Reagan Won the Cold War Along with Truman, Ike, Ford and Carter

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.

Comments

[Jim Gordon]

I totally agree and would add that the people of Germany decided that Germans were no longer going to be separated by some arbitrary and ridiculous "wall," - politically, economically, and symbolically.

[Term papers]

Keep up this good work, These posts keep getting better and better !! This is an excellent resource...

[Joe Intili]

Thank you and good to hear. This is quite an old post you commented on. Don't know if I should be flattered you are reading so far back, or concerned for my more recent efforts. But thank you. This was a fun post to write and very illuminating for me, as had never read of or heard someone lay out this sequence of compounding events until Gerald Ford on the radio that day. I was note-taking fast as I could write, and thankfully President Ford had a very deliberate way of speaking. Thanks for the feedback.

[Term papers]

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