LB, I did find this that mentions the time frame of that, plus Teddy Kennedy at the time...Also found Dan the Republican who has changed blogs now...but will just let that one stay for now.
Paul Kengor noted:
In his book, which came out this week, Kengor focuses on a KGB letter written at the height of the Cold War that shows that Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) offered to assist Soviet leaders in formulating a public relations strategy to counter President Reagan's foreign policy and to complicate his re-election efforts.
The letter, dated May 14, 1983, was sent from the head of the KGB to Yuri Andropov, who was then General Secretary of the Soviet Union's Communist Party.
IN NINE YEARS, THE SOVIET EMPIRE FELL
nae.net
Reagan’s Evil Empire Speech started got it started, and the tide turned in 1987 with Gorbachev.
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The Soviet Union did not collapse the day after President Reagan's Evil Empire Speech, but it crumbled much sooner than any serious expert on world affairs could have predicted in 1983.
On March 8, 1983, Reagan spoke of the Communist superpower as "an evil empire," part of "another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages even now are being written." At first, it was hard to imagine the chapter's end.
The same day Reagan was speaking in Orlando, Fla., Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass, told a "nuclear freeze" rally in Washington: "I wish that we had an administration that was more concerned with preventing nuclear war and less concerned in preparing for nuclear war."
The next day, New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis described Reagan's Evil Empire Speech as "primitive" and "dangerous."
"What must Soviet leaders think?" Lewis asked. "However one detests their system, the world's survival depends ultimately on mutual restraint."
In Moscow, the Soviet press agency Tass said the "evil empire" words showed the American president "can think only in terms of confrontation and bellicose, lunatic anti-Communism."
The nuclear freeze movement, which the president had hoped to head off with his speech, remained popular throughout 1983. On May 3, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops approved a pastoral letter for the nuclear freeze and against setting up intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Western Europe to counter the Soviets' SS-20s.
Then, on Nov. 20, ABC televised "The Day After." The movie, about the aftermath of a nuclear attack on Kansas City, Mo., stirred emotions of the estimated 100 million Americans who watched. Two days later, against loud protests, the West German Bundestag voted 286-226 to allow deployment of U.S. Pershing II and cruise missiles. The Soviets broke off arms control negotiations in Geneva a day later. By Dec. 30, the first missiles were operational in West Germany.
The debate became more impassioned in 1984, a presidential election year. On July 17, at the Democratic National Convention, House Speaker Thomas "Tip" O'Neill, D-Mass., said, "The evil is in the White House at the present time. And that evil is a man who has no care and no concern for the working class of America and the future generations of America."
Reagan, re-elected by a landslide, started his second term in January 1985. On March 11, Mikhail Gorbachev assumed the leadership of the Soviet Union. He replaced Yuri Andropov and Constantin Chernenko, who died in rapid succession. In 1986, arms negotiations were renewed, but faltered in October.
The tide turned in 1987. Gorbachev declared his policies of glastnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in the Soviet Union. On June 12, Reagan went to the Berlin Wall and declared, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."
Arms talks continued, and on Dec. 8, Reagan and Gorbachev met in Washington to sign a treaty eliminating all intermediate- and shorter-range nuclear missiles in Europe. It was the first treaty ever to reduce nuclear arsenals.
Reagan left office in January 1989, after President George Bush's election. Throughout the year, the Iron Curtain showed its torn and rusty fray. Residents of Communist East Germany began sneaking west through neighboring nations.
On Nov. 9, 1989, as the East German government relieved travel restrictions, East and West Germans climbed up on the Berlin Wall. They danced up top, and then they pounded the wall with hammers. Sensing no support from Moscow, East German border guards did nothing to stop them. The Berlin Wall had fallen open.
1991 was the final year of the Soviet empire. On June 12, Boris Yeltsin was chosen president in the first free elections ever in Russia. On Dec. 25, after a tumultuous summer and autumn, Gorbachev resigned as leader of the Soviet Union. The next day, the Soviet Union officially came to an end.
On Aug. 17, 1992, at the Republican National Convention, Reagan had his last word on the long struggle. It was a month after the Democratic convention nominated Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton for president.
"We stood tall and proclaimed that communism was destined for the ash heap of history," Reagan told his fellow Republicans. "We never heard so much ridicule from our liberal friends. The only thing that got them more upset was two simple words: 'Evil Empire.'
"But we knew that what the liberal Democrat leaders just couldn't figure out: the sky would not fall if America restored her strength and resolve. The sky would not fall if an American president spoke the truth. The only thing that would fall was the Berlin Wall.
"I heard those speakers at that other convention saying, 'We won the Cold War' -- and I couldn't help wondering, just who exactly do they mean by 'we'?" |
