Ronald Reagan by David T. Byrne

Author:David T. Byrne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIO011000 Biography & Autobiography / Presidents & Heads Of State
Publisher: Potomac Books

Reagan was determined to use American strength to end tyranny and promote freedom. He begged Americans, in the name of peace, not to retreat from world affairs. He scorned Democratic and Republican thinking at the time; both Ford and Carter had suppressed American power. In fact Reagan made Ford’s continuation of détente one of the central themes of his 1976 campaign to unseat the incumbent president. The echoes of appeasement never left Reagan’s mind. A constant lesson of history for conservatives, it taught Reagan that military spending was a way to promote peace, not war. (The generation before Reagan was reared on the idea that military spending promoted war, since World War I was preceded by an arms race across the West.)

In his quest for peace, Reagan promoted the American military. In a handwritten radio address from 1975 entitled “How Much Is It Worth Not to Have World War III?” he said, “The leaders of that generation saw the growing menace and talked of it but reacted to the growing military might of Germany with anguished passiveness. . . . World War II did not happen because the nations of the free world engaged in a massive military buildup. In most countries, including our own, ‘too little too late’ described the reaction to the Nazi military colossus.”12 According to Reagan, an arms race did not lead to World War II; rather a general reduction in military spending by Western powers, save Germany, did. Reagan concluded that the world is made a better, more peaceful place not by scaling back the military but by expanding it. “We want to avoid war and that is better achieved by being so strong that a potential enemy is not tempted to go adventuring.”13 It’s analogous to a heavyweight boxing champion. A strong champion earns respect. A weak one, after years of atrophy, invites attack; his weakness, not his strength, encourages conflict. “Armaments do not cause war,” Reagan insisted, “armaments are built and used by aggressors whose intention from the beginning is war and the threat of war. Peace loving nations must match their weaponry . . . or fall victim to the aggressor.”14

Whereas his opponents preached disarmament as a path toward peace, Reagan maintained that peace could be accomplished by making ourselves stronger than our enemies. Peace through strength. He argued in 1972, “Despite the lessening of tensions and the hopeful signs of great power cooperation in the future, it is America’s industrial and economic strength, translated into military potential, that represents the single guarantee of peace for the world.”15 Besides articulating the principles that would guide him as president, this statement recognized the relationship between the American economy and its geopolitical success. Arguing that the biggest advantage America had in the cold war was its material strength and national wealth, Reagan knew an economically prosperous America meant a strong and influential America. The goal therefore needed to be to strengthen the American economy by whatever means necessary and parlay this into military might.

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