Our 25th
April 16, 2008
When the Journal's European edition was launched a quarter of a century ago, KGB man Andropov ruled the U.S.S.R. and a shipyard electrician named Walesa lived in a Poland under martial law. A single currency, much less a unified and free Europe, existed in the realm of fantasy. An American President inspired those captive nations with his condemnation of an "Evil Empire" and upset the bien-pensant Continentals who saw Soviet Communism as morally equivalent if not superior to the West.
Starting with the first WSJE on January 31, 1983, the Journal's editorial page brought a firm and not always fashionable position to these and future battles. "We are for the individual and stand against infringements on freedom," said the inaugural editorial. We'd like to think we've not wavered from this declaration of purpose since.
The Journal's century-old philosophy of "free markets and free people" guided us through turbulent times in Europe. We believed the Soviet empire should and would collapse and democracy spread eastward, along with the American security umbrella through a vital NATO. We believed in a wider European Union of borders open to people, goods and services. We believed that lower taxes and competitive capitalism could make everyone – the former Soviet satellites, Ireland and Spain – more prosperous. We believed in a single currency. We believed that, in the post-9/11 era, a trans-Atlantic Alliance committed to the defense of free society was as critical to meeting the challenge from this century's totalitarians as it was in the last century.
You'll find these ideas in action over the past 25 years here. Our columns were, at times, ahead of the competition in predicting and covering momentous events (such as the Soviet collapse), advocating historic changes (Nobel laureate Robert Mundell early on made the case for the euro) or outright making history (the 2003 "Letter of Eight" from European leaders on Iraq).
Time moves on and new challenges emerge. Yet the core principles of the page you are reading today have not changed.
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