A recession is when a neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.
-- Quote by Ronald Reagan, Labor Day Address at Liberty State Park, Jersey City, New Jersey (September 1, 1980)
Perhaps, little was expected of the Actor-President in 1980, and little was made of his experience in governing California. He became known as "The Great Communicator," because he knew how to talk directly to each American, through the TV camera. He got the reputation of being the "Cowboy" President, and demonstrated a will to collaborate with allies, or to go it alone, if NATO & Europe were unwilling to stand up for Freedom. The economy was still in dire straits in 1982, but the new Terrorist Tyranny of Iran had ensured that Our Diplomats were on their way home before Reagan could finish his inauguration ceremonies.
"Thomas Jefferson once said, "We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works." And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying."
-- Quote by Ronald Reagan
American Morale needed a boost in the early 80's, but the bad times were not over. Islamist Iran didn't recognize National boundaries, but was founded on the concept of spreading its ideological and political model across the entire Muslim world. To this end, it fomented discord in its neighbor Iraq, and ended up in an 8 year war that pitted Ba'athist/Arab Nationalism against Islamist/Internationalist Islamism, and financially supported the terrorist Palestian Liberation Organization, until it could produce the alternative Islamist terrorist, Hezbollah.
Israel invaded Lebanon to uproot the PLO, while Islamist Iran used the results to create support for Islamist terrorists rather than the Secular PLO. Hezbollah gained momentum by bombing the US Embassy in Beirut, followed by bombings of the French, Brits, and finally the US Marine Barracks. Within 48 hours, Tip O'Neil's Congress had passed legislation forbidding the President from increasing actions against the Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon. With Iran having brought America to her knees in 1979 and their surrogate Hezbollah pushing American Peacekeepers out of Lebanon, Iran's Islamist dictator, the Ayatollah Khomeni was looking powerful, and America looked weak. Many world leaders and experts still expected the Islamist Iranian government to be a short-lived phase though. Culturally and Historically, the Iranian people were not prone to such abuses.
I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience.
-- Quote by Ronald Reagan during the Second Presidential Debate against Walter Mondale (October 21, 1984)
America needed a victory and Grenada proved to be one. Few had heard of the Island Nation in the Caribbean before President Reagan announced the rescue operation to save US Medical students from the Communist Government. The Cuban troops and Grenadian Communist military were defeated nearly before the President announced that we had gone in. For the first time since World War II, the American Military had a clear cut Victory, not a stalemate which returned to pre-war division as was Korea, not a politically induced defeat, despite battlefield Victories as was Viet Nam.
And it was not the only Victory. The Space Shuttle lifted off, with such great success that the Soviet Union copied the plans and built their own.
How do you tell a Communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin.
-- Quote by Ronald Reagan during Remarks at the Annual Convention of Concerned Women for America held at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel in Arlington, Virginia (September 25, 1987)
The "Cowboy" President had instilled a little Pride in America, and was determined to rebuild the Military to a level that it could win if the Soviets ever attacked. And it looked as possible as ever that the Cold War could turn hot. Despite Peacenik protests outside the White House calling for a unilateral disarming of US Nuclear Weapons, Reagan increased research, development, and fielding of more accurate and more effective weapons, catching up and surpassing Soviet capabilities. He put an end to reliance on "Mutually Assured Destruction" as the only deterrent to a Nuclear War, with the development of SDI, or "Star Wars" as it was then known, which was designed to shoot down inbound Soviet Nukes, before they hit American cities.
Reagan increased funding for Military Equipment and Training. The Army, Marines, Navy, and Air Force were finally getting Modern Equipment and the opportunity to perfect their skills. The Soviets and Warsaw Pact had more troops and more equipment, but US Troop Morale was rebounding, and they were getting the means to defeat the Soviets from a greater distance.
Little is said today about the fight at our back door, but Reagan was committed to turning the tide. He trained and equipped the Salvadorans and Nicaraguans against the Communists. The peaceniks protested it, and propagandized against it. And to this day, they gather annually to protest the training of Latino Military Leaders at Fort Benning, Georgia. The Reagan Doctrine established that the Western Hemisphere would not tolerate Soviet or European or Asian interference in the affairs of Our Southern Neighbors. His policies quietly turned the tide in Latin America. Democracy was preserved in El Salvador and restored in Nicaragua and Grenada.
And it was in the 80's that Lech Walesa organized Polish Workers into an illegal union against the oppression of Polish Communism. The world held its breath, waiting for a crackdown reminiscent of the 1950's and 1960's by the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact. Many thought Ronald Reagan's strong words of support for the Poles were just rhetoric, but the Soviets couldn't risk that he would follow through. Pope John Paul II was a Pole, and stood with his people. The Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher, had proven herself a resolute ally of the "Cowboy" President, and when the East German Communists began mobilizing up for what appeared to be a crackdown, so too did US Troops in West Germany.
Friend and foe alike, had to take Reagan at his word, because he had proven often that it wasn't just rhetoric, but that he had the backbone to follow through. And with an increasingly well-trained and equipped Military to back up his words, the Soviet Communists and Warsaw Pact weren't willing to push too far. While Communism continued to oppress its people, to send its political dissidents to the Gulags of Siberia, it stopped short of an invasion to prop up the Polish Communists.
The Soviet Dictators were going through their own crises as well. The Old Guard was dying off as fast as they could be named Premier and the Arms Race was eating up their meager economic resources. Reagan was spending 6.3% of GDP on the Military and the Soviets were able to buy more with less because every worker and every resource was owned by the government, but those workers had little incentive to do more than they must and were highly inefficient in doing it. It was costing the Soviets far more to maintain parity than it was costing the Americans. And it wasn't helping that their troops were increasingly demoralized with a lack of supplies and defeats in Afghanistan.
Soviet propaganda victories were turning against them. When they planned a massive river crossing, the substandard equipment failed, with entire tank crews drowning, trapped inside their steel coffins, as their buddies listened on the radio. While the KGB was cranking out fraudulent US Military documents, only the propagandists of Communism in the West claimed to believe they were real.
Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
-- Quote by Ronald Reagan, Speech at the Berlin Wall (June 12, 1987)
But Terrorism was a regular occurrence. Communist Terrorists in West Germany and Italy were very active, murdering diplomats and capitalists. And Qaddaffi of Libya was doing his best to prove himself a bigger player than the Ayatollah of Iran. While the Red Army Brigade was bombing the PX in Frankfurt, Qaddaffi managed to get a bomb into a Discotheque in Berlin. Qaddaffi fashioned himself a future emperor of Africa. He set up training camps for the Irish Republican Army in Libya, Liberian Rebel Charles Taylor, and whoever would oppose the West.
President Reagan ordered a retaliatory strike on Qaddaffi, despite French refusal to allow overflight. The strikes struck close to home for Qaddaffi, though later it would be shown that Qaddaffi's daughter had not been killed as he claimed. America was finally putting an end to turning the other cheek to terrorists, and Qaddaffi got the message. He ramped down the terrorist attacks, and the rhetoric.
Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.
-- Quote by Ronald ReaganGovernment always finds a need for whatever money it gets.
-- Quote by Ronald Reagan, Address to the Nation on the Fiscal Year 1983 Federal Budget (April 29, 1982)
By the end of his Presidency, America had recovered from double digit inflation, double digit interest rates, a defeated Military, and a deteriorating economy and industrial base, to a world leading economy. American Car Companies had not re-gained their undisputed leadership, but they had recovered, partly by cross-pollenization with the Japanese companies. Ford and Mazda had bought into each other. GM and Toyota had created Saturn in a joint venture. And Chrysler had joined forces with Mitsubishi.
America was again respected in the World. Americans again had Pride in the Nation. And America elected one of the "most qualified" Presidents to replace him, despite his lack of charisma. Bush Senior was a World War II fighter pilot, a former head of the Central Intelligence Agency, a Vice-President, and had a host of other things on his resume to demonstrate he could do the job. He soon reaped the rewards of Reagan's Arms Race. In his first year, the Iron Curtain crumbled, to the disbelief of the world. The Berlin Wall fell, the Velvet Revolution succeeded in Czechoslovakia, the Romanians hunted down and hung their brutal Communist Dictator, and the rhetoric of Perestroika and Glasnost overpowered the Soviet Union itself. The East and West Germanies re-united under capitalism, as no one had thought possible only a few years before.
The 80's were an American Decade where Freedom Triumphed and Pride returned to a Nation. There were no apologies for being the Light on the Hill. America Was Great and the whole world knew it.
We had recovered from the defeatist 70's.
And the Rewards of the 80's had carried through the early years of the Bush Admin.
Then came the "Peace filled 90's"
Stumble It!
