Reagan's War and Victory, Peter Schweizer describes Reagans lifelong, relentless and ultimately victorious anti-communist crusade.
When Reagan came to office in 1981, the United States was mired in post-Vietnam decline and Jimmy Carter-induced malaise. Our military was an empty shell. Internationally, the United States appeared impotent and was an object of ridicule rather than respect.
Despite revisionist claims to the contrary, few at the time thought that the Soviet bear was really a paper tiger. Instead, prominent academics and the CIA stated that the Soviet economy was going strong. The Soviets were on the move in Afghanistan, and Soviet generals commanded a 50,000-man Cuban expeditionary army in Africa, propping up communist regimes.
Nicaragua was becoming a Soviet client state, and communist guerrillas were on the verge of taking over El Salvador. The Soviets were also threatening the United States with tens of thousands of nuclear weapons at the United States.
Many experts believed that the ''correlation of forces'' -- the communist term for global momentum -- had shifted in the Soviets favor. Liberal Democrats bent over backward to accommodate the Soviets while many Republicans, even in Reagans Cabinet, cautioned restraint. Reagan dismissed both ideas and instead pushed for victory in the Cold War.
Dramatic gains at home
Declassified National Security Decision Directives 66 and 75 signed by Reagan in 1982 and 1983 outline his secret plan to peacefully defeat the ''Evil Empire.'' This effort included a massive U.S. military buildup, a counter-deployment of U.S. mid-range nuclear missiles to Western Europe, covert support for anti-communists worldwide, and economic and diplomatic warfare with the Soviet Union.
Reagan's idea for a Strategic Defense Initiative to neutralize the Soviet nuclear threat -- derisively dubbed ''Star Wars'' by opponents -- provoked panic among Kremlin leaders. Reagan's radical plan worked. With Mikhail Gorbachevs acquiescence, the Berlin Wall collapsed in 1989, and per Reagans prediction, the Soviet system soon ended up ``on the trash heap of history.''
Reagan also made dramatic gains at home. While critics focus exclusively on his budget deficits, in 1980 our economy was in total disarray as America suffered stagflation -- a unique combination of double-digit inflation and high unemployment.
The ''misery index'' used to measure this plight had jumped from 13 under President Gerald Ford to 20 under President Carter. In a few years, ''Reaganomics'' slashed that index in half to 10. The booming economy and high-tech revolution spurred by Reagan's tax cuts and deregulation expanded GDP nearly a third and created close to 20 million jobs between 1983 and 1989. Reagan critics don't call it Reaganomics anymore.
Reagan gave America hope then, and his influence is still felt today. His amazing historic legacy can only grow with time as conservatives and the GOP gain ground and continue the Reagan Revolution.
Paul Crespo is a public policy consultant and writer in Miami and Washington, DC. A former member of the Miami Herald Editorial Board, he now writes a regular column for The Herald on politics, military affairs and diplomacy. A former Marine Corps officer and military attache', he is also an adjunct professor of politics at the University of Miami.
©2003 Paul Crespo |
