Ronald Reagan truly iconic of American presidency

This past weekend, we lost one of the greatest defenders of liberty and freedom the world has ever known. Former president Ronald Wilson Reagan passed away after suffering from Alzheimer’s for more than a decade. He was 93.

There is so much to say about Reagan and his accomplishments that no single column (nor a single book) could ever do him justice. He was, without a doubt, the greatest president of the Twentieth Century.

George Will said in his latest column, “One measure of a leader's greatness is this: By the time he dies the dangers that summoned him to greatness have been so thoroughly defeated, in no small measure by what he did, it is difficult to recall the magnitude of those dangers, or of his achievements.” This is certainly true of President Reagan. Today, just over fifteen years after he left office, Americans no longer fear communism. The Berlin Wall is long gone. The “Evil Empire” is history. Eastern Europe is free of the dreaded Iron Curtain. If not for the actions of Reagan, we might still be embroiled in the Cold War today.

In 1981, when Reagan became president, the world was a very different place. The Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan, and had eyes on Nicaragua. 52 Americans were being held hostage in Tehran, Iran (they were released the day Reagan was sworn in). The American public was in a malaise due to fuel rationing and a poor economy. Reagan found huge challenges ahead, but he met them all head on.

Reagan understood that government was the problem, not the solution. “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help,”’ Reagan said in 1986. His tax cuts created an era of prosperity that lasted for years. As a young man, he had once pondered taking a high paying job, but decided against it when he realized that he would have to pay almost 90% of what he made to the government. From this experience, he realized that high taxation gave individuals an incentive not to work.

Reagan’s critics have argued that the national deficit exploded under him, and they are correct that it did grow. To blame Reagan for this would be unfair. Democrats controlled the House during his entire tenure as president, and blocked many of the cuts he wished to make. We can only imagine how much might have been accomplished had Reagan had Republicans in control of both houses of Congress.

On the international arena, Regan made a change. Prior to him, most agreed that the Soviet Union should simply be contained, and that the U.S, and the U.S.S.R. should coexist. Reagan saw the flaws of the communist system, and believed it could be defeated. He knew the Soviet economy was already pressed to meet its needs, and that if he drew them into an arms race, they could never win. So that’s exactly what he did. Liberals howled, claiming he was trying to start World War III. Reagan was undeterred, and continued ahead with his plan.

Reagan walked out of the Reykjavik Summit in Iceland because he knew that the Strategic Defense Initiative (“Star Wars,” as it was disparagingly referred to in the media) was necessary. He offered to share it with Gorbachev, but Gorbachev knew it was the beginning of the end.

Reagan took another courageous step in 1987, when he told Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” in Berlin. Again, his critics went crazy, claiming he was being overly aggressive. Even some of his staff opposed including the famous line. No one believed that the wall would soon fall. But that is exactly what happened two years later. Four years later, the Soviet Union would also fall.

One would think that a man who liberated almost an entire continent would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, but it never happened. The prize instead goes to people like Yassir Arafat and Jimmy Carter. But Reagan didn’t care who got the credit, so long as the work got done.

At the 1992 Republican National Convention, Reagan said “…whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears, to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty’s lamp guiding your steps and opportunity’s arm steadying the way.”

Mission accomplished, President Reagan.

- John Brown is a senior in political science and history at the University of Tennessee @ Knoxville. Contact him at johnnyb325@aol.com, or visit www.johnnorrisbrown.com. This column originally ran in the June 8, 2004 edition of The Daily Beacon, available here.