Reagan's War

[CMichael]

I have been reading "Reagan's War" by Peter Schweizer.

It's about Reagan's 40 year war with Communism.

I thought that I new a lot about the era. However, I have learned a tremendous amount and have had a hard time putting down the book.

I recommend it to all of you. You won't be dissapointed.

To make this gun related... I don't think it can be more gun related than explaining the thousands of arms involved in the cold war.

Michael

 

[BigG]

Why do they call it Reagan's War? Catchy title? Think it started under Harry S Truman.

 

[CMichael]

Truman hardly made it a war. He basically let the Soviet Union take what they want.

It was Reagan that actually challenged the Soviet Union and didn't let the Soviet Union basically due whatever they wanted to do with no challenge.

Michael

 

[ahenry]

Despite its length, one man contributed more than any other to its end.

 

[BigG]

Oh, I agree. I was just wondering why you described it as a 40 year struggle. Seemed like once RR got on the job the USSR folded up in about 5 years.

 

[CMichael]

Good question BigG. It's because that Reagan started fighting Communism when he was an actor in Hollywood.

This is from Reagan's War. It quotes Andropov.



>Andropov --"The 1970s were years of further growth of power and influence of
>the Socialist common wealth," he declared, looking back fondly at detente.
>"We were able to acheive the military strategic parity with the West. This
>gave us an opportunity to deal with them on an equal basis. Our dynamic
>policy of detente led to substantive positive shifts in international
>relations."
>
>During detente the United States had been on the retreat. "The revolutionary
>changes in Angola, Ethopia, Nicaragua, and other countries, which were caused
>by objective factors, were seen by Washington, and not without reason, as
>defeat of American policy.
>
>"The struggle is unfolding in all directions." Reagan was restricting trade,
>reducing access to technology, and cranking up the arms race. Reagan's
>high-tech defense buildup was "especially dangerous."
>
>"We cannot allow US military superiority," he grimly told the assembled
>leaders, "and we will not allow it.
>
>"The Soviet Union feels the burden of the arms race into which we are being
>pulled, more t han anybody else does...It is not a problem for Reagan to
>shift tens of billions of dollars of appropriations for social needs to the
>military industrical complex.

 

[aikidoka - mks]

I will have to check this book out. Another good book about Reagan is the one with his writings that were recently discovered. I cant remember the title or remember where I put the book - arrgh - but it is very good reading.

Mark

 

[Khornet]

The book is

Reagan In His Own Hand.

It will blow you away.......how wise the man was. Also read Peg Noonan's Reagan bio...hagiography, yes, but very good.

President Reagan began his war with Communism during his Hollywood days, not long after WWII, when he was involved in the Sreen Actors' Guild. At meetings of varoius Hollywood political groups he learned how they were communist fronts, and how dishonest they were. That began his struggle against the Reds, which cost him his movie career. But it paid big dividends for America, because the man Hollywood rejected went on to save the free world--and a big chunk of the unfree world.

Greatest president of the 20th century, bar none, IMHO. Next best--Harry. Roosevelt (FDR) wasnt worthy to shine the shoes of either of those men.

 

[BigG]

Sounds like some great reading.

Khornet: Don't know about Harry S - think the bully guy would make a better saint along with RR if I had to pick 2 from the twentieth century.

 

[CMichael]

Actually Khornet Reagan's war on communism started in 1946. A man named Sorrell was head of a union, I can't recall the name. He was a communist and was supported by the Soviet Union.

He lead a bloody strike against Warner Bros.

It got so bad that actors went to the studio via a draniage pit. Reagan wouldn't do this. He defiantly wanted to go through the front entrance.

The studio arranged a bus for him. They told him to lie on the floor because the strikers/goons were throwing bottles and rocks. Reagan wouldn't have it. He was upright in his chair.

In any case the strike finally failed. The reason was Reagan. He was a "one man battalion."

I certainly agree with what Khornet said.

 

[CMichael]

From "Reagan's War"

The strike was called by an ex boxer named Herb Sorrell, head of the Conference of Studio Unions in 1946.

He said "There may be men hurt, there may be men killed before this is over, but we are in no mood to be pushed around anymore."

"The strike, he later admitted, were secretly funded by the Communists, and this time he was secretly receiving money from the National Executive Council of the Communist Parkty. Sorrell was a member of more than twenty Communist Party front organizations and hard for the American Federation of Labor to affiliate with the Soviet-run World Federation of Trade Unions.

The studio strike Sorrell organized in 1946 was no ordinary labor actions. It was ostensibly called bacause of worker concerns, but Sorrell saw it as an opportunity to gain control ofver all the major unions in Hollywood. As he bragged in the early day of the actions, "When it ends up, there'll be only one man running labor in Hollywood, and that man will be me!"

The party Communist newspaper the People's Daily World put it candidly, "Hollywood is often called the land of Make-Believe, but there is nothing make believe about the Battle of Hollywood being waged today. In the front lines of this battle,at the studio gates sit the overlords of Hollywood, who refuse..The prize will be the complete control of the greatest medium of communication in history." To underscore the value of this victory, the paper quoted Lenin: "Of all the arts, the cinema is the most important."

 

[diaperchanger]

Another book on this subject worth reading is The Sword and the Shield, subtitled, The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB by Christopher Andrew. It documents KGB intelligence operations in the US and worldwide using Soviet foreign intelligence files, smuggled out by the man responsible for archiving them. He spent over ten years making copies and transcripts of intelligence files and then hiding them under the floorboards of his dacha. Not a quick read, but absolutely riveting. It's incredible to find out how deep the Soviets had penetrated into the highest levels of government, here and in Europe.

 

[Mike Irwin]

"Truman hardly made it a war. He basically let the Soviet Union take what they want."


Hum...

That's an interesting statement...

Considering that Truman ordered the Berlin airlift to prevent the Soviets from taking West Berlin.

Truman also ordered US troops to South Korea to prevent the North Koreans, essentially a Sino-Soviet puppet state, from taking the entire Korean Peninsula.

 

[rock_jock]

What? No comments about how Reagan expanded America's imperialistic policy to the rest of the world? Where are the isolationists talking about how global communism was none of our business? That the USSR was going to fall anyway and Reagan simply wasted our money by his military buildup? That everything he did was contrary to the Constitution? Not a single person is going to blame 9/11 on Reagan? Oh well, I guess they're resting comfortably under their rocks.

 

[Nanaimo Barr]

maybe we're to polite to speak ill of a sick old man....

 

[G3]

How about Reagan's war against the 2nd amendment when it suited his agenda? I'd be leary of those who wish to enshrine any of our 20th Century political leaders. Heck, I don't even like Teddy Rooselvelt

 

[ahenry]

How about Reagan's war against the 2nd amendment when it suited his agenda?

Reagan passed some bills that had gun-control measures buried in them. While I hate that they were passed, calling what he signed a “war against the 2nd amendment” is a little ridiculous. Especially if you have ever bothered to read his opinion of guns, gun control, and the second amendment.

 

[G3]

I would suggest that you look into Reagan's history as govenor of CA.

Conservatives have a long history of voting for bills w/ "buried gun control legislation".

 

[ahenry]

I have. Matter of fact, I personally own three books about Reagan and have read several others. What specifically, would you suggest I look into in his governorship?

 

[Khornet]

BigG,

I thought about TR in my remark, but didn't include him though I think him a hero. He did have some undesirable political qualities, including that Kennedyesque one of being born to wealth and then making his name by attacking business. Not that there were no sins in the business world in those days....or these.

What was great about TR was his personality, which invigorated America. What he would have done when confronted with the sort of issues Harry Truman and Reagan faced is interesting to speculate.