As everyone knows, former president Ford died recently at the age of 93. His was a participation and perspective on government and history spanning more than half a century, since his election to the House of Representatives in 1948, and including two years as president.
He agreed to an interview on the Reagan presidency, recorded April 23, 1996 and conducted by Gerald Strober & Deborah Hart Strober. They asked him if Reagan won the Cold War, or should be largely given credit for such, and his answer was a historically broad and compelling description of the key elements which won the Cold War, Reagan's contribution being only the last. His final conclusion was that the American people won the Cold War for politically supporting those key elements spanning presidents from Truman through Reagan.
Here are the keys Ford cited as most instrumental to winning the Cold War, and the fall of Communism and totalitarianism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union:
1. The Marshall Plan (Truman)
This
ambitious and expensive plan for the reconstruction of Europe after the
end of World War II, specifically, the portion not directly under the
control and sphere of influence of the Soviet Union, i.e. the portion
which lay to the west of the Iron Curtain, became the first step in
drawing a line between prosperity and poverty, as well as liberty and
repression.
2. NATO (Eisenhower)
This created a defense
perimeter and unified military deterrence to Soviet expansionism in
Western Europe. It prevented the occasion of any more Munichs only
this time from the Soviets; that is, it deterred and prevented any
attempted westward expansion of Iron Curtain through military
intimidation and threat of war.
3. Helsinki Accords (Ford / Carter)
These
received strong criticism from liberals and conservatives in the U.S.
alike, because they, among other things, recognized for the first time
the territorial gains of the Soviet Union as a consequence of World War
II. These gains were a
de facto reality anyway, and had been since
the war, since NATO was not going to initiate an offensive war to take
them back. But the Soviets, and their leader at the time, Leonid
Breshnev, saw de jure recognition as a tremendous accomplishment. Such
was the desire, however, for legal recognition of Soviet territorial
gains that Breshnev accepted and signed the accords including key
principles espousing self-determination, and "Respect for human rights
and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience,
religion or belief." Dissidents within the Soviet Union and Eastern
bloc used these accords as a legal justification for writing and
promoting dissident views. Breshnev could hardly openly persecute such
behavior when he had signed the agreement. The principles of freedom
of thought and self-determination together quickly began to erode the
legitimacy of communism, totalitarianism and Soviet domination of the
sovereign countries lying to the east of the Iron Curtain. While the
Helsinki Accords were signed during the Ford administration, Carter used them to advance a foreign policy with the Soviets having human
rights as a key component.
4. Military Build-Up (Reagan)
President
Reagan fought the Cold War by dramatically increasing military spending
and adding to the U.S. military capability in size, munitions and
technological advancement and research. He did this at a pace and
magnitude the Soviet Union could not match given its considerably
smaller economy and national wealth. Those actions, and bold
diplomacy, such as when President Reagan in Berlin challenged then
Soviet President Gorbachev with the statement, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear
down this wall" brought the Cold War near its end. In 1988, the
soviets declared they would no longer intervene in the affairs of Eastern
bloc countries. And in December 1989, President George H.W. Bush and
President Gorbachev declared the Cold War officially over.
#1 and #2 were the decisions which brought prosperity and stability to the western side of the Iron Curtain; #3 was the acid eating away at Soviet communism and domination of the eastern side; and #4 was the accelerant which brought everything to a close.
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