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Summary: A STUNNING & RIVITING ACCOUNT OF WINNING THE COLD WAR
Review: Ronald Reagan always said, it doesn't matter who gets the credit as long as the job gets done. Well, this may be the beginning of giving this cold warrior his due.
Focusing on Reagan's first hand experience with communism and the destruction it wrought on family and friends beginning in the 1940's, his steely determination to remain uncompromising in his goal and his unflinching belief that he was right, through the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990's, this book weaves a remarkable odessey which never fails to captivate.
Critics will complain that there is no balance to this book as it focusses on Reagan's viewpoint and ignores all other players in the cold war. This is patently false, with 41 small print pages of footnotes, few if any players on this stage were omitted. One of the facinating features of the book is the evenhanded treatment of all participants in the cold war regardless of party affiliation or political leaning. Recently declassified documents show how close we were to losing the cold war and how we finally won.
President Reagan has often been portrayed in the media as a man bereft of original thought, simplistic and ill informed. This book, whether you like Reagan or lothe him, should put those myths to rest.
If you are at all interested in knowing why the United States is the only superpower, why countries harboring Islamic radicals and terrorists got weapons and technology from us as well as the Soviets, and how we, the American people, are spoon-fed only minimal information from socialist leaning media types and politicians about how truly blessed we are in this country to have individuals of character step up and lead us at our moments of greatest need, READ THIS BOOK.
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Summary: One man made all the difference
Review: Peter Schweizer's book is perhaps the greatest untold story in the latter half of the 20th Century. Indeed, this book, and its predecessor, "Victory", make a compelling case that the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the wrong person.The evils of Communism are not as well known as those of Naziism, but they were no less real. Few people thought it could be defeated without a devastating war, but there was one who felt it could be done: Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th President of the United States. Furthermore, the proof is not in the comments of the policymakers on the American side, but the expert reserach that Schweizer has done from the archives of the former Communist governments. Indeed, these archives themselves show the fact that Reagan was the person the communists feared the most, and that his strategy, carried out by men like William Casey and Casper Weinberger, WORKED. Indeed, the hidden stories are the most revealing, from the collaboration of some Democrats with the Russians in an effort to undercut Reagan's policies to Reagan's longstanding support for anti-ballistic missile technology (dating to the late 1960s). This gripping historical work showed how, over four decades, one man made all the difference with the mere belief that America was not only cpaable of winning the Cold War without starting World War III, but the will to act on that belief. "Reagan's War" tells that story.
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Summary: You got the wrong Reagan
Review: It wasn't Ronald that ended the Cold War, it was more like his daughter Patty. She talked her dad into talking to anti-nuclear activist Dr. Helen Coldicott, who softened his suspicious heart, causing him to go to Russia and be enthralled by its people. Returning from Leningrad University, in 1988 (one year after the Berlin Wall speech) Ronald raved, that Russians look just like guys from Idaho (that's, apparently, his highest compliment). This surprising cuddliness on Reagan's part relaxed tensions, to the point where the same relaxation could be induced in the Soviets. The notion that Reagan accomplished through Pershings what Hitler's hordes could not accomplish in a far more drastic manner, is implausible on its face. Also implausible is the fact that Reagan intuited that "The Evil Empire" could be dissolved without a nuclear war. Namely, if the empire was evil, how could Reagan have trusted it to peacefully give up what no "good" nation would give up? The fact that Reagan was a fierce anti-Communist most of his life doesn't mean that he didn't become gentle in the end, and that honey, rather than vinegar didn't accomplish the trick. Hats off to the unsung anti-nuclear, pro-peace demonstrators who induced the thaw. The fact that some of them were Stasi is neither here nor there, anymore than Ernst Roehm and many other nazis being gay means that gays were behind nazism ("The Pink Swaskika"), or the fact that many a Jew was a communist means that Jews were behind communism. Also forgotten is the fact that Maggie Thatcher introduced Gorbachev to Reagan. She was called the Iron Lady, but she wasn't the Iron Lady. She was much gentler than that. Again, Reagan in 1988 was not the 1964 Reagan. Same name, not the same person. People change. History records many untrue things, so much so, that one could well say, that there's history and then, there's the truth. History records that Rasputin was evil, when in fact he was a priest who was murdered by idle aristocrats who wanted the senseless war to go on. But what history records is accepted as truth, which is why history always seems to be right. Anyone who has real respect for historic truth, is more interested in truth than in history. Historic truth is almost a contradiction in terms. History is no wiser than historians, and historians are often less wise than bus drivers. The truth cannot be found in dusty Soviet archives, simply because the truth does not reside in Moscow. It is more elusive than that. Truth can only be arrived at through logic. Facts are useless unless organized by earnest cogitation and good intentions. The fact that the road to hell is sometimes paved with good intentions, doesn't mean that the road to heaven is paved with bad ones.
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Summary: Communism was indeed a real threat!
Review: Historically, it is of this reviewer's opinion that Ronald Reagan was too far to the right on the political spectrum. For instance, he was opposed to Nixon in regards to Detente, SALT, Civl Rights, and many of Nixon's more moderate iniatives. In fact, the most recent release of Watergate tapes where Nixon is is complaining about Reagan's character are a result of Reagan stealing Nixon's Southern support in the primaries. Quite simply, Reagan thought that Nixon was to progressive on Civil Rights and tried to capitalize on the South. The Southern strategy was actually utilized by Reagan. Despite some of Reagan's political beliefs, he was in fact right that Communism was a threat to the free world. This reader's favorite part of the book is Reagan's defiant battle with the Communists in Hollywood. It is easy for today's world to look back at the 1950s and laugh at the Red Scare and feel sympathy towards the poor Hollywood elite whose careers were ruined by McCarthyism. 'Reagan's War' reminds today's world that Hollywood Communists did want to control the medium of film to spread 'the people's wars.' And Reagan was able to stand up and conquer Stalinist Hollywood as he would defeat the Soviet Union in the 1980s. With today's uninformed and demented Hollywood elite, where is our Ronald Reagan to stand up to these wackos? Heaven knows, someone needs to stand up to the insanity of Martin Sheen, Rosie, and the George Clooney crowd.
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Summary: Disintersted participants don't participate
Review: Kurt A. Johnson has written a review that captures the essence of this book. The book is not written as an "objective" scholarly text but neither it is a collection of knee-jerk assertions that too often today pass for commentary and analysis. It is a thoughly researched, well documented perspective on a man that Mr. Schwiezer thinks (and I agree) had a large, positive impact on history. The book would be invaluable in preparing for a debate but does gloss over some of Mr. Reagan's less successful actions. The only mention of Oliver North, for example, is as "a Lt Col on the NSA staff [who] pointed out" that a Marine Amphipious Unit was under way and available to be diverted to Grenada. I'm sure this is accurate; it's just not the first episode that comes to mind when Oliver North is mentioned. Even if you don't like Reagan, Mr. Schweizer makes points that are hard to refute. Read the book.
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Summary: Final Triumph Over Communism?
Review: What about China, Cuba and No. Korea? Doesn't look like the Gipper was too sucessful. He did sure make a mint selling those weapons to Iran though.
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Summary: Liberals in Denial
Review: Reagan's war is a great historical work which proves not only that Ronald Reagan was the man, but how liberals were on the wrong side of history.
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Summary: Masterful !!!
Review: It is indeed refreshing to finally see RR get some of the credit that is his due. As noted elsewhere, the files of the KGB speak volumes as to the fear the Soviets had of RR and his policies. How right they were to fear him, as Schweizer shows admirably in this book. While liberals will refuse to the death to give Reagan any credit for brining down the USSR, as they claim he was not responsible but rather just on the scene when it happened, anyone who reads this book can clearly see at the minimun he was a catalyst for the event, speeding it up by years! Given the recent revelations of falsification at one of the key Reagan hating organs, the NY Times, this book couldn't come at a better time to clear the Reagan record and record his voluminous battles with and ultimate victory over the great evil of the 20th century, communism.
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Summary: A Struggle That Defined a Man
Review: Schweizer's work is important for understanding Reagan and his presidency. Some men become linked with a struggle (Bush and terrorism, Churchill and facism), for Reagan it was communism. Schweizer starts back in Reagan's Hollywood days and shows how he faced down communist elements who wished to take over the movie industry. This book is filled with good nuggets like Reagan carrying a gun in his acting days due to threats on his life, how his obsession with fighting communism cost him his first marriage, and how the North Koreans planned to kill him when he visited South Korea as president. This is a must read for history buffs, conservatives, and students of the presidency. As the years move forward, Reagan's stature as a president and as a man continue to grow.
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Summary: Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall......
Review: This is the story of a hedgehog, Ronald Wilson Reagan, and his singular focus on ridding the world of a societal system of organized terror and slavery, which ostensibly controlled half the world during his lifetime. The facts in support of this story have been been mined from the files of the KGB, the Stasi, and other secret police files in the Eastern Bloc countries. That they can be cross verified thru the Venona intercepts, the Mitrokyn (sp?) archives, and Dimitri Volkogonov's works make the book all the more fascinating. The chronolgy of the book takes us from Reagan's membership in SAG in Hollywood in 1937 thru the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Within this vein, the book traces a follow-the-money trail of history from the end of WWII to the fall of Communist Russia. The story is underpinned by the chronolgy of Reagans unrelenting focus on his task. And, the book shows how his success was achieved while almost all others within and without the Republican party were concerned that he was heading down the wrong track. The book becomes a veritable page-turner and is quite moving to boot. It becomes readily apparent that this man, whose achievements have received scant acknowledgement from left wing institutions, is beset with uncommon character, courage, conviction, intelligence, judgement, principle and scincerity. He is a true leader and in my opinion the greatest American president of the 20th century. If one considers the spread of Marxism as a dominating political system, to countries that all took there marching orders at one time or another from the Soviet Union, then one can truly appreciate Reagan's victory over the red menace. His focus was Communism's undoing. As the Soviet files described him, "his words and deeds are the same." Indeed, the soft left-wing columnist for the NYT's, Tom Wicker, said of Reagan in the 1960's, "his greatest single asset is that he believes what he says." In this sense Reagan was no actor. Reagan, from the end of the Cold War forward, felt that "containment" was a foolish foreign policy, and he was right. The book describes how the presidencies of Truman and Eisenhow thru Jimmy Carter's opperated in varying degrees as polar opposites. Reagan felt the Soviets used fear of the bomb to bully their way on to the world stage. He also felt that America's political leaders needed to confront the "evil empire" thus making it a game where "we win and they lose". His contention was quite clear, "as an economic system, they can't keep up". In other words, our system of economic production, distribution and exchange was and is vastly superior in both quantity and quality to the Soviet top-down model. Today,Reagan is revered by freedom loving people everywhere though one would scarcely know it from the paucity of coverage in Hollywood, the academic establishment, the publishers of the major educational textbooks, the major networks, and the major print media. When you read Reagan's War you will see why he's anathama to those who continue to believe that Socialism is a viable social policy for civil society. To this end, every Republican leader in this century has been called "stupid" by the political Left, and Reagan is no exception, in fact he has been smeared to a greater degree because of his calm dedication toward delivering the world from Communism. In today's world it's the same with George W. Bush. No matter what his academic, business world, or political achievements, the Left is going to see him just as they see Reagan, stupid. But W understands what Reagan did, that Communism is the story of an organizied crime family (the politboro in the Soviet case) which under a pretense of social fairness practices terrorism against its own subjects while raping the land of their natural resources. So,... terrorism and Communism are the same and the only way to get rid of them is to metaphorically "go for the throat." And, that's exactly what Regan did, and W is doing. Root "em out. Isn't it interesting how many credentialed idiots were and continue to be so wrong while Ronald Reagan and W, with his malaprops, have been so right? Read the book to see what Reagan did to crash the Communist system, then ponder the future. How can I say it enough, history will mark him down as a great world leader and a great champion of freedom.
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