A Rendezvous with destiny:
Vintage Ronald Reagan from 1964. Read and comment.
http://www.reaganfoundation.org/reagan/speeches/rendezvous.asp
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FROM THE EVIL EMPIRE SPEECH - 1982
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1982reagan1.html
If history teaches anything, it teaches self-delusion in the face of unpleasant facts is folly. We see around us today the marks of our terrible dilemma–predictions of doomsday, antinuclear demonstrations, an arms race in which the West must, for its own protection, be an unwilling participant. At the same time we see totalitarian forces in the world who seek subversion and conflict around the globe to further their barbarous assault on the human spirit. What, then, is our course? Must civilization perish in a hail of fiery atoms? Must freedom wither in a quiet, deadening accommodation with totalitarian evil?
Sir Winston Churchill refused to accept the inevitability of war or even that it was imminent. He said, “I do not believe that Soviet Russia desires war. What they desire is the fruits of war and the indefinite expansion of their power and doctrines. But what we have to consider here today while time remains is the permanent prevention of war and the establishment of conditions of freedom and democracy as rapidly as possible in all countries.”
Well, this is precisely our mission today: to preserve freedom as well as peace. It may not be easy to see; but I believe we live now at a turning point.
Our military strength is a prerequisite to peace, but let it be clear we maintain this strength in the hope it will never be used, for the ultimate determinant in the struggle that’s now going on in the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas, a trial of spiritual resolve, the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish, the ideals to which we are dedicated.
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Today’s NEOCONs leave out one of the central tenants of Reagan Republicanism with respect to foreign policy and war.
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… the ultimate determinant in the struggle that’s now going on in the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas, a trial of spiritual resolve, the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish, the ideals to which we are dedicated.
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Ronald Reagan did not speak as much in harsh terms about the Soviet Empire, as much as he talked about the blessings of liberty and the greatness of America. The power of our armed forces was the guarantor of maintaining our liberty - while he went out and directly, and openly challenged the Evil Empire. The mighty Soviet Union was not vanquished by PERSHING missiles or nuclear weapons, it was WON by the people of the Soviet Bloc by the courage and strength of the ideas of freedom, liberty and hope - as so eloquently spoken at every opportunity by the Great Communicator.
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Reagan also often quoted our founding fathers. He believed in the foundational principles of this nation and in the tempered wisdom of those who lit the torch of freedom for mankind.
To this end it is prudent to consider the immortal words of James Madison, who is commonly referred to as “the father of the Constitution”:
Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people…. [There is also an] inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and … degeneracy of manners and of morals…. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.