Rating: 
Summary: an admirable book about an admirable man
Review: "Reagan's activity in foreign affairs is not an improvisation, is not a chain of spontaneous initiatives, but a carefully planned and coordinated action, something of an integrated front of action under the slogans of world advocacy of the idea of freedom."So wrote General Czeslaw Kisczak, Communist interior minister of Poland, in 1986. These words briefly summarize the main argument and theme of Schweizer's admirable effort: that Reagan's anti-Communism was well-thought-out and well-argued, based on facts and experience, that it was not blind or unthinking. From his early exposure to radical Communists in Hollywood, Reagan recognized the danger that the ideology and its adherents posed to freedom and humanity. He felt it personally--for example, when he received death threats and kept watch over his family at night, with a gun nearby. From these initial experiences, too, Reagan showed a degree of courage, such as his willingness to cross directly through a picket line to go to work, rather than use the hidden entrance recommended by security. Certainly, it's quite a step from opposing Communist activists at movie studios to staring down the Soviet Union. But the two are linked. For the thirty to thirty-five years preceding his presidency, Reagan thought about his position and, indeed, gave it much thought. He interacted with intellectuals and government officials, including Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon (despite Reagan's opposition to detente). During his tenure as governor, he was active in enforcing law and order in California against Vietnam protesters. And in the 1970s, between the end of his governorship and the beginning of his presidency, Reagan penned a series of radio addresses (compiled in the book "In His Own Hand") on a number of topics, including Communism. These writings show how deeply Reagan had pondered this issue (and others), and how intelligent and talented he truly was. I was also struck by the influence Arthur Koestler's "Darkness at Noon" had on him, how it demonstrated that the Soviets' tactic was fear; others such as Edward Teller have mentioned that book as having a decisive influence on their thinking. My only complaint is that it there is too much Cold War and too little Reagan. Of course, the Cold War is considerably important to the story. After all, it was the backdrop to Reagan's intellectual development and the reality faced by his administration. Still, at times, I felt that the material dealing solely with events of the Cold War--going pages at a time without mentioning the book's subject--might have been trimmed down a bit. All in all, though, this is a readable book with many interesting facts and insights into Reagan's mind, and it puts to rest any of the notions that Reagan lacked depth of mind. Read together with Peggy Noonan's "When Character Was King" to round out Reagan's full character, this book paints a convincing picture of a man who looms large in American history and in the history of the Cold War.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book, highly relevant to today's world
Review: Peter Schweizer's excellent book "Reagan's War" is one more well-aimed volley targeted at the host of liberal myths about former President Reagan and his central role in defeating the former Soviet Union. In "Reagan's War" we learn that opposition to communism was one of Reagan's core principles - and that he was as studied in his opposition as he was determined. In the late spring of 1988, as Soviet Communism lay gasping for life, President Reagan traveled to Moscow to meet with Gorbachev. The description of this state visit includes a very illuminating passage showing Reagan's world view and why he so powerfully succeeded where many others had failed before him. The following passage describes a dinner Reagan held for Soviet dissidents at Spaso House. "...As the Reagans entered the room, the crowd erupted with cheers and stood up from the tables... "This was no state dinner for dignitaries... Instead, the roughly one hundred people crowded into the ballroom were considered little more than chattel by the Kremlin; but Reagan was about to give a grand party in their honor. "These were Jewish refusniks, Pentecostals imprisoned for their faith, human rights activists, and freedom advocates. Reagan had never met any of the people in the room, but they certainly knew him. "In 1979, Reagan had advised that 'a little less détente with the Politburo and more encouragement to the dissenters might be worth a lot of armored divisions' in the Cold War. Now here he was to meet the armored division face-to-face. "Reagan's clear moral denunciation of communism over the course of his presidency was by now legendary. When he had given his 'evil empire' speech in 1983, political prisoners had tapped on walls and talked through toilets to share what he had said with fellow inmates. It had energized and emboldened them, and given them hope. Now he wanted to bolster them face-to-face. "He walked through the crowd, shaking hand and even embracing men and women whom he had applauded years before for their moral courage... "As he spoke before the group, there was a slight quiver in his voice, 'I came here hoping to do what I could to give you strength. Yet I already know it is you who have strengthened me, you who have given me a message to carry back. Coming here, being with you, looking into your faces, I have to believe the history of this troubled century will indeed be redeemed in the eyes of God and man, and that freedom will truly come for all. For what injustice can withstand your strength? And what can conquer your prayers?'" When I completed this passage, my eyes misted up, thinking of how deeply Ronald Reagan believed in the cause of freedom and how steadfast he remained in the face of harsh and often derisive criticism from American liberals, academics, and the media. Schweizer said Reagan's favorite virtues were courage and character. I see much of the same mettle in President George Bush as he steels himself for a long term fight every bit as serious as Reagan's life-long struggle against the evils of communism. "Reagan's War" reminds us how the self-appointed experts said we couldn't defeat the Soviet Union - that we needed to accommodate them. In this alone, "Reagan's War" is worth reading today to show how courage and character can triumph over evil.
Rating:
Summary: Shining history of Reagan's battle against Communism
Review: After the fall of the USSR, a certain idea took hold among the part of the American populace. This idea was that the USSR was bound to collapse and that certainly Ronald Reagan had nothing to do with. This book demolishes that myth and sets the record straight once and for all with a mountain of documentation, much of which came from the former Soviet Union. "Reagan's War" traces the formation of Ronald Reagan's anti-communist character and his rise to political power. It then shows the sharp break Reagan's administration had with prior presidencies concerned with containment and detente. Far from wishing to coexist, Reagan believed that confrontation was the key to destroying the USSR. And confront he did from aiding anti-communist guerrilla bands around the world, to toppling Grenada's government, to aiding the Polish solidarity movement, to embarking on the biggest peacetime military build-up in US history, to starting the fledgling SDI program (aka "Star Wars"). This book lists the shock waves that such actions produced in the Soviet Union as well as how they eventually pushed the USSR to oblivion. This book is a must for anyone interested in the fall of the Soviet Union or the Reagan legacy.
Rating:
Summary: A really enlightening book!
Review: The depth of Ronald Reagan's opposition to communism is thoroughly shown here. His 40 year fight against it is a story of high dedication. Although he was accused of being an uneducated bumpkin, he seems to have had a clearer idea of the threat to the United States from Communist Russia than his "more arcane" critics. It seems that most of his predecessors tended to only compromise and play into the hands of the communist block. Reagan never hem hawed about anything or backed down about anything. He always clearly expressed his opinions and came head on against the Russian leaders and communism. Putting a stop to the arms treaties that played into the hands of the Russians, limiting our arms expansion while the Russians steadily built theirs up, and forcing Russia into an arms race where they could not keep up with the U.S.A. was a large contributing factor in the break up of the U.S.S.R. and taking down the Berlin wall. His support of Radio Free Europe and aid to other countries that wanted to be free of communism also was a main factor. He is credited by Poland as a major contributor to their Solidarity movement and eventual liberation from the communists. Reagan was a leader in the war to keep communists from taking over the motion picture industry in the 1930's. When the communist organized protesters put up a picket line to keep actors from going onto the lot to work on movies, Reagan refused to sneak into the lot through a pipeline like many others who kept on working. He went in through the front. He was probably the catalyst that kept the communist takeover from working. Reagan's strength of character and dedication to his cause is surely one of the great achievements of the free world. His contributions are hard to minimize. This book thoroughly covers everything from the early Hollywood days to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Rating:
Summary: Knowing what you stand for means something to some people
Review: This is the most meaningful piece of non-fiction I have ever read. It should be required reading in history classes and in every class that has anything whatsoever to do with leadership. This is NOT a bio of Reagan - it deals only with his struggle against communism from his Hollywood days through his second term of office. From files recovered from East Germany and the Soviet Union after the collapse of communism, the author documents that the communists took note of Reagan right from the start and viewed him as a serious threat - because he saw through their every ploy and every con game, and never bartered with them, never backed down, and never pretended they were honorable for a second, unlike, to varying degrees, virtually every other president and politician of his time, particularly the Soviet's favorite fool, Jimmy Carter, who played Sir Walter Raleigh and threw down his cape for the Russians to walk across on their way into numerous third world nations.
Despite the blathering in the review by "Ultra Ridiculous" (who certainly is) we can thank Reagan that the Soviet Union is no more, and many Russian generals and bureaucrats attest to the fact that the straw that broke their back was Reagan's Star Wars program - Reagan saw that they simply didn't have the economy to keep up. (Recall that the Democrats and the liberals wanted Reagan's head on a platter for the Star Wars "foolishness". Also note, that we recently successfully destroyed a missile with a space based laser, something his detractors claimed would never happen.)
Now contrast Reagan's leadership with Bill Clinton's. Clinton had no vision of anything other than his own importance, and the only thing that meant anything to him was his own legacy - so we got a legacy of a North Korea with atomic weapons and Osama bin Laden on the loose, but hey, he wasn't convicted in the impeachment trial!
The saddest thing is that, despite all the evidence that the liberals were wrong for all those years, they NEVER learn from their mistakes.
Rating:
Summary: Well written and Researched
Review: This book is riveting on a number of different levels. First the background information regarding the behind the scenes maneuverings between several US administrations and the Soviet Union is marvelously documented and provides page-turning suspense. Secondarily, the parallels that can be drawn between Reagan's struggles to combat a ruthless and deceptive enemy without the support of and often in the face of harsh criticism from European allies and domestic political rivals and the challenges facing the current administration are illuminating. Drawing on KGB records to validate the view and policy of Reagan toward the Soviet Union while contrasting the attitude of his detractors overseas and the American media makes Reagan's legacy seem even more remarkable and shows how wrong the media can be and yet the media remains unstained by this episode. No other industry consistently rewards it's practioners for getting it
wrong. Peter Schweizer makes a convincing argument that the cold war may not have ended as it did without the vision and determination of Ronald Reagan. In the words of the Soviets in their assesment of Reagan- "for him words and deeds are the same". Schweizer portrays Reagan as a man who developed a deep sense of mission early on and pursued it to fullfillment. His understanding of the longterm effects of an arms race on the Soviet economy combined with intentional economic sanctions and manipulation of the oil markets through the Saudis to keep prices low and put further pressure on the Soviets had the desired effect of forcing the Soviet Union to ultimately peel off it's satellite states and retrench. The record is clear and no revisionist histories that portray these events as the reult of a massive outpouring of rebellion can alter the fact that without Reagan it wouldn't have happened.
Rating: 
Summary: Ultra Ridiculous
Review: I can't believe people are silly enough to believe Ronald Reagan "won" the cold war. He had about as much to do with winning the cold war as the pope did with winning world war II. I guess he's supposed to have huffed, and puffed and blew the soviet union down. Gee, that sure is sumpthin. The truth is he was just there when it all happened. the soviet union imploded. It's like taking credit for a solar eclipse. People who believe this probably also thing rush limbaugh is one of the great thinkers of our time, with his one semester of college and the three syllable words he learned from "verbal advantage." This is a pathetic example of the intellectual bankruptcy of the post-television age in north america.
Rating:
Summary: A real page turner
Review: This book makes no claim to be the "ultimate" biography of Ronald Reagan. It IS, however, a remarkable and engaging account of Reagan's determined battle with Communism, and his ultimate triumph over it. The author makes inspired use of declassified files from the KGB and Kremlin, and enough citations to prove he is a serious historian and not a revisionist hack. The facts presented in this book are powerful enough to change your perception of world history, 1968 to 1989. I recommend this book to any fan of Ronald Reagan; to anyone with more than a passing interest in Soviet-U.S. history; and, to those who doubt that an individual human being can, despite all odds, change the world for the better.
Rating:
Summary: How Did He Do It?
Review: How did a C student in economics from Eureka College not only predict the fall of the Soviet Union, but largely contributed to make it happen? The author relates that Reagan was asked that question once, and responded that many people thought the Soviet economy was barely functional. He was one of the few that spoke out about it, and loudly. The liberal perspective is that the Soviet system would have eventually collapsed anyway, that all U.S. presidents since Truman contributed to its demise, and that Gorbachev was really the leading character in its fall. This book shows in great detail why that view is wrong, why Reagan helped create the conditions under which Gorbachev came to power, and why Reagan's policies ushered in the demise of Soviet Union. The only thing missing from this book is the story of Reagan's secret economic warfare against the Soviets by planting unworkable technology into the Soviet research and development effort that caused them to expend many rubles trying to imitate--this story is told in another of the author's books: "Victory." Reagan was never a scholar, but did have a native intelligence which allowed him to see what others couldn't, and a courage which allowed him to stick to the convictions he had since his days fighting communist efforts to take over Hollywood unions. The world will owe Ronald Reagan a debt of gratitude for his key role in the demise of a truly evil empires. This book tells you why.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting history, but sometimes hard to follow
Review: Schweizer's research is exceedingly thorough, and it shows throughout the book. Those who would say his research was sloppy or false either didn't read the book and its copious footnotes, or are deliberately lying. More telling is that much of his information is obtained from the former Soviet Union itself, and contradicts the conventional opinion of US-Soviet relations and the collapse of the USSR. The book follows a more or less chronological path from Reagan's first experiences with Communists in the motion picture industry through his Presidency. It provides insights into Reagan's reasoning, as well as behind-the-scenes looks at historical events. I found the book interesting, but not a great read. There are too many jumps in time. The author will be writing of something that happened in the 1970s and suddenly introduce a supporting event from the 1960s. I would have preferred to read about the supporting event in its own time frame, and then see how it related to the future event. All in all, I enjoyed the book. It revealed to me many things that I didn't realize had happened, and gave me some insight into Reagan's determined fight against Communism.
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