During Ronald Reagan’s campaign of 1980 one felt part of a movement or revolution that was going to change not only the nation but perhaps the world.
Then-California-Gov. Reagan’s vision was clear and concise and left little room for doubt:
America must shrink the federal government, reduce regulations on business, and cut taxes for all Americans.
In other words, Reagan instinctively knew that, given the tools, American entrepreneurs would lead the country back to prosperity and out of double-digit inflation and double-digit interest rates.
Reagan’s economic policies pulled America out of Jimmy Carter’s “malaise” and on the road to prosperity.
Reagan also understood that communism’s worldwide influence would not long endure and that ending the Cold War was imperative.
What is not commonly known is that Reagan, throughout his life, was a prolific writer. Reagan wrote short fiction, poetry, numerous important letters, sports stories, newspaper articles and radio commentary on public-policy issues, and on foreign and domestic themes. Most of Reagan’s original writings were done before his presidency.
Contrary to the opinion promulgated by the elite media critics, Reagan’s mind was constantly at work. He was well-read and an extensive researcher on the complex foreign and domestic issues of his time. Reagan’s writings show that he had given great thought and consideration to almost every major policy issue that he would confront when he became president.
One of the defining moments of the Reagan presidency was the air traffic controllers strike. When President Reagan fired the striking controllers, some pundits and politicians criticized Reagan as a mere opportunist taking advantage of events to cripple organized labor. Had they done their research, they would have found what he had written in the 1970s and would have known he was opposed to public-sector union strikes.
If you read “Reagan in His Own Hand,” edited by Martin Anderson and others, you will find numerous examples of Reagan’s writings and beliefs. Reagan wrote the drafts of his radio broadcasts and speeches in long hand. More than 30 percent of his handwritten drafts of his radio broadcasts were about defense issues or foreign policy, the editors say.
One constant in Reagan’s broadcasts was his concern about the Cold War. It is through this lens that he studied and formed opinions on most defense and foreign-policy issues. In his radio broadcasts he analyzes the sources and symptoms of the Cold War and he criticizes the foreign policy of both the Ford and Carter administrations. According to Reagan’s thinking, the over-riding goal of the United States’ Cold War doctrine should be to hasten the end of communism. Reagan wrote that he believed communism would fail because “it lays its own groundwork for destruction.” He intuitively understood that those in captivity will seek freedom.
Reagan’s goal was to transform the Soviet political system to one that was representative of its people and allowed freedom. Reagan concluded that if those goals were achieved the result would be the end of the Cold War and the repudiation of communism as a bankrupt philosophy.
In examining Reagan’s writings, one finds he believed that in order to hasten the end of the Cold War an analyst must distinguish the symptoms of the Cold War from its sources. It was his view that arms-control negotiations would neither end the protracted conflict nor enhance bilateral relations. The only reason, he writes, to sign an arm control treaty is to enhance the security interests of the United States.
Even then, Reagan cautioned we must be ever vigilant because the causes of the Cold War — the internal and external policies of the Soviet Union — still remain. Reagan understood the stakes of winning the Cold War and he believed that we must have leaders who explained the requirements of victory to Americans.
Reagan abhorred appeasement and championed peace through strength.
To help bring the downfall of the “Evil Empire” Reagan concluded that America must be economically and militarily superior to the Soviet Union. That’s why he championed across-the-board tax cuts and an unprecedented military buildup.
What followed was the resurgence of the American spirit and the spread of democracy throughout the world.
Marc Rotterman is a senior fellow at the John Locke Foundation and treasurer of the American Conservative Union.