In two powerful speeches that took place twenty-five years ago this March, President Ronald Reagan dealt what would ultimately prove to be lethal blows to the moral and material foundations of the Soviet Union. On March 8, 1983, Reagan described the Soviet Union as an “evil empire” and as “the focus of evil in the modern world,” and fifteen days later, on March 23, Reagan unveiled his vision for the research, development, and ultimate deployment of a missile defense shield that would one day end the vulnerability of America and her allies to Soviet nuclear attack. While both speeches were widely ridiculed at the time, they are today rightly hailed as having made decisive contributions to bringing about the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union a little less than nine years later. Join AEI senior fellow Newt Gingrich as he reflects on the lessons these two speeches hold today for presidential leadership and U.S. national security and why it is that only one person, Ronald Reagan, could have possibly delivered these two speeches, which so powerfully contributed to ending the Cold War.
(73)
|
Sunday, November 22, 2009
EMAIL
PRINT
SAVE
