Table Of ContentREAGAN’S LEGACY IN A WORLD TRANSFORMED
Reagan’s Legacy
in a World Transformed
Edited by JEFFREY L. CHIDESTER
and PAUL KENGOR
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, En gland
2015
Copyright © 2015 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First printing
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Reagan’s legacy in a world transformed / edited by Jeff rey L. Chidester and Paul Kengor.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-674-96769-4 (alk. paper)
1. United States— Foreign relations—1981–1989. 2. U nited States—
Foreign relations—1989– 3. R eagan, Ronald— Infl uence.
I. Chidester, Jeff rey L., editor, author. II. Kengor, Paul, 1966– editor, author.
E876.R423 2015
973.927092— dc23 2014035126
Contents
foreword B rian Mulroney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Paul Kengor and Jeff rey L. Chidester
I. At Home and Abroad: The Global Impact of Reagan’s Domestic Policy
1. Ronald Reagan and the New Age of Globalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Alfred E. Eckes Jr.
2. Th e “Great Expansion”: Th e Economic Legacy of Ronald Reagan . . . . .
Henry R. Nau
3. “Th e Balancer”: Ronald Reagan, Party Politics, and U.S.
Grand Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Peter Trubowitz
II. Trends in Global Democracy: The Reagan Legacy
4. From Containment to Liberation: U.S. Strategy toward
Eastern Eu rope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Jeff rey L. Chidester
5. Reagan’s “March of Freedom” in a Changing World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Paul Kengor
vi Contents
III. A New National Strategy: Reagan’s Defense Policy Revisited
6. Th e Beginning of a New U.S. Grand Strategy: Policy on Terror
during the Reagan Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Kiron K. Skinner
7. Ronald Reagan and American Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Eliot A. Cohen
IV. The Great Debate: Reagan and Negotiating the End of the Cold War
8. A World of Fewer Nuclear Weapons: Ronald Reagan’s
Willingness to Negotiate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Paul Kengor
9. Building Up and Seeking Peace: President Reagan’s Cold War
Legacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Beth A. Fischer
10. Ronald Reagan, Liberalism, and the Politics of Nuclear War
and National Security, 1981–1985 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Julian E. Zelizer
V. Reagan and Multilateralism: Two Voices
11. Ronald Reagan’s Approach to the United Nations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Kim R. Holmes
12. Ronald Reagan, the Pragmatic Internationalist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Barry E. Carter
notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
ac knowl edg ments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Foreword
brian mulroney
Reagan’s Legacy in a World Transformed is all about remembering Ronald
Reagan, his presidency, and the manner in which he changed the world.
During his centennial year in 2011, individuals of great distinction the
world over shared their personal refl ections of the fortieth American presi-
dent and bore witness to his life’s work. Many knew Ronald Reagan longer
and better than I did. Some worked with him daily for years. I knew him as a
fellow G-7 leader with whom I shared moments of high drama on the world
stage during one of the most explosive de cades in modern history. We became
friends, and I saw him often when questions of world peace or war w ere being
determined. In that most scalding of po liti cal cauldrons, I observed Ronald
Reagan closely. Th at is the perspective I bring with me to open this volume.
Some years ago the legendary New York Times columnist Scotty Reston
came to lunch with me at 24 Sussex, the prime minister’s offi cial residence in
Ottawa. After an impressive “tour d’horizon,” Mr. Reston said: “You know,
Prime Minister, for the last 25 years I have opposed every single policy that
your friend Ronald Reagan has ever stood for.” Th en he added: “And during
that same period, Ronald Reagan was twice elected governor of California
and twice elected president of the United States.”
Th is self-d eprecatory observation— I thought memorable because of its
infrequency at the New York Times— was delivered somewhat ruefully, as if
Mr. Reston were perplexed by his own admission. But to so wise an observer
as Reston, the answer surely should have been very clear. It’s called leadership—
that ineff able and sometimes magical quality that sets some men and women
viii Foreword
apart so that millions will follow them as they conjure up new visions and
invite their countrymen to dream big and exciting dreams.
In his seminal work on leadership, James MacGregor Burns segregates
“transactional” from “transforming” leadership. He writes that it is the trans-
forming leader who “raised the level of human conduct of both leader and
led . . . who responds to fundamental hopes and expectations and who may
transcend and even seek to reconstruct the pol iti cal system rather than simply
operate within it.” Many suggest that great, inexorable currents of history
themselves— and not individual leaders—s eal our fate. In my judgment, how-
ever, Carlyle was on target when he observed that the right man in the right
place at the right time can completely change the course of history. I believe
that to be true because I was there to see it happen.
In a brilliant address delivered some years ago in Canada, Th eodore
Sorenson— himself a skilled observer of powerful leaders— said:
Once in offi ce those who wish to stand up and stand out and leave some-
thing enduring behind must build new institutions, not new images. Th ey
must look to the next generation, not merely the next election. Th ey must
talk in terms of fundamental values, not merely costs. Th ey must appeal to
our hopes as well as our needs, to what we long to be and what we know is
right. Th at’s leadership.
Does this remind you of anybody?
Now, if today you asked the American people if they think Ronald Reagan
was a “transforming” president or simply a “transactional” one, what do you
think they would reply? Look around you, they would say, the Reagan Revo-
lution and its powerful eff ects on freedom, economic prosperity, the private
sector, and the public good are clearly visible both to contemporary America
and to history.
President Reagan’s personal qualities defi ned his presidency in interesting
ways. One day at lunch in Tokyo during a discussion of leading personalities
in public life, I asked him who he really disliked in American politics. He
thought for a moment, looked at me quizzically, and said: “You know, Brian,
I just can’t think of one at the moment. I’m fi xated on what looks like an eel
in my soup.” Th is was a very disconcerting answer for any Canadian prime
minister who, on his best days, has more adversaries than friends— and who
can clearly remember every insult or slight from any opponent since his four-
Foreword ix
teenth birthday. In fact, in some countries such generous detachment of atti-
tude in politics would probably be unconstitutional. Nevertheless, under my
insistent interrogation, President Reagan fi nally identifi ed a former associate
as someone he actually disliked. Th is display of vindictiveness on his part
made me feel better and partially restored my faith in the American pol iti cal
proc ess.
To be fully serious, however, I noted that because of this absence of malice,
President Reagan’s judgments w ere unaff ected by the pettiness and mean-
spiritedness that tend to make good intentions bad and tough situations
worse. He never sought to get even with anybody except by the triumph of his
ideas. He struck me as a leader more interested in healing old wounds than in
settling old scores. In consequence, his true nature and sunny personality
came through to the American people, who reveled in the choice of a presi-
dent who clearly made policy not for easy headlines in 10 days but a better
America in 10 years.
I also thought that President Reagan’s understanding of the nobility of the
presidency coincided with the American dream. One day in Brussels following
a NATO meeting, President François Mitterrand of France, in referring to
Ronald Reagan, said to me: “Tu sais, Brian, notre ami Ronald Reagan a vrai-
ment la notion de l’État.” Rough translation: “You know, Brian, our friend
Ronald Reagan really has a sense of the State about him.” Th e translation
does not fully capture the profundity of the observation: what Mitterrand
meant was that there is a vast diff erence between the job of president and the
role of president.
In fact, many people can do the job. Few, however, fully grasp that unusual
alchemy of history, tradition, achievement, personal conduct, and national
pride that defi ne the special role the U.S. president must assume at home and
around the world. “La notion de l’État”—no one understood it better than
Ronald Reagan, and no one could more eloquently summon his nation to
high purpose or bring forth the majesty of the presidency and make it glow
better than the man who saw his country as a “shining city on a hill.”
Ronald Reagan’s mature attitude to life while in offi ce framed his presi-
dency forever. President Kennedy captivated America and the world 54 years
ago, in January 1961, in large mea sure because of the excitement and promise
of his youth. From that day on, the celebration of youth in public life was over-
powering and pervasive. It was also somewhat misleading. But around the world,
