The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan

Reagan revisited: The hawk that turned

Published on October 9, 2009

JAMES MANN warned his audience on both sides of the aisle before he discussed his latest book "The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan", which gives an insight into Reagan's role in ending the Cold War. The former Los Angeles Times reporter said, "I have to warn you in advance that it goes down not easily politically for both friends among the conservatives and friends among the liberals."
Conservatives will find it tough because the book suggests Reagan didn't win the Cold War by building up American defences. Liberals on the other hand might find the book tough because it's all about Reagan, and the book gives the former president considerable credit for the way he carried out a successful foreign policy towards the Soviet Union, said Mann.

"The question raised by the book is whether the way we remember Reagan is actually the way it happened," he said.


In his recent speech given at the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Arkansas, Mann said the book tried to reveal the "history that has been lost to us by capturing the last four or five years in Reagan's eight-year presidency".


People tend to have an image of Reagan in his first three years in office, such as the strategic defence policy, Reagan calling the Soviet Union the "evil empire" or Reagan "the hawk", said Mann. "It is accurate only for three years. But what forgotten is the rest of the story from early 1985 when Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union," Mann added.


Mann spent three years going through archives, holding interviews and doing research. And he contends that Reagan in the second half of his presidency was different from his assumed hawkish image.


In fact, the Republican president managed to get the Senate to pass and approve the historic Arms Control Treaty, which eliminated an entire of class of nuclear missiles. And in 1988, when Reagan was asked by reporters when he stood in Red Square during his visit to Moscow if the Soviet Union was still the "evil empire", he said, "No. It was another time and another place."


The right wing saw reason to question Reagan's strategy in negotiating with Gorbachev. In 1985, no one could predict how the Cold War would turn out, even foreign affairs specialists such as Henry Kissinger could not answer with confidence. Reagan, however, decided to negotiate with the new Soviet leader, and this was seen as treason by some conservative columnists, said Mann.


Richard Nixon didn't approve of Reagan's diplomacy with Gorbachev either. Mann ran through Nixon's notes from those days and found that Nixon thought Gorbachev as affable but that his goal was the same as other Soviet leaders. Nixon thought that Gorbachev could even be the most formidable Soviet leader because he would be more effective in achieving this goal. Nixon's view was shared by many in the conservative camp. Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, who served at the Central Intelligence Agency back then, was persistent in arguing with Reagan that he had moved too fast to engage Gorbachev.


The irony is that Reagan found support from the liberals, not conservatives. Mann cited a cartoon in late 1987 showing Reagan in the Oval Office signing the Arms Control Treaty with Gorbachev. Behind him were Michael Dukakis, Dick Gephardt and Jesse Jackson - all Democrats.


At any rate, Reagan later proved his opponents wrong. A series of summits between Reagan and Gorbachev followed, contributing to the fall of Berlin Wall in 1989.


Mann's book shows that the person whom Reagan trusted when it came to Soviet policy turned out to be an outsider named Suzanne Massie. Massie held no official position, and this informal adviser was quite unorthodox because she didn't come from the academic circle. She was a writer who travelled to the Soviet Union. Mann said the record shows that Reagan invited her to the White House and talked to her nearly twenty times - which is more often than many of his official advisors. Reagan was curious about what was going on in the Soviet Union. He didn't like the dry academic reports, but loved stories and anecdotes from the streets of Moscow that Massie gave to him.


Massie's importance grew to the point where Moscow's contact with Washington circumvented the diplomatic channel. Some diplomacy was carried not through the State Department but through Massie herself, with no official position. And it got to the point where, in 1987, the National Security Council began a campaign to "keep this woman away from the Oval Office", said Mann.


"I don't necessarily think she was influential. But she was the story in the last four years of Reagan's presidency," he added.


Reagan had his own style in dealing with leaders of the socialist countries, Mann said, "He drove people like Gorbachev crazy." Reagan liked to tell Gorbachev, a classic debater from a law school, jokes about socialists. One of them was: "What are four things that matter in Soviet agriculture?" When Gorbachev said he didn't know, Reagan said, "Spring, summer, fall and winter."


"It took them off their agenda, and after a while, people found themselves dealing with Reagan on his own terms," said Mann.


The end of the Cold War seemed like a given, but it could have gone differently. Of course, it was Gorbachev who finally abandoned the Cold War, but Reagan played a crucial role in creating the environment.


Mann said Reagan was also effective in his diplomacy because he had a remarkable sense of timing to negotiate. A former president of the Screen Actors Guild, the union of Hollywood actors, Reagan could be passive for days to weeks, then ultimately, he would sense the right time to make a decision, said Mann.


What is the lesson to learn from Reagan?


Mann said: "I would say the lesson is that he was willing to be strong in security and negotiation at the same time. Not be afraid to negotiate at the right time." Reagan showed that his unique diplomatic style could make a difference in foreign policy.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Privacy Policy © 2006 Nation Multimedia Group


April 24, 2010 09:45 pm (Thai local time)
www.nationmultimedia.com